Please welcome our newest members!
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Kitty Marie Durmaj
Eugene, OR. USA
I have taken an interest in making jewelry with wire, metal, and
found objects and am relatively new at it. During 2008 I
participated in Year of Jewelry in which I submitted a piece of
jewelry each week. I believe my skills improved as the year went on
but still have a lot to learn.
I am involved with a small group in our area that have varied
interests from quilting to knitting to beading to wirework. We call
it Day of Creativity and we try to get together every other month
during the fall, winter, and spring months.
You can visit me at www.perlesandlife.blogspot.com
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Kushlani Hall
Kushlani Hall Jewelry and paintings
San Jose, CA. USA
I am a Physicist turned Artist. I do jewelry as well as paintings. I
teach both. I love creating things and anything and everything to do
with art of any form.
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Wanda M Hays
Heart of Glass
Tulsa, OK. USA
I am new to the world of metalworking. I have been a glass artist
for 17 years and an artist of other mediums for most of my long
life. I hope to generate art, in metal, from the many ideas and
designs that are residing in my mind, that I couldn’t produce in
glass. I believe that this new-to-me medium will bring new life to my
art and my soul. Two of my favorite quotes aRe: “The Artist is
nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without the work.”
Emile Zola and “Grace has been defined as the outward expression of
the inward harmony of the soul.” Anais NIn
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Scarlett A Lanson
Scarlett Rocks Designs
Sedona, AZ. USA
Beads first captured my attention when I was merely three years old.
My mom presented me with mini little boxes of seed beads she’d
picked up at the local craft store. They were glimmering drops of
possibility clustered together to create a palette of intense color.
Holding them in my tiny hands I marveled at how weightless and
perfect they were. I knew they were special, but I never could have
dreamed the role they would someday play in my life. At the time, I
patiently thread them one by one, without a needle, on flimsy
string. I wanted to create patterns. I wanted to see how different
they could look propped up against each other on thread. I wanted to
do so much more with these little gems, but my young mind couldn’t
begin to wrap itself around the ideas in my heart.
During my adolescence I began to pursue many different mediums to
express my creativity. My ideas were large and complicated and
colorful. I dove into each medium wholeheartedly believing it might
just have the capacity to respond to my true vision and reflect the
images that resided in my soul. Through drawing, charcoal, pastels,
painting, mosaicing, ceramics, casting, collages, and poetry I
released my creativity. With great focus I practiced each one,
always searching for my true artistic calling. Wanting to find
something that would truly captivate my attention and enable me to
form some thing in great detail, I looked backwards, I looked
inwards, and I remembered the power of beads.
Since that time, three years of experimentation and discovery have
passed. I have taken my love for natural rock and glass, and I have
found my perfect tools. Through the abundant variety of gemstones,
pearls, seed beads, crystals, and findings, a bead artist can
express herself on an unmatched level. The amazing span of colors,
textures and finishes is mind boggling. I feel like a great explorer
discovering undeveloped territory. From every skill I learn, I
unearth vast possibilities of design. It is my ultimate goal to
master all the methods for manipulating these individual cells of
light, into one unified creation. And where there is no method to
master, I make my own.
I mainly focus on bead weaving, bead embroidery, and wirework. With
a needle and thread, I weave a glittering fabric with stitches like
herringbone, peyote, right angle weave, brick stitch, and many
embellishing techniques. I use the highest quality components to
express my vision. I challenge the traditional perceptions of
beadwork by incorporating unique found objects and making three
dimensional sculptures. I am currently honored to have been selected
as a semi-finalist in the KGI Worldwide Swarovski Design Contest, I
am awaiting for the results of this contest in March. Last year I
was one of the Winners in the Swarovski Create Your Style National
Design Contest in the amateur category. My entry for this contest
can be seen here.
I have been enjoying my new role as Contributing Editor for Beadwork
magazine with my Department “Scarlett’s Style”. I have sold my
one-of-a-kind art jewelry in boutiques and through my own Artist
Reception and website. I spent over a year teaching beadweaving and
working at my local bead store as a design consultant. I am so
blessed to be receiving recognition in the art world for my designs
and skills. I am currently preparing entries for other major
contests such as the world renowned Bead Dreams contest and have
entered a piece for the Saul Bell Awards. I am working on
instructions for many of my patterns and projects in hopes of
publishing my own book. In the future I aspire to own and run my own
full service bead store with classes and a Swarovski bar. I am
driven by my desire to share my passion and knowledge for beads and
jewelry making with others. I want to continue to expr ess myself
through this ever-evolving medium, and above all, elevate the craft
of beading to an art. I am Scarlett Lanson, The Bead Maven.
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Renee Sutton
Middletown, DE. USA
I am a lampworker who occasionally makes jewelry incorporating my
beads.
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Barbara Gurlek
Melbourne, FL. USA
I’m new to PMC and jewelry making, I’m trying to absorb as much info
as I can.
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Jorge Loor
Sunrise, Florida. USA
working mainly with Tagua