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Bead Savvy

African baskets from Zimbabwe
By Guy Lynn

Having been born in Africa, I was well aware of the beautiful hand woven grass baskets that come from Africa. I have always had baskets in my life as either wall decorations or as a bowl to hold fruit or bread on the dining room table. It was just a part of my life. My Grandmother had them, my mother and older sister used them, and my wife and I have them scattered around the house and also as customer shopping baskets when we do trunk shows or trade shows selling our beads. They are just a part of our everyday lives.

What I didn’t realize until now was just how beautiful and timeless they are. Like most things in life, we take them for granted until they go away.  Continued

Same Colors, Different Position
by Margie Deeb

I had the honor and pleasure of teaching color and beading classes at the Great Lakes Beadworkers’ Guild. What an energetic, generous, and talented group of bead artists live up in Michigan! It was a joy-filled week, and I came back to my studio recharged and inspired.

One class I taught was the “Collar of Glass and Light” project from my book, ’The Beaders Color Palette: 20 Creative Proj ects and 220 Inspired Combinations for Beaded and Gem stone Jewelry.

“Collar of Glass & Light” necklace by Margie Deeb

One of the class participants, Rhonda Gross, approached the project uniquely. I so enjoy the effects Rhonda achieved by repositioning the color arrangement in her version that I wanted to share it with you and note the differences.

Design

The Elements of Style:
Playing with Color
by Lynn Dean

Color. It’s all around us. Everywhere we look, we see a rainbow of color. But, when it comes to beads, some of us are stumped. Many of my students often ask, “Does this color go with this one?” or “What colors do you think I should put with this?” It can be overwhelming to see a sea of beads in different colors calling out to you. But with a little color sense and focus, you can learn how to play with color to make your bead creations sing.

Let’s start with the basics. As you probably remember from your early days with a box of crayons, all colors come from three primary ones: red, blue and yellow. Combine red and blue and you have my favorite color, purple. Blue and yellow make green and red and yellow make orange. These are called secondary colors. Tertiary colors are colors created by combining a primary and secondary color. White is, at least theoretically, the absence of all color.  Black is, theoretically, the presence of all colors together. Continued

About Style
By Ann Turner

What’s In A Name
By Ann Turner

Almost everyone has heard the term Haute Couture. To those in the know, Haute Couture is a reference to custom-made garments conforming to explicit guidelines that only a few design studios within the fashion collective actually meet. To classify as a couture house, a couturier must produce at least 50 new and original designs of day and evening wear for each collection. They must show 2 collections a year. They must employ a minimum of at least twenty full-time technical people in at least one atelier or workshop. As you might expect, few design houses can honestly use the exclusive Haute Couture trademark.Continued

The History of
Beaded Flowers (continued)
By Rosemary Kurtz

In Venice in the 16th century, middle class and poor women made bead flowers for churches, banquet tables and parade floats. There are accounts that someone could walk down the streets of Venice and see women sitting outside every door, making ornaments out of wire and tiny glass beads. At one time Venice was a center for the actual production of beads. And according to one source, at one point all the beadmaking activity in Venice was moved onto the island of Murano. Murano glass vases and other items are still treasured today. Continued