| Ed and Martha Biggar [More Info] Between the two, Ed and Martha Biggar have over 40 years glass experience and over 20 years with metal clay. They exhibit and teach nationally and at home, and believe good teachers can make the difference for any student. They live in southwest Virginia with their herd of horses, mules, and donkeys. | |
| Marti Brown [More Info] Marti Brown was always interested in the arts. As a child, some of her fondest memories included art camp, painting in her basement, art classes in summer school, and involvement in choral music. Marti became a professional artist and craftsman after completing her BFA in jewelry making. She has been designing jewelry for over 30 years and loves creating jewelry and teaching. Marti has worked in a variety of traditional and contemporary jewelry metals and processes. She currently works in niobium, a colorful metal, and of course beads. | |
| Candie Cooper, teaching for Jesse James Beads [More Info] Candie Cooper is a designer with a passion for bold colors and notorious for twisting and layering materials until they sing. "I'm inspired by so many things. Most of all, I want my jewelry to tell a story. A place I want to visit, a nostalgic memory from childhood, romance and more...it's all in my jewelry." Earringology is her fourth solo book with Lark Books (TBR Spring 14'). In the past ten years, she has authored Necklaceology (2012), Metalworking 101 for Beaders (2013), and Felted Jewelry (2007). Candie loves sharing unique jewelry techniques with her readers and students through her blog and books. Currently, she's working on product development for the jewelry finding industry, cooking up new DIY book ideas, and working with many craft companies to design new projects. Visit her website and blog at candiecooper.com as well as on your favorite social networking sites. | |
| Jennifer Davies-Reazor [More Info] Jenny has been teaching in some form since leaving art school, with degrees in studio art, art history, and education. After a successful 12 year period teaching art and ceramics in the MD public schools, Jenny moved to San Diego, CA. While out west, she taught at the Shepherdess and the Cannon Art Gallery. SInce returning to DE in 2003, she has taught a range of workshops in jewelry and mixed media techniques at arts centers in her area. She continues to teach ceramics at her local "work" studio in Wilmington DE. | |
| Diane Dennis [More Info] Diane Dennis is a seed-bead jewelry artist creating elegant works of wearable art. Diane has been featured in Fire Mountain Gems and Beads catalog as a contest winner and advertising, and has been published in Beadwork and Bead & Button Magazines. Diane's piece Star Light, Star Bright appears in Showcase 500 Art Necklaces. Diane has been beading since 1999 and has been teaching beadwork since 2003 and currently teaches beading in the Northern Virginia area, at Beadfest, Bead and Button, quilt shows and for Bead Societies. | |
| Helen Driggs [More Info] Helen Driggs is Senior Editor of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist magazine, has created 6 instructional DVDs, written "The Jewelry Maker's Field Guide: Tools and Essential Techniques" and is an experienced metalsmith/teacher. A BFA graduate of Moore College of Art, she is a member of PSG and CoMA and a certified PMC instructor. Blog: www.materialsmithing.wordpress.com; Twitter: @fabricationista | |
| Staci Egan [More Info] Staci is the designer of Contempo Jewelry started in 1999. Staci loves things that are naturally beautiful like fresh picked strawberries or sweet scented pink peonies. Nature's imperfect gifts are very special to her and because of this she loves to work with freshwater pearls and semi-precious stones. Working with natural and organic material is special as each piece may have some extra lines, blemishes and even inclusions. These simple imperfections give the work character and make each piece unique. | |
| Kaska Firor [More Info] Kaska began designing and making wire jewelry in 2001. Originally a traditional wire-wrapping artist, in recent years she shifted her focus to working with wire techniques borrowed from basket-weaving and textile arts, including weaving, looping, stitching, coiling and others. Kaska displays and sells her jewelry at art shows in the Midwest where she has won numerous awards. Her work has been published in Art Jewelry and Step by Step Wire Jewelry magazines. Her first book, Weaving Freeform Wire Jewelry, was released in November 2013. Kaska teaches locally at her studio in Cincinnati, Ohio, William Holland School of Lapidary Arts and at national shows including Bead Fest and Bead and Button. She believes that well designed projects together with fun and supportive class environment are a key to successful learning. | |
| Tamara Honaman [More Info] Tamara Honaman teaches, demonstrates and speaks about jewelry making nationally and internationally. She contributes jewelry-making projects, articles and designs to magazines, books, television programs and Fire Mountain Gems and Beads, who produced her full-length metal clay DVDs and beading books. She is co-author of Polymer Clay Master Class, the founding editor of Step-by-Step Beads; former editor of Step-by-Step in Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist. Tamara has served as technical editor on several metal clay and jewelry-making books and magazines; Executive Director of the National Polymer Clay Guild; and on the board of other jewelry related organizations. To contact Tamara visit www.tamarahonaman.com. | |
| Linda Larsen [More Info] Metalsmith Linda Larsen has been designing jewelry for many years. She finds the whole ‘construction’ process fascinating and challenging, and is constantly looking for new techniques to play with. She teaches internationally and blogs frequently about projects and techniques. | |
| Alison Lee [More Info] Alison Lee is the creative founder of craftcast.com, a company dedicated to providing exceptional online crafting education available worldwide. Her education included studying goldsmithing at the renown Kulicke-Stark Academy in NYC as well as producing a line of organically inspired jewelry sold through numerous galleries. Alison was a featured artist on HGTV’s That’s Clever and taught jewelry classes in NYC. Alison teaches jewelry making classes in her own studio in Nyack, NY. | |
| Sara Lukkonen [More Info] Sara has always been doing one kind of craft or another. About 39 years ago she discovered torch fire enameling. Sara had done some kiln work but did not like how long it took. Tried out the torching technique and has been working with enamels that way ever since. In 1999 she was wearing some of her beads in a bead store and they wanted to know where she got the beads. That is when C-Koop Beads was established. She has been teaching enameling for about 8 years. Sara has taught at national shows, bead stores and in her studio. | |
| Linda Lurcott [More Info] Linda Lurcott enjoys the fluidity and flow of metal that transform into organic shapes often seen in the natural world. She has enjoyed working with metals, especially sterling silver for 15 years and has taught classes for the last 5 years. One of Linda's most rewarding studio discovery is: "Uniquely pieces can evolve with the artist's curiosity, patience and a bit of playfulness within the creative process". Linda is grateful for her society and guild memberships, which have offered gallery shows and exhibitions, along with several learning opportunities from many of masters in the jewelry industry. She believes jewelry is "in her blood." Her her great grandparents passed down a love of jewelry, along with a few tools of the trade from their NYC jewelry store, which they opened soon after their arrival from the British Isles. Linda resides in SE Pennsylvania where she enjoys sharing her love of craft with her students. | |
| Melody MacDuffee [More Info] Originally a crocheter, Melody MacDuffee was eventually drawn to fine-gauge wire in creating lacy, intricate jewelry designs that retained her crochet aesthetic. Her publications include dozens of feature articles, as well as four books, most recently Lacy Wire Jewelry , published in 2010 by Kalmbach Publishing. Melody is the Executive Director of Soul of Somanya, a small non-profit she co-founded, which helps artisans in the Krobo region of Ghana improve their standard of living by creating jewelry and other beaded products. | |
| Debora Mauser [More Info] Debora Mauser has been creating jewelry for more than 12 years. For the past six years Debora has been teaching at national venues such as Bead Fest, Bead and Button, local bead stores, William Holland School of Lapidary Arts, Wild Acres and Sawtooth School. Her passion is sharing techniques including wire, metal, enameling, forming and cold connections. Her work has been featured in Step by Step Wire and she is a certified instructor in the Painting with Fire immersion method of enameling. Debora's classes are fun and packed with information but maintain a low key approach to learning. | |
| Laurel Nathanson [More Info] Laurel is a mixed media artist and jeweler from Oakland California. Her crafty objects have been featured in American Craft Magazine, Lark Books 500 Necklaces, and 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse. She has a jewelry line called Sugarcoat which combines her roots as a metalsmith with her passion for surface design and illustration. When not creating, teaching, or writing how to articles for Jewelry Artist Magazine, Laurel is cuddling with her two Bichons, Bailey and Bonnie. And, she is always looking for an 80's night dance party. | |
| Roxan O'Brien [More Info] Roxan is a self-taught bead artist who has a background in oil painting, silversmithing, enameling, chasing and repouseé with over 25 years of experience in the jewelry field. She studied jewelry design and metal work at Harrisburg Area Community College, Harrisburg, Pa. and Touchstone Center for Crafts in Farmington, Pa. She is the first bead embroider to reach juried status from the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen. As founder of the Central Pa. Bead and Jewelry Society a nonprofit organization, she has created a place where jewelry artist can find workshops and support for their craft. She sells her work in galleries and art and craft shows throughout the east coast. She teaches both beading and metal jewelry classes in the U.S. | |
| Kieu Pham Gray [More Info] Kieu Pham Gray has been creating jewelry for over 15 years. She started from the need to look the part while working in retail management for Neiman Marcus. Since then she has sold to over 30 stores in 10 states and participated in numerous juried art shows. For eight years Kieu owned Bead Q! in the Cleveland area. Today, with her husband Andy, they run TheUrbanBeader.com, working to provide the industry with specialty goods. Kieu teaches a variety of classes throughout the Midwest and East Coast. Detailed instruction and personal attention has been her key to success. | |
| Renee Prioleau [More Info] Renee Prioleau is an accomplished jewelry designer in the Washington DC area. Her work has been featured at Nordstrom and is currently sold at many local vintage shops in the metropolitan area. She is the program director of The Bead Studio Inc., a nonprofit organization devoted to the art and culture of beadwork. The organization provides community outreach and education programs for adults, youth, and individuals with special needs; and gives philanthropic support to bead related organizations. | |
| Maria Richmond [More Info] Artist Maria Richmond draws her inspiration from the possibilities she sees in ordinary objects and materials. While she plays with wire, she often envisions unique ways of combining traditional, repurposed and found objects into her creations. She regularly teaches in Western Pennsylvania, as well as other venues throughout the country. She teaches basic and intermediate techniques in a relaxed atmosphere. Her goal is to help her students find their own creative voice and the endless possibilities in the seemingly mundane. | |
| Sue Ripsch [More Info] Sue is a chain maille artist, designer and author who teaches chain maille classes around the country. She has taught at many Bead Fest Shows and at Bead and Button shows. Sue is the author of two chain maille books and will publish a third in 2015. She has written clear and beautifully illustrated instructions for over 150 chain maille weaves. Sue likes to teach students from all levels of chain maille experience. | |
| Leslie Rogalski [More Info] Leslie Rogalski is known for her passion and enthusiasm as a bead and jewelry artist, designer, and teacher. Recognized from regular appearances on Jewelry Television and Beads, Baubles, and Jewels, she also blogs as Sleepless Beader and sells her original jewelry design kits at www.sleeplessbeader.com. The former editor in chief of Step by Step Beads and BeadingDaily.com, Leslie's projects and articles have been widely published in Bead & Button, BeadStyle, Beadwork, Step by Step Beads, Creative Jewelry, Lapidary Journal, Step by Step Wire Jewelry, Easy Wire, 101 Wire Earrings, and several books including the Lark 500 Beaded Jewelry Showcase, and Chain Style. Her best-selling DoodleBeads digital products teach the top seed-bead techniques in a unique drawing-before-your-eyes method she developed. Leslie is a member of the Beadalon design team, a former Swarovski Ambassador, and the author of "The Business of Beading," a regular column starting in 2014 in Bead & Button magazine, for whom she is also a contributing editor. Craftsy.com launched her first online class, Essential Seed Bead Techniques, in July 2014. Follow her as Sleepless Beader on Facebook, at www.sleeplessbeader.blogspot.com, and keep up with new designs and kits for sale, exhibitions, shows, and workshops at www.sleeplessbeader.com. | |
| Adele Rogers Recklies [More Info] Adele Rogers Recklies fell in love with beading while working at two New York City costume shops that made all sorts of costumes for Broadway shows, film, dance, and opera. Her favorite projects were the beaded costumes and she is eternally grateful to the beading ladies who taught her some of their couture techniques. After several years of making costumes, Adele started her own business specializing in knitted or crocheted costumes, some of which have been seen in Broadway shows such as CATS, films such as Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, productions at The Metropolitan Opera in New York City, Sesame Street, and other assorted venues. Costume work led to beaded jewelry classes and those led to a fateful bead crochet class, where Adele fell in love with the combination of fiber and beads. Bead crochet experiments led to research on the amazing bead crochet done in Turkey and the Balkans, including the souvenir snakes made by Turkish prisoners of war during World War I. That research and experimentation led to her own designs for snake jewelry and culminated in the writing of Bead Crochet Snakes: History and Technique. Adele's beadwork designs have been seen in various publications including 500 Beaded Objects: New Dimensions in Contemporary Beadwork, Bead and Button magazine, and Bead Crochet Basics: 22 Jewelry Projects. She has exhibited pieces in venues in the U.S., Japan, and England. Adele has also lectured on beadwork and taught beading classes in Istanbul, Turkey, England, and the U.S.A. | |
| Richard Salley [More Info] Richard has been working in metal for over 40 years and teaches metalsmithing classes around the country covering a variety of topics. | |
| Debra Saucier [More Info] Debra Saucier is a mixed-media artist who has been crafting since summers spent with her grandmother in Japan as a child. Debra was named one of the initial Create Your Style with Swarovski Elements Ambassadors early in 2009 and has taught at the Create Your Style Events in Tucson as well as other shows across the world. Debra and her husband operate a small bead store in New England. In 2011, Debra launched a new product called Crystal Clay two part epoxy clay. Her work has been featured in numerous magazines and books. | |
| Eva Sherman [More Info] Eva Sherman began beading as a way to spend time with her daughters but soon became hopelessly addicted. In 2005 she traded her architectural career for the opportunity to spend all her time among beads, and opened Grand River Bead Studio in Cleveland, Ohio. Eva now happily spends most days in the studio creating, writing and teaching, but has been known to take her show on the road. She has discovered an affinity for working with wire and metals, and prefers to design in an organic and unstructured style. Eva and coauthor Beth Martin published Organic Wire & Metal Jewelry in 2014 and are currently writing a second book titled Cool Copper Cuffs scheduled for release in 2015. | |
| Staci Smith [More Info] Staci Louise Smith creates her one of a kind beads and jewelry in many mediums, such as polymer and metal clay. She love to collect unique rock, seaglass and shells, and use them in her mixed media pieces. | |
| Kim St. Jean [More Info] Kim st. Jean is an award winning instructor,author and jewelry designer. She has been teaching jeewelry classes for 14 years. Kim has been published in numerous magazines and books. She has appeared on several beading/craft television programs and has two books published. Mixeed Metal Mania released Feb. 2011, and Metal Magic,released June 2012. Kim's home base is in Myrtle Beahch, South Carolina, where she and her husband, Norm,own Studio St. Jean. She and Norm spend much of the year traveling across the country teaching classes at bead shows,jewelry schools, guilds, clubs, studio and stores | |
| Ronda Stevens [More Info] Ronda has been teaching wire wrap design classes in the southeast for the past 10 years at bead shows and local bead stores. She specializes in traditional wire wrap design and loves to see her students succeed in her classes. She released her first book in October 2013 and is co-owner of the Great Bead Escape Retreat which is in its 5th year of introducing attendees to the world of Jewelry Art. | |
| Jean Vanbrederode [More Info] Art has always been a part of Jean's life in one way or another and now is her main passion and driving force. Jean feels fortunate to have found an art form, enameling, and also making mixed-media jewelry, that brings excitement into her life each and every day. Her work is always changing, always a surprise! Having been seduced, empowered, enriched, & invigorated by metals & glass, Jean happily dedicate herself to creating and teaching others the joys of enameling! | |
| Betcey Ventrella [More Info] Betcey opened Beyond Beadery in 1987 in Woodstock, NY. She and her husband regularly load 5 tons of beads and crystals into their truck and haul them cross-country, setting up shop for a few days before packing it all up again and moving on to the next bead show. When not on the road, she can be found in her Colorado mountaintop home, selling crystals and beads via the Internet. Betcey's life as a traveling bead gypsy was featured in Beadwork Magazine in April 2009, and her Swarovski-rich designs have been showcased in a number of books. | |
| Donna Weeks [More Info] Donna is a self-taught mixed media artist. She has been teaching for over 20 years at art centers, and her studio. Her crochet designs have been published in BeadStyle magazine and their Volume 8 book. Bracelet designs have also been published in BeadStyle and Bead Trends magazines, and in 52 Bracelets published by BeadStyle. Donna's favorite medium is wire which she incorporates into crocheted pieces, faux cloisonne, and polymer clay designs. | |
