Happy Third Birthday, Max!

12 April 2021

Every April, I take a picture of Max and Mom. Last year I did a cock-eyed selfie of us featuring mostly ceiling. This year, luck had it that his groomer, Jen of “Groom with Me”, was here and took a great shot of us!

I like to include myself so my distant friends can see my face again. This is taken in my studio which I have been readying for my new normal life, but haven’t gotten to displays which show empty right now. New normal for me is an expectation of Open Studios in August and September as well as studio space for beading, acrylic painting and watercolor painting. The latter two are hobbies which I spent the last 13 months improving with Zoom classes and lots of daily practice. So I have two dedicated hobby spaces which I can keep as cluttered as I like! My bead space is the same Corian work area with side shelves for beading tools as I had built in 2000 in San Luis Obispo, CA. And, yes, my 52-drawer Chinese Apothecary Chest still holds my beads!

As for Max, he weighs 42 lbs, all muscle, and is healthy and active. And comical. His unwritten job description is to make me laugh at least once a day. Officially, he is responsible to be my faithful companion and he does that well, listening to me as I babble on. He is still mischievous, runs instead of walking, follows me around the house but thinks he is a free spirit outdoors! He still spends five days a week at Sunshine Pet Parlor, Hull, t play with Ralphie and his other pals.

That’s it for another year. May you also enjoy a good laugh every day!!!

Favorite Titian

2 April 2021

5 Comments

Welcome back, dear Readers! A word of explanation is in order. I said Au Revoir on November 30, 2020, telling you I couldn’t cope with WordPress.com changes and upgrades. In January, I searched for new platforms but none were a fit for me due to advertisements, complexity, transferring readers’ emails, etc. So I drifted into inertia, too overwhelmed by technology.

Enter my Rescuer! Yulia Shea, my nephew’s wife and talented IT consultant! She and my nephew are here in Hull on a house-hunting trip, hoping to soon relocate from New York City. She suggested I stay on the WP.com platform and offered to train me. Contact her at yulia@yuliashea.com. She did an excellent job! Thank you, Yulia!

It feels good to showcase my work again even though I haven’t beaded for a while. I actually shut down my beading on July 28, 2020, since all my selling opportunities were Covid-cancelled. I stayed busy, however. I became a serial Zoom art student: watercolor, abstracts in acrylic, image transfer portraiture, and fun with metallic acrylics which reminded me of the colorful poster paints one uses as a kid. It has made me happy to dedicate eight months to my hobby of painting; it has challenged me intellectually (watercolors require a lot of mental engagement!) and artistically.

But now I am back to beading, my first love since 1995, and still resplendent 26 years later!

Today’s necklace features etched copper beads and rock crystal nuggets with a magnificent centerpiece of rock crystal shards encased in sculpted metal electroplated in copper. A word about copper. It and sterling silver vie for first place in my beading heart. Sterling doesn’t need an explanation since it is universally loved and appreciated. Copper is sort of a color to me: rusty, orange-y, Hermes-y and peach. Yet it is a metal which is an excellent partner and counterbalance for beads. The clasp is also copper, crafted in Mexico, as are the spacer beads close to it.

I named it after Titian who was the significant artist of his era (High Renaissance) because my bias for copper considers this a significant necklace of my hand. Priced at $99 for the set which includes earrings. $9 shipping or contact me at priscilla@beadleful.com to pick up. It weighs 7.1 ounces, less than half a pound.

A Max Moment

Max too has been missing sharing his adventures with you or so I intuit. I shall pick up where I left off–with his blankie (security blanket), which I pictured in the September 1, 2020 blog (and here, below right) as 20′ long and falling apart. I asked for help in how to get rid of it. Thanks for your advice–I kept cutting off a foot or two until there was nothing and swapped in a new fleece sofa throw during the holidays. Here it is mere months later, still providing him comfort and the forbidden bite when I am not looking.

Final Thought

How naive I was in 2020 regarding the Coronavirus-19, as I called it. In July of that year, I said the posted necklace was probably the last one I would make during Covid, as I call it now. I actually thought it was ending. It wasn’t and I have no idea when it will. As I did then, and do now, I offer my condolences to everyone who has lost a loved one to Covid. Let us pray it will end soon.

Week 53: 2017 IN REVIEW

3 January 2018

16 Comments

Thank you, dear readers, for your congratulatory comments! And thank you (WBS), for the bottles of champagne! We’re all celebrating the achievement of a goal! I couldn’t have done it without you, reading and commenting. I received 326 of your encouraging comments over last year! Thank you, thank you!

I couldn’t resist doing some analysis. The most popular week was #11 (amber glass) with 11 comments; followed by week 17 (dark green) and week 38 (chrysoprase) with 9 comments; and week 25 (iridescent), with 8 comments. Then I checked he lower end: the peach necklace of week 15 got one comment, as did weeks 9 and 24 (brown and black with other colors).

What was easy? Writing each blog flowed like a charm; not once did I experience writer’s block. Two things helped: lots of research so my head was full of interesting tidbits and I like to write.

What was hard? The technical stuff–especially adding more than one image and having it land where I wanted it. I chatted with WordPress so many times on that subject that they finally asked me what operating system I was using. They told me it was too old (as did my webmaster and others. So I did the cyber Monday thing and bought a new PC, to be installed soon!)

The other difficult challenge was to get rid of the blue background in most of my pictures. Not possible until I realized my kitchen window was UV-tinted, so I moved my photo area to a north-facing un-tinted window.

I intended to rejuvenate my bead artistry as I turned 75. It turned out that meant I must create a spectacular necklace once a week for 52 weeks: that realization hit me early on; it became a point of pride and the true challenge. Twenty-nine necklaces sold. I am humbled and gratified.

One existing collector (MBL) bought 5; a new collector (DS) also bought 5: to you both, a belated but heartfelt tip of the NYEve champagne glass! Another existing collector (SL) bought 2 and a long term friend (SG) bought 2! New friends, local friends, plus California friends took this year over the top for me! Thank you!

More than one person has asked me to put this together in book form. That thought is a little overpowering right now.

Over 52 weeks, my thoughts have delved more and more frequently into the ageing process. Having fun, making moments count, valuing relationships, letting the unimportant slip away, leaning into quality workmanship, keeping promises (to post every Wednesday come hell or high water!)—- this is what I learned this year. And how lucky I was that Rochelle Ford’s centerpiece and philosophy were the grand finale!

One unintended consequence yielded a great benefit: I will donate four boxes of beads I no longer want after going through 52 drawers of beads acquired over 23-years, to Rosie’s Place, a non-profit in Boston, founded in 1974, which serves more than 12,000 poor and homeless women a year. Their Craft Cooperative teaches women to make bead jewelry and learn a new skill.

Thanks for hanging in there with me. I’m taking the rest of January off. I shall present a new program on February 1, 2018. Thank you all. See you soon. Be well.

Drawer 52: Recycled Found Metal

27 December 2017

8 Comments

“Urban Jabber”

My Chinese Apothecary Chest: in 1994, it arrived via container to California from Hong Kong, where I discovered beading during my husband’s ex-pat assignment. Serves as the repository for my beads. Handcrafted. It has 52 Drawers, mostly sorted by color.

2017 Challenge: Create a Necklace a Week, using only the Beads from one Drawer at a time. Voila! 52 Necklaces!

‘Week 52/Drawer 52: December 28, 2017: “Urban Jabber”

We have arrived at the last Wednesday of 2017 and at the bottom right last drawer. Drawer 52 actually contains faux amber, but the necklace would look a lot like Drawer 34 (August 23), so I have chosen to conclude my year’s work with panache. I will tie together an amazing centerpiece with a quote from the artist which will, in turn, tie together my thoughts on rejuvenating my work in my 75^th year.

Rochelle Ford, Palo Alto, CA, is the artisan who made the centerpiece. At age 58, she taught herself to weld, got a permit to salvage metal at the town dump, and turned her home into a gallery of her work. I took some classes from her in the late 90’s to learn how to solder (I flunked, just like those drawing classes I took. So if you can’t do it, buy it from one who can!)

I commissioned some recycled metal centerpieces from Rochelle and this is the last one in my inventory.

Life marched on. I’m in Boston; Rochelle has turned 81 and is still welding. Imagine my surprise three years ago when some ageing quotes popped up in my email, just like the cute dog and cat emails, and my friend Rochelle had a fabulous quote! I copied it and put it on my studio bulletin board. Here it is:

“ Every morning when I wake up, I say, ‘I’ll never be as young as I am today. Today is the youngest day of the rest of my life. Get up and do something fun!’”

Her piece is 5.75” by 4.75”. There are many crazy bits of metal welded together and painted. Like all my centerpieces, they dictate the colors of the beads: here olive and copper were the obvious choices. They had to be chunky, so there is lampwork glass, Indian glass, filigreed copper, a strand of small round flat vintage Czech glass, and it really demanded some hefty copper chain. It weighs just 10 oz, not a heavy necklace.

The beaded section is 9.5” long on each side and features a large copper clasp. Matching olive earrings don’t match with each other: one is round and the other an organic pear shape. As Rochelle recommends, have fun! $139.

Rochelle’s story is too good not to tell, so I will do a week 53 wrap-up to tie together my thoughts on rejuvenating my work and what I learned over the past 52 weeks. We’ll pretend there are 53 weeks in 2017.

You will love her website www.metalsculptor.com, or google her name Rochelle Ford.

Drawer 15: Peach & Gray

12 April 2017

1 Comment

“Emotionally Rich”

My Apothecary Chest: in 1994, it arrived via container to California from Hong Kong, where I discovered beading during an ex-pat assignment there. Serves as the repository for my beads. Handcrafted. It has 52 Drawers.

2017 Challenge: Create a Necklace a Week, using only the Beads from one Drawer at a time. Voila! 52 Necklaces!

Week 15/Drawer 15: April 12, 2017: “Emotionally Rich”

Since I had just a few peach and gray beads, I put them together in Drawer 15 and they have co-existed over the years. While rummaging through the drawer, I was excited to find two strands of gorgeous peach aventurine to feature this week.

Aventurine is a crystal with a lot of quartz in it, mostly opaque and often green, leading some to incorrectly identify it as jade. Peach is a lesser known aventurine color which is achieved by the presence of the minerals orange mica and pyrite (aka “fools’ gold”). These minerals are said to enhance creativity.

When I found the four large peach aventurine ovals, I knew I had enough to make a two-strand necklace! Notice how the sparkle of the coppery seed beads brings out the brightness of the minerals.

The highlight of the necklace is the lampwork glass creation of Gail Crosman Moore. Gail is special to me: a familiar face at the many CA bead shows where I shopped; she is from Western MA; and she is a redhead! Mostly she is a truly creative artist as she wields colorful glass canes in one hand and in the other hand, she shapes the molten into a unique bead, all while wearing protective gear in front of flame!

Shaped like a bell, the centerpiece is peach with striations of green and blue. The bottom has beautiful blue pods waiting for your caress.

Read Gail’s website and be sure to note her shop in P-Town!

This necklace demanded a copper clasp and is accompanied by a simple pair of copper and aventurine earrings. It is 20” long. $115.

Week 1: Gold glass from Venice

10 January 2017

6 Comments

“Romance Retold”

2017 Necklace a Week CHALLENGE: from 52 drawers of beads, create a unique handmade necklace using only the beads from one drawer at a time.

These large (1″ around) mottled gold Venetian glass beads will make any complexion glow! They are hand-blown thin clear glass with splatters of gold.

The centerpiece is a Nautilus-inspired shell in cranberry color with gold flecks which turn iridescent in the light. It is an artist-made lamp work glass bead. Other spacer beads are glass with gold foil inside. Secured by a gold metal clasp.

These Venetian beads are lovely to look at and wear, but please, handle with care since they are fragile. Don’t drop the necklace and don’t wear dangle earrings that are long enough to hit them as they swing from your ear. Truth in advertising now satisfied, don’t lust for this necklace unless you like attention because compliments will be endless! I guarantee it or refund offered!

Wear it with your own gold earrings. Title: Romance Retold. Length is 18.5″. $99.00.

OPEN STUDIOS SEASON IS HERE!

1 August 2016

Welcome to my Open Studio

24 June 2016

2 Comments

Teal windsocks on cross streets in Hull will mark the locations for fascinating studios where real artists work!

Please visit me in my studio in Hull Village on July 9 or 10, Saturday or Sunday from 10am to 5pm.

23 Andrew Ave (3^rd Left after Library on Main St), Hull.

781-925-0484

Be prepared to find newly designed Beadleful necklaces, lots of my trademark chunky bead jewelry, some bracelets and earrings!

Also, Marilyn MacDonnell returns with fabulous totes, key chains, purses and a new line of beach towels!

OPEN STUDIOS has been proudly presented by www.hullartists.com for 21 years. Visit our website for a map and info about the 39 participating artists

Homage to Lampwork Glass Artist Beads

11 April 2016

1 Comment

Local women's lampwork beads feature in this necklace with silver clasp. 20" long, $220

Local women artist’s lampwork beads feature in this necklace with silver clasp.
20″ long, $220

This wondrous necklace is sort of like a “One-of-a-Kind” (see blog dated Aug 7, 2013, “Oh, Oh, OK” for an explanation), but then again it’s not. It is an OOK if I count only half of the beads as OOK. It is not an OOK since most of the beads are artist made.

Enough of acronyms! Let us explore this amazing necklace full of lampwork glass beads made by some awesome women!

Envision long sticks of colored glass, a source of fire coming from a mini blowtorch on a stand in front of the artist, and a metal mandrel. Sit our artist down facing the fire, mandrel in the dominant hand to shape the glass into a bead, and, with her other hand, manipulating the glass rod as it heats up and goes molten. This is Lampwork Glass.

I collect these beads as I go to bead shows. Not for me, even though I am an incurable collector, but for you, wearers of my necklaces with these precious beads in them.

Identifying the artists whose beads make up this necklace is a special pleasure. Sheila Checkoway’s beads and small fat discs feature first; starting from the silver clasp, after the sterling silver bar, are two of five of her beads followed by a small fat disc, one of six by this Massachusetts native.

Then we see one of two umbrella-shaped discs by Maureen Henriques of Pumpkin Hill Beads (MA) with a polka dot circle by Kennebunkport Bead Art.

Now find a Gail Crosman Moore (MA) bead, chubby and squat with bumps all around and more bumpy stuff happening on top. Gorgeous in its excess!

Next is a modest disc (one of these gals has to do “modest” to ground all these blockbusters!) by “Two Sisters” whose shop in Carmel-by-the-Sea in CA is not to be missed! Another Henriques umbrella shading a Two Sisters disc follow.

Then three Venetian glass beads which are blown (see blog dated Sept 20, 2013, “Murano Island Rising”) in a pale grey green.

The centerpiece lampwork is a fabulous design by Gail Crosman Moore whom I discovered in a show in Oakland, CA, over ten years ago. I was impressed not only with her work but by the fact she lived in Western Massachusetts! Now she has a shop in Cape Cod at 174 Commercial St, Provincetown.

Starting up the other side, notice a faux silver bead (cheap but high style) plus more Sheila and Venetian beads, back up to the silver bar.

The clasp is another piece of work, as they say colloquially. An artful hook, although not artist-made, grasps a glass polka dot circle by Kennebunkport Bead Art.

This was a slowly percolating necklace that took years to come together. The color is odd but soft and surprisingly neutral. Perhaps it is best described as teal grey. Gail’s beads add a teal blue. My luck held out with the seed beads I found in my drawer—an interesting blueish green teal in matte Czech glass, not shiny.

The necklace is for sale. No way could I hoard this! It is for sale in my studio for $220. Add $15 for mailing and insurance and it is yours. It measures 20” long.

Priscilla Beadle

chunky bead jewelery

Category Archives: Women artists