Sunday, February 17, 2013

May 2013 Program



Diana Friedberg is the producer of the multi-award winner documentary series World on a String. 

Her passion for beads was the inspiration to travel the world and to document the story of beads in cultures across the globe through the ages. 

The series has inspired museum exhibitions around the world and will soon be an integral part of the Corning Museum of Glass exhibition on glass beads opening  summer 2013.
 

Recently Diana and members of the Bead Society of Los Angeles traveled
to Kenya to explore the beadwork of the Maasai and to investigate other bead
producing facilities in that country. 


She will share her discoveries and adventures in pursuit of the bead in Kenya at the May meeting.


 
 Maasai woman 









Maasai woman beading a collar



Diane will be offering her DVDs of World on a String series for sale at the meeting.

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Saturday, February 16, 2013

April 2013 Program and Class

Our April 20th program features Cindy Holsclaw a bead artist and a scientist specializing in geometric beaded structures. 

She developed an eclectic background in beads and crafts from a young age, but expresses her fascination with geometry through the mediums of modular origami and beaded art. Her foundation as an academic shapes her approach to her beadwork designs as well as her teaching methods, and she enjoys teaching beadweaving classes across the country. Her latest work can be found in Beadwork Magazine.

The topic of her presentation is Geometric Beadwork: Influences from Mathematics and Science

Mathematics and science often intersect with the arts to create fascinating reflections of the natural world. 

In beadweaving, these principles are prominent in the intricate structures of geometric beaded beads. 

These little structures can be created from a variety of shapes and sizes of smaller beads such as seed beads, crystals, and semiprecious stones for an infinite number of possible structures. 

Mathematics underlies this field of beadweaving, as the shapes of beaded beads from simple cubes to the pointy, stellated dodecahedra all correspond to the geometric solids known as polyhedra. 

In addition, beaded objects also relate to scientific fields such as microbiology, chemistry, and astronomy. 

In this talk, Cindy will explore these relationships between math, science, and beaded art, and will also share her insight into how she uses these principles in her own designs.

On April 21st, Cindy will teach a class on making her beaded beads based on mathematical principles.  Two advanced beaded beads, each taking half a day are featured. Purchase of a kit is required.

Bauble kit is $30.  Tila Garden kit is $40.



Bauble Beaded Bead
Tila Garden Beaded pendant.


Contact us for class information or to sign up.

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Thursday, February 14, 2013

March 2013 Program



On March 16, 2013 our speaker is Bonita Chamberlain. She is returning for the third time by popular demand. The topic of the program is Legends and Lore of Gemstones and Diamonds.

Gemstones have mesmerized people for centuries. Every culture has myths and legends that have followed these gemstones until today.  Think about the image that is brought to mind when the Hope Diamond is mentioned. Many more stones have stories and legends to equal that of the Hope.
  • Offer a libation to the dead while wearing white quartz, and you give the dead the gift of happiness. 
  • Rubies will pale in the presence of poison while amber will blacken, and blue sapphires will change color to warn of an enemy's attack. 
  • White chalcedony will increase a mother's milk.
  • Citrine will increase prosperity. 
  • Opal, often connected with healing diseases of the eye, is known as the thief's stone because of its ability to sharpen the wearer's sight while dimming a pursuer's vision, thus conferring invisibility. 
  • Aquamarine is a stone of courage and a protection for sailors, though emerald is also valued by travelers for its ability to calm stormy seas. 
  • Topaz not only dispels nightmares but cures madness and cowardice. 
  • Diamonds, which have long been a symbol of purity and invincibility, guard the wearer against phantasms, sorcery, snakebite, fire and floods.
  • Turquoise not only protects you from evil but from falling from a horse.

 The beliefs about a gem’s value, influence, and innate powers are highly specific, and influenced by the time, place, and culture in which they arise. To collect the beliefs ascribed to any one stone, is often to find that someone somewhere believed it capable of just about anything.


You will be taken through the birthstone months with examples of famous pieces of jewelry, the legend, lore and myths, and healing properties of the stones. 

About the Speaker

Bonita Chamberlin has spent more than 30 years working in Afghanistan under five regimes: the monarchy, Soviet occupation, civil war, Taliban and now the Coalition Forces.

From 1976 to 1980, she interfaced with the Afghan government and multinational corporations, especially SunMaid and Lummus to facilitate business and economic development. Chamberlin designed and executed profit and income-generating projects primarily through natural resource development and agriculture.

In the mid-1980s Chamberlin was asked to return by Ahmad Shah Massoud, to assist them in mining the gemstones being uncovered by the Soviet bombs. From 1983 until 1997 she crossed the Hindu Kush Mountains with the Mujahideen dressed as an Afghan man to avoid Soviet detection. 

Under primitive conditions, she assisted the local tribesmen of Panjsher, Badakhshan, Nuristan, and Sorobi in the proper mining, marketing, and sale of the gems and minerals.

As a result of this extensive work, Bonita has walked the country, mapping it, thereby being a resource for the Department of Defense after 9/11. Her research was published in the 1995 book she co-authored, titled, Gemstones of Afghanistan, regarded as the original and most complete study of Afghanistan’s gems and minerals.


Samples of Afghan Jewelry to see from Bonita's collection follow.


Colorful stones

Earrings of Topaz

Purple lovers' pendant

Amethysts and Geodes

Moonstones

Aaquamarine Pendant

Citrine Pendant

Friday, February 1, 2013

February 2013 Program and Class

 Program and Speaker information

February 16, Saturday our featured speaker is Gail Crosman Moore. She is a nationally known award winning multidisciplinary artist. She brings us many years of experience, both as a teacher and a student. We are delighted to welcome her to San Diego.


Gail Crosman Moore received her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art in Art Education.  Her explorations of visual and tactile arts has given her a love of surface, form, texture and color that transcends any one media.
Although Gail's work has spanned many different fields and materials, a lifelong obsession with the essential, ancient seed pod has informed her work in all media. Whether she is painting, hammering, folding, sewing, or working in fire, it's certain that various forms of the Pod, the vessel of life, will emerge.
She has won many awards including Saul Bell in 2009, and an A.R.T. Grant and was invited to teach in Japan, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Great Britain. Her work has appeared in Ornament, Beadwork, Bead and Button and Lamagga magazines. 
Our program is an overview of the many materials she has explored, always coming back to the need to get her pieces out of 2D and into 3D, and to achieve complex surfaces by adding multimedia. She is drawn to explore the yin/yang, hot/cold, hard/soft, shiny /matte dichotomy to arrive at a visual and tactile surprise.
Class Information

On February 17th, Sunday and the 18th Monday (Presidents' Day Holiday) she is teaching a class on felted decorative objects involving the use of beads, sequins, glass and metallic enhancements to create items similar to the the photos below.

Class fee for two days for members is $120.  For non members is $145. There is no kit, but supplies you need for the class will be sold in individual packs so you can pick your own colors and embellishment types.







Click here for membership information.

Contact us for class information.

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