Calendar and Newsletter - Winter 2007

What's New

Spring has sprung!

I went to the National Arboretum recently and marveled at the tiny leaves bursting from the tips of the trees and shrubs. The result? Small and large leafy earrings are bursting from my fingers. And I am hoping to complete some leaf lariats, too.

Blossom button necklaces are in the works in peachy and pinky colors (so far). Snowdrops and crocuses (mostly earrings) continue to be a regular theme as well.

I have almost finished a double-layered pollen-like (or virus-like) form with the texture of my spiky earrings overlaying the holes and barnacles of last year's beaded beads. It is looking pretty cool, technically and aesthetically. While I was on a roll with spiky forms, I came up with a new, smaller version of the spiky earrings that looks like farfalla (bowtie pasta)! Keep an eye open for these new pieces in the New Work section of the Portfolio.

I am making slow but steady progress in the flax paper department - still making the usual pod- or leaf-like forms in earrings and necklaces, but some of the elements are getting more spiky and earrings are definitely getting larger. And let's not forget about vessels - rippled acorn-squash-like "bowls" as well as orbit-inspired forms with reed armatures.

Still playing around with paper clay and acrylic paint, including a series I am calling "Hold tight" or "The big squeeze" (perhaps in response to the current financial climate, but also because the clay makes such wonderful abstract impressions of a tight fist). Images forthcoming in New Work once I paint the pieces. . . .

I am happy to report that I have two more how-to beading articles coming out this spring and summer - one in the May/June issue of Step by Step Beads (simple patterned stick earrings) and the other in the July issue of Beadwork (croissant pendant). See below for full references once I get them.

SCHEDULE - Spring 2008

Sun., April 13 (2 pm) - Hartford, CT
Japanalia Fashion Show
990 Farmington Avenue, W. Hartford
Call 860-523-7722 for reservations

Thurs., May 8 - Sat., May 10 - Bethesda, MD
Trunk Show w/ Japanalia and Events in Style
5500 Sonoma Road, (behind NIH on Old Georgetown Rd.)
Thurs., 4 pm - 8 pm
Fri., 10 am - 6 pm
Sat., 11 am - 4 pm

Creative Crafts Council Biennial - Bethesda, MD

2006
Gilchrist Museum - Cumberland, MD
Fiber's Finest - Fiber Arts Study Group juried show

Gallery 11, Hartford, CT
Illuminations
"Heart of the Matter" - small flax sculpture

2005
Creative Crafts Council Biennial - Bethesda, MD
2nd Place, Mixed Media (printed flax earrings)

Lynn Tendler Bignell Gallery, Brookfield, CT
Translucence: Forms in Paper

"Triangle Pillow Earrings," Step by Step Beads, Spring 2003,
Vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 18-21

"Beautiful Boughs," Step by Step Beads, Mar/Apr 2006,
Vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 30-33

"Beaded Leaves," Step by Step Beads, Mar/Apr 2006,
Vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 34-41

Coming soon: