Photos compliments of Greenwood Masonic Lodge

Click here for driving directions
There is free parking 1/2 block west after 6pm at the St. John School playground.


2012 Meetings

November 17th – Teresa Sullivan Teresa Sullivan -- “putting beads where they don't belong since 1994"-- will be our speaker on November 17. She creates intricate and monumental sculptural jewelry from humble materials using the ancient technique of beadweaving, revealing her love of the surreal and the irreverent. The stories she tells in her beaded tapestries, jewelry and sculpture are about the power of people discovering their abilities; from super heroines of comics and science fiction to the real mentors of her life. The tiny beads are transformed from something delicate to bold dense, self supporting artworks. Although she has an idea for a particular piece before she even strings her first bead, her mode of working allows for discovery throughout the weaving process. As each work grows she gets insights which allow her to work through the difficult stages and solve the aesthetic and technical problems of making artworks with beads. To tell her stories she uses a wide variety of stitches from around the world, each stitch giving a different texture and sculptural capabilities to her work. Peyote or gourd stitch allows her to create dense, structurally sound artworks which have intricate details and specific shaping. Hexagons, diamonds and irregular shapes in two and three dimensions are made with netting and other open weaves. Ndbele weave has a distinctive chevron pattern, and like the other stitches she uses is adapted for both two and three dimensional work. Right angle weave gives her control of the flexibility of the beaded fabric, from very flexible to stiff. Come see what stories Teresa’s telling these days.

To see more of Teresa’s work, visit: www.teresasullivanstudio.com, Rock'n'Roll Bead Patrol: www.teresasullivan.blogspot.com, www.facebook.com/teresasullivanstudio. www.twitter.com/tteresasullivan

*photo copyright Teresa Sullivan

Picnic Time!

By July 10, we usually have a chance at warm summer weather, and that’s the date we’ve chosen for this year’s annual NWBS Picnic.

We have a new venue this year, the lovely garden at the home of Lynne Magie. Lynne’s address is 21817 7th PL W in Bothell 98021. Directions are available on Google Maps or MapQuest. We will publish directions with the picnic reminder, too.

Having the picnic on private property offers some terrific advantages. For one, we can swap and sell beads, jewelry, and related items. Lynne has a limited supply of tables, so if you want to bring things to sell or swap, please bring a portable table if you can. For another, Lynne’s garden has some sunny spots!

NWBS will provide plates, cups, plastic “silverware”, napkins, non-alcoholic beverages, and ice. Please bring food to share – appetizers, main dishes, salads, fruit, and dessert are all welcome. If you have easily transported outdoor chairs or tables, please bring those, also. Those of you willing to accept personal responsibility for how much you drink may also bring beer or wine to enjoy with your meal.

July 10 is a Sunday, and we’re invited to picnic at Lynne’s any time from noon until 5:00PM. We hope you’ll join us.

On June 16, Melissa (Gillette) Loden, of Fusion Beads and Resin, will talk about her work in “Bead Relations.” She is well known for her clever geometric bead structures, often with Swarovski crystals. If you have a bracelet or other project you’ve completed from one of Melissa’s classes at Fusion, be sure to wear that “bling” to the meeting!

A little more about our speaker:

Melissa Gillette Loden, a.k.a. M.G.Loden, has been crafting since she can remember. Her grandmother was an engineer at Boeing and a seamstress at home, making every wedding dress the family ever needed. Her mother, also a Boeing employee, has dabbled in knitting, crochet and cross stitch. Melissa started with cross stitch in her teenage years, moved to beads around 1990, focusing on structural bead-weaving, then found resin in 2009. Although resin has taken over her craft room, the bead-weaving supplies are still in the craft room's closet.

Melissa has been working and teaching at a local Seattle bead store since 2000. She started her company, Resin by M.G.Loden, in late 2010 with her first customer being the very bead shop she'd spent her last ten years. She currently makes and sells resin pendants, earrings, rings, buttons and belt buckles in over a dozen stores in the Puget Sound area. She lives in North Seattle with her husband and their two dogs.

Learn more about Melissa at http://www.etsy.com/shop/mgloden

   
 

     The workshop with Arline is available to NWBS members and we are co-sponsoring her lecture on Friday, May 20 with the Northwest Basket Weavers at the Henry Art Gallery on the UW campus. This is in lieu of our regular meeting, which would be on the 19th.
 You don’t want to miss this meeting!
The lecture is open to the public and there is no charge for NWBS members.
Call The Henry for more information. Here is their location and phone number:
15th Ave. NE & 41st St., Seattle, WA 98105 (206-543-2280)
"Textile Structures in Contemporary Jewelry"
A Visiting Artist Lecture by Arline Fisch

Friday, May 20, 2011
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm  **Arrive by 6:30 to make sure you get a seat.
At the Henry Art Gallery
15th Ave. NE & 42st St., Seattle, WA  98105

     A survey of contemporary jewelry using various textile structures in precious metals by artists from many countries. Such structures include weaving, braiding, crochet, twining and other basketry techniques which adapt well to silver, gold and platinum. Arline M. Fisch, Professor of Art Emerita, San Diego State University is an Artist/Jeweler working primarily in precious metals, exhibiting work nationally and internationally. Author of the book, Textile Techniques in Metal, published in 1975, 1996 and 2001, she frequently conducts intensive short-term workshops in the United States and abroad.  She has lectured and exhibited widely in North America, Europe, and the Far East and her work is represented in numerous museum and private collections. A major retrospective exhibition and catalog of her work entitled Elegant Fantasy, The Jewelry of Arline Fisch organized by the San Diego Historical Society toured museums from 2000-2003 including the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. and the Museum of Art and Design in New York.  This lecture is free to the public, and is sponsored by: The University of Washington – Henry Art Gallery, Northwest Basket Weavers – Vi Phillips Basketry Guild, and the Northwest Bead Society.

For additional information about the lecture, or the two day workshop by Arline Fisch, Woven and Plaited Structures in Metal being held in conjunction with it, please visit:  www.nwbasketweavers.org 

WOVEN & PLAITED STRUCTURES IN METAL
A Workshop with Arline Fisch
May 21&22, 2011
Sponsored by Northwest Basket Weavers - Vi Phillips Basketry Guild
At North Seattle Community College, Room 1530, Arts & Sciences Building
Early registration postmarked prior to April 5th, 2011 is open to members of Northwest Basket Weavers or Northwest Bead Society. Registration is open to the general public on April 5, 2011.

**Pre-registration is not required for the lecture, but pre-registration and payment are required for the workshop.  Click here to download workshop registration form.

April 21st, 2011 - David McLanahan

     David McLanahan is a retired surgeon who has traveled to Asia more than 30 times over the past 45 years pursuing an interest in jungles, the culture, arts and crafts of indigenous people and a mission to “keep the traditions alive”. David has a special love for Borneo which he has visited 13 times, developing friendships with local artists and dealers. You can find out more about David on his website:
http://www.jungleartsandflora.com
David shares his love of arts and crafts of indigenous people and tropical plants with others and to connect this addiction with a small business called Jungle Arts and Flora located at in Seattle. Don’t miss this!

March 17th, 2011 - Andy Cooperman

ANDY COOPERMAN, Metalsmith
BIO: Andy Cooperman is a metal smith, writer, and teacher who lives in Seattle, WA. His work is featured in galleries nationwide. He is a past recipient of a WESTAF/NEA Fellowship, and has re-cently taught as a visiting lecturer at the University of Washington. His work can be found in the permanent col-lection of the Victoria and Albert Museum and appeared most recently in the exhibi-tions The Art of Gold and Metalsmiths and the books Art Jewelry Today, 1000 Rings and The Penland Book of Jewelry.

  

More about Andy: http://www.andycooperman.com/rings.php http://www.pacinilubel.com/artists/cooperman.html http://www.azdesignercraftsmen.org/Default.aspx?pageId=106260&eventId=191896&EventViewMode=EventDetails

February 17th, 2011 - Marilyn Moore
Marilyn’s first love is basketry, and basketry-related jewelry. Since 1979, she has taught for
guilds, conferences and conventions around the country, and has written numerous articles and
been featured in many publications. She holds a BFA with an emphasis in fiber from the University
of Washington. Marilyn continues to live and work in both the Southwest and Seattle.

January 20th, 2011 - Share and Tell - "Celebrate Our Bead Society"
NWBS General Meetings are formatted to provide our bead society the opportunity to hear and
learn from art jewelry speakers and the development of their talents. These artists reign in a
multitude of jewelry art media and their presentations inspire, intrigue, and satisfy. The focus
of these meetings is to hear from them.
In January, the NWBS General Meeting is to focus on our bead community and members. It is
an opportunity to meet friends, old and new, and to learn and hear from one another. Come and
share with your bead society!

Past 2010 Meetings

January 21st – Show-And-Tell “Class Acts”
All of us have had one of those great classes with an inspired teacher and interesting techniques that just helped you move your art forward or maybe you got a new how-to book that served the same purpose? How about an inspirational picture book that sent you in a new direction? Come show off your creations, what you made from the class or books and what it inspired!

February 18th – Juan Reyes

If you are looking for clasps and find yourself disappointed with the options available in the bead stores, February is for you. Local metalsmith and teacher Juan Reyes will talk to us about his work and various findings you can make with a minimum of equipment and no soldering! Juan has been a jeweler for 15 years. He teaches a wide range of techniques from his extensive repertoire at Danaca Design in Seattle’s University district.

March 18th – Zena McCoy

Based out of Seattle, Washington with ties to Colombia, Zena McCoy and Semilla Designs create an exclusive jewelry line inspired by an urban-natural concept. Each piece is handcrafted out of renewable resources, primarily seeds, stones, shells and wood. These materials, mixed with silver, gold, and glass, gives life to the collection, satisfying the functional and cultural aesthetics of the urban fashionista. Semilla Designs aims not only to stylishly accessorize the individual but to also educate on the botanical, historical and cultural significance of each seed.

April 15th – Rebecca Roush

   
Rebecca Roush has been using seed beads as a medium for over 20 years. Not formally trained as an artist but handy with a needle and thread, she was initially inspired by her college studies of Medieval and Byzantine history. She began basing her work on Columbia Basin petroglyphs and pictographs, and has done series of female figures, crows and hands. In the past few years she has begun incorporating felted wool into her pieces. To learn more about Rebecca and her art, please visit www.rebeccaroush.com.

May 20th – Viki Lareau
Viki Lareau, CEO and co-owner of The Bead Factory in Tacoma, WA and co-founder of the Puget Sound Bead Festivals, has been conducting workshops on “The Business of Jewelry” for the past 14 years. In 2006 she published her book, Marketing and Selling Your Handmade Jewelry. Based on the favorable response from both of these endeavors, Viki was recruited by Beadwork magazine to initiate a regular column entitled, “bead biz.” Viki's NWBS lecture will introduce you to turning your jewelry-making passion into profit - focusing on marketing and selling. To learn more about Viki, please visit www.thebeadfactory.com

June 17th – Maggie Maggio
Maggie Maggio is an artist and architect whose passion for color, experience playing with color and teaching color workshops around the country led to a new way of looking at color – a way she calls “Smashing Color.” She’ll talk about what’s right and wrong with color theory, what you need to know, and how palettes are created. She will use examples from her new book Polymer Clay Color Inspirations: Techniques and Jewelry Projects for Creating Successful Palettes, co-authored with Lindly Haunani. Maggie Maggio is renowned for her courses and workshops on color as well as for her outstanding polymer clay work.

July - no meeting
Annual Summer NWBS Picnic - Seattle - Woodland Park, Shelter #7 -more details

September 16th – Nancy Mēgan Corwin
Drawing from deep within the traditions of metalsmithing, Seattle artist and teacher Nancy Mēgan Corwin will present an overview of the work of contemporary metalsmiths who have mastered, applied and reexamined the ancient and technically demanding discipline covered in her new book Chasing and Repoussé: Methods Ancient and Modern. Mēgan received her MFA at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and she teaches extensively nationwide. Her work can be found in the permanent collection of the Tacoma Art Museum and locally at Facere Jewelry Art Gallery. For more information about Mēgan please visit her website www.nancymegancorwin.com.

October 21st – Greg Hanson & Marcie Stone
Starting from different points, Greg and Marcie have arrived at an unusually satisfying and successful partnership in their work—glass lampwork and sculptural seed beadwork—while maintaining their separate artistic identities and interests. Their skill sets and visions intertwine beautifully allowing pieces to develop as one idea seamlessly merging into another.

Their talk will trace their journeys as artists, with an excursion into the fine art of glass button-making. For more information and images of their artwork, visit their website at www.Hanson-Stone.com.

November 18th –  Courtney Lipson
Courtney has become a bead collector, finding sources for antique seed beads so small they’re no longer made...of colors and sizes unavailable in contemporary beads...thus she is not limited to the scale of new glass beads. Incorporating beads from the past along with contemporary beads allows for color and texture variations that are endless. Additionally, Courtney has found inspiration for using tiny semi-precious stones in future mosaic work. She feels fortunate to have found a form of expression that continuously delights and challenges her.

Drawn to texture, color, and pattern, Courtney gathers inspiration from minute details and overall themes. In her designs, she is bringing what she sees into focus for us to discover. With awesome attention to these minute details, Courtney uses tiny seed beads and semi-precious stones inlaid into her hand wrought precious metal frames to create stunning micro-mosaic jewelry. For more information and to see collections of Courtney’s artwork, visit her website at www.cdljewelry.com.

  

December 9th – Party and Potluck!!!
As we most often do, this year’s holiday celebration will occur on the second Thursday of December and will include a potluck meal; visiting with friends old and new; sharing projects,
ideas and inspiration; and our traditional gift exchange. We will begin festivities at 7:00pm.
Watch for more information to arrive in your e/mail box.

2009 Meetings:

January 15th – Beads and Books Show-And-Tell
     Books are one of the most frequent sources of bead inspiration. In January we hope everyone will come and share a favorite book or books and the pieces they inspired. It could be a craft, bead, jewelry, textile, or nature book. It could be a glass bead, beaded bag or jewelry necklace. If you have an extra inspiring book and would like to trade, bring it too! Come and see what you need next in your own library!

February 19th – Self Publishing
     Have you ever wanted to publish a book with your work but don’t know where to start? This month come and learn the basics with professional graphic designer Liz Martini. She will guide us through our choices including publishers, layout programs, printing options and what services a graphic designer offers. Look at real books from some of her favorite publishers. Come and take the first steps toward your own book.

March 19th – Sara Wilbanks
     Polymer clay is a new medium that Sara Wilbanks has transformed into a jewel to be set in precious metals. Phototransfers onto the clay form the basis of her artistic lexicon. A graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sara has been featured in Lark Books’ 500 Earrings and was awarded an Artist Trust 2004 Edge Professional Development Program award. To see some of her work, visit her gallery, Facere Jewelry Art (www.facerejewelryart.com/artist.php?id=41).

April 16th – Tina Koyama
     In early 2003, Tina left a 20-year career in corporate communications to make more time for art. She has had dozens of jewelry designs and other beadwork published in Beadwork, Bead & Button, and Belle Armoire among others. Tina uses needle and thread with a variety of materials to create self-supported, three-dimensional forms that evoke movement and energy. Her latest body of work involves hand-stitched, single, continuous piece of hand-dyed, ordinary cotton rope into free-standing forms. The technique is self-taught. Tina says of her work,”Regardless of medium, what excites me about working in three dimensions is exploring the relationship between negative and positive space. As with words left unspoken, a tension develops between a hole and the physical material pressing against it. I am compelled to reveal this tension and transform commonplace materials into unexpected shapes.”

May 21st – Robin Atkins
     Robin Atkins, long time NW bead artist, will present Visual Journaling with Beads, Fibers, Threads and Fabric. Robin will present over 200 beaded journal pieces by 42 artists participating in the 2007-08 Bead Journal Project! Compelling and inspirational, this unique beadwork tells stories, reveals emotions and follows important events in the lives of the artists who create a visual journal each month during the year-long project. In this presentation, you will see the best of the best!

June 18th – Karen Lorene
     Karen Lorene, owner of the Facere Jewelry Art and author of Buying Antique Jewelry: Skipping the Mistakes, will present “WHICH ONE? Creating an Antique Bead Collection.“ In this interactive lecture Karen will guide participants on an imaginary trip through time putting together a collection of beaded jewelry. Each category of beads will have two images, and you get to choose the one you wish to put in your imaginary collection. The second half of the lecture will help you learn why one choice was a better collector's choice than the other... With debate when appropriate in case you disagree!

July 19th - No meeting, however, we have our July Picnic.

September 17th –  
An Evening of Sharing with Lampwork Artist and Tool Inventor Scott Bouwens of Bearfoot Art.

      Scott Bouwens from La Conner, WA has been making lampwork beads since 1998 and has been doing it full time since the year 2000. Starting with Art Festivals, Full-time selling on eBay, Local and National Bead Shows, A full e-commerce website, and now a retail location/studio in downtown La Conner. Scott is also the inventor and manufacturer of many unique handmade tools for the lampworker that enable the artist to work faster, with less body strain, and with new techniques. A few of these tools are The Electric Mandrel Spinner, The Rolling Marver, The Powder Vibe, and the Ultimate Hand Stabilizers. Scott has been published numerous times in various books and magazines and has received many honors for his work.
     Scott signature element to his beads revolves around his use of silver leaf to acheive a lovely palette of earth tones.  His passion for science and art will show as his natural talent of teaching and sharing information is broken down to a glorious night of eye candy and information. He'll share techniques, business information, and be happy to answer your questions.

October 15th – Alida Latham

     A seasoned world traveler, photographer and bead collector, Alida will share images and stories from some of her memorable trips. Whether it is the lives of peoples in remote parts of the globe, their ornamentation or just wonderful views of places most of us will never get a chance to visit, this is a lecture you should not miss!

November 19th – Mary Lee Hu
     Using traditional textile techniques—weaving, twining, wrapping, braiding—Mary Lee Hu transforms wire into sumptuous body sculpture. Her main tools are her fingers. "The many hours of repetitive twining are a meditative activity," she says. Hu professes an early love of metals that developed into more than 34 years of jewelry-making in which she has explored the possibilities and limits of wire. Gold, with all its associations of value and timelessness, is her metal of choice. "By using the deep yellow color of the high karat gold, symmetry, and intimate detail, I hope to reference the Classical Greek, Etruscan or Celtic," she says. The retired head of the University of Washington Metals program, Mary has taught and inspired a generation of jewelers throughout the country.

December 10th – Holiday Party!!!

 

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