Artists

I’ve found and added some more to this blogroll (inroads are being made into Spanish beading blogs!):

• Quimeras de Náyades
• Unicorniopasión
• Galeandra
• Poupounesperle
• Quienlodira

Kat gave me this award, thank you!! Her blog, Oranges and Peaches, is a play on the library reference question where someone comes in and asks for Darwin’s Oranges and Peaches — what can happen when you lack a piece of so-called common knowledge that makes the answer nearly impossible to find.

I hereby award the following blogs this award (already linked on my blogroll):

1. Contemporary Bead Art - Marya Lemieux-Ruibal, a friend of mine, painter, seed beader, and bead burner (her term for lampwork). I’ve watched her sketch, check out her transformations of her sketchbooks into beadwork.  We used to live nearby, now our visits are cross-country, rats!
2. Mary Tafoya’s Serious Beadin’ - Mary does wonderful bead embroidery (my favorite is La Llorona), and while too busy right now to do much writing, has been a regular contributor of fascinating artist profiles for Beadwork magazine, as well as writing instructions of her designs. Her article on how to use PowerPoint to draw diagrams got me started in my own instructions. I gave her a beaded cockroach.
3. Murphy’s Beads - Sabina Anderson, in Italy (former resident of Kauai), does amazing things with beads. I’ve written about her doing a sextuple spiral rope. Right now, she’s working on a great piece with lava rock. Check out the amazing clasp, her design which she’s used in at least one prior piece. I have a great bead knitted bracelet she made me.
4. The Lone Beader - LB has received other web awards, but not this one. Ha, I got her first! She does very thoughtful, extremely detailed bead embroidery, and takes us along for a ride so we can see her progress. Right now, she is going Back to the Future with a beaded DeLorean.

For those that I’ve passed this on to, they are supposed to:

1. Place the Logo on your blog
2. Link to the person who awarded you
3. You can nominate up to 5 blogs
4. Add their links to your blog
5. Leave a message in the comment section of their blog to notify the winners.

The most recent product I know of which employed a beader to make the packaging art is Celestial Seasonings. Heidi Kummli did the beadwork for Tropical Grapefruit Tea. I also have read that Jo Wood was commissioned by Kimberly-Clark to do artwork for a Kleenex box in 2000. I have yet to find any image of this beadwork; I just went through the Kleenex products available, and my guess is that it was one of the Expressions line? It is also possible that the art was never used, OR that it’s not Kleenex but another product line (I’m remembering Kleenex, but Jo Wood’s bio merely names the company — the other consumer brands don’t make sense for beaded artwork).

Karen Dismukes is a beader who has done the artwork for several children’s books, and also did the cover art for the May 2006 Highlights for Children magazine. Here’s one of her more recent books illustrated:

I hope we get to see beadwork used more as art for commercial products — (I hope) a good gig for the artist, and beadwork further introduced to the public.

Lark Books is releasing Masters: Beadweaving this month, and they have an interview online with Carol Wilcox Wells, the curator of the book. Included with the interview is a slide show of about 10 pieces. I live in the same area as Laura Leonard, and she shows at local fine craft shows — I always love seeing her work, and I was pleased to see it’s included here. This book is most definitely on my holiday shopping list, IF I can wait that long!

I’ve found some more to enjoy! Yay!

• Pivoine
• Triz Designs
• Bead Art Originals