Hello Everyone!
Is there any magazine that publishes top 25 Beaded Jewelry Designers
from the US & Canada every year? As per volume sales or as per their
individual brand name created by them. Or whom would all consider as
stalwarts in Beaded Jewelry design! Hope to receive your choices!!
Best Regards
Vivek Shah
Karma Enterprise
Vivek,
I waited a few days to see if anyone else was going to respond to
your question. Let me tackle your question in different segments.
First, on the simple answer, as far as I’m aware of, there is no
magazine that produces a “Top 25 Beaders”. I’ve been making
beaded/bridge jewelry for about 5 years now, and have a pretty
extensive mag collection. I don’t subscribe to Niche, that may be one
that does it-I don’t know.
Second, I’m not sure how a Top # list could be compiled. If it were
purely by sales, then that artist probably already appears in mags
like Accessories. The question begs do sales equate to great
artistry?
There are also a lot of genre’s of beaded jewelry. I don’t mean just
the simple strand beads on a necklace and voila! You have people like
Sherri Serrafini (forgive my misspelling of her name) and her
fantastic beaded collars, or other who take more than just beads and
create jewelry with other media to make incredible pieces of artwork.
It would be a challenging and tough job to create a Top # list.
I had hoped more people would have responded to this question-it is
an interesting one, and regardless of whether it’s about beaded
jewelry, bridge jewelry, or fine jewelry, it’s a very good question.
Miachelle
Hi Miachelle
Thanks for your views, surprisingly there is hardly any response to
whom orchidians consider their best Beaded Jewelry Designer! May be
a list could be compiled for both as per volume (sales) or by value
(high value - Gold Beaded Jewelry or similar). To complie a list
based on artistry is the most difficult! Hopefully more orchidians
would share their views on who are there favourite jewelry designer,
Thanks
Vivek
surprisingly there is hardly any response to whom orchidians consider their best Beaded Jewelry Designer!
Well, I don’t have one. I’m not aware of who’s out there doing only
beaded jewelry. I have metalsmiths and PMC people whose work I
admire.
Elaine
Elaine Luther
Metalsmith, Certified PMC Instructor
http://www.CreativeTextureTools.com ™
Hard to Find Tools for Metal Clay
Well, I don't have one. I'm not aware of who's out there doing only beaded jewelry.
Seriously? Well, if anyone has an interest, they can go to
beadandbutton.com. The finalists for the 2006 Bead Dreams
competition have just been announced on the website. I was quite
impressed. Some of the pieces look like they may have taken 50 to 100
hours to complete.
I wrote to the original poster privately on the question of favorite
beaded jewelry designer. I feel that the question has to be taken
down to subcategories as there are different types of beaded jewelry.
For example, there are those who weave (David Chatt, Valerie Hector,
Sherri Sarafini). There are those who string (Amy Leiner) There are
those who make and design with their own beads (Celie Fago, Leah
Fairbanks(sp?) Alethia Donovan). Alethia also does Kumihimo. As I
occasionally do Kumihimo, I have brought her up as well to show that
there are many more facets to the work of others that might be
considered.
If you are trying to quantify success, it would depend on the
definition (monetary or otherwise). Valerie Hector is in the
Washington Craft Show this year. That could be considered very
successful. Amy Leiner may win if the criteria is monetary. If number
of awards was the measure, than it might go to someone like David
Chatt or even Todd Reed (he won the Saul Bell award in the beads
category last year or the year before)
There are so many people working with beads right now that it would
be hard to even list them all. They are currently being featured in
magazines, books, museums and galleries, and major craft shows. It’s
really hard to miss them.
Good luck with your question as I probably didn’t make things any
clearer.
Kim Starbard
I have a few, some unknown, but there is Libby Edson, creative,
artistic and stays at home, many people copy her style since she
began before the bead rush… www.impulsejewelry.com
There there is Janna Beddinghaus, she is amazing, been in several
magazines and teaches across the country. She is a student at cijt,
but in order to see her work, you will have to google her because
she does not have a website, but you can see her work in various
magazines…
Her work is excpetional.
Then there is a lady i met several years ago who opened up one of
the first Bead shops in Alabama, called Bamma beads, She is quite
amazing, has been a strong proponent of the bead indusry, I think
she maintains a low profile personnally but you can check her at
www.bamabeads.com… She is headquartered out of Sacramento but
still maintains her shop in Alabama after returning to Sac with
husband’s work.
Check them out… so amazing to see this beading business unfold, It
was beginning to get very exciting in the 70’s when I started, did a
good run and now again 25 years later. the second chapter with better
quality and high designing fashions.
I was quite amazed in 2003 when so many beaded items were at the JCK
show in Las Vegas… Wow, the circle continues…
Dee Rouse Huth, California Institute of Jewelry Training
I don’t have the wherewithal to come up with a list like this, but I
have a suggestion for how you can research the question yourself.
Look at several years of back issues of Ornament magazine (if you
have a particularly affluent library, you may be able to do this for
free). Ornament began more or less as a bead society publication and
they still have a strong interest in people who design with beads.
Many of these designers sell to high end stores like Saks, or to a
list of private clients. See, for example, the cover showing work by
the late Fumiko Ukai: http://www.ornamentmagazine.com/back_2001.html
Next best would be to look at back issues of Bead and Button,
Lapidary Journal, etc., for feature articles on designers. Many of
these will be people who also make some elements of the work
themselves–often lampwork glass beads–but you’ll see a lot of
well-designed work.
I am assuming that, when you use the term “beaded jewelry
designers,” you don’t mean people who are doing “beadwork,” e.g.
http://www.nancmeinhardt.com/nanc/gallery/jwl_new_york_necklace.html
This is a medium which involves a whole lot more than design, but it
can also be researched in a similar way.
Good luck!
Lisa Orlando
Albion, CA, US
Hello,
I am now receiving several replies to the question and most of them
privately.
There are several suggestions to break the Top Deisgners :
1. "bead weaving, where many beads are woven together in various
ways (Valerie Hector and David Chatt)."
2. "There is bead stringing into precious and
3. non-precious material maybe). "
4. Those who make their own beads (Celie Fago, Leah
Fairbanks(sp?) Alethia Donovan). Alethia also does Kumihimo
5. By Volume, higest sales
6. and by Value! High end, or costlier peices though the
volume is less.
7. Highest Brand Value.
8. Artistic Value (Much difficult to decide and very
personal!)
A few good suggestions and resources :
"Well, if anyone has an interest, they can go to
beadandbutton.com. The finalists for the 2006 Bead Dreams
competition have just been announced on the website. I was
quite impressed. Some of the pieces look like they may have
taken 50 to 100 hours to complete."
"Subscribe to JCK Style and JCK EMonday, where several times
Beaded Jewelry designers and there work is featured"
"May join the Jewelry Weblog "creative-weblogging" dot com "
"Fall 2006 Jewelry Colors by Pantone" etc:
A few personal Favourites of some one who replied:
"I've always considered Passementerie (at
passementeriejewelry.com) to be THE BEST beaded jewelry
designer I have seen around - I carry her work in my store now
but I have been a personal customer of hers for years."
"I am also a fan of Linea Nervenkitt (www.lineanervenkitt.com),"
"Valerie Hector and David Chatt or even Todd Reed"
"Dean Davidson"
"Catherine Michelles"
"there is Libby Edson, creative, artistic and stays at home,
many people copy her style since she began before the bead
rush.. www.impulsejewelry.com "
"there is Janna Beddinghaus, she is amazing, been in several
magazines and teaches across the country. "
"Bamma beads, She is quite amazing, has been a strong
proponent of the bead indusry,"
"Jewelry designer Laurie Warshawsky, of Elle-a-Belle Designs"
"Tadam Jewelry by Deborah Tasato and Allyson Tasato Mellone"
etc. etc. (the list is getting longer!)
Hope there are more responses, more sales figures and more
discussions 
Regards
Vivek Shah
"Karma"