Featured Artists
Sue Daigle
Japanese Braiding
A
native Mainer, I grew up knitting,sewing, and quilting; fibers and cloth
have always fascinated me. But oddly enough, I decided to go to college
and get an engineering technology Bachelor's Degree; not much money
in fiber arts back then for me! I moved out of state and returned a few years later in 1987 to raise a family.
Three years ago I was forced to quit my part time proofreading job due to health
reasons but I still needed to supplement the family income somehow. I'm still
not sure how I chose jewelry design but after picking up my first beading magazine
I was hooked. Beading and stringing necklaces were very popular but they weren't
one of my strengths. So I looked for a fiber art/craft that would include beads
and fill my designing needs. My passion for fiber, be it yarn, silk, or cord,
took me to the ancient craft/art of kumihimo, Japanese braiding. I taught myself
as there was no one who could help me. Braiding allows me to work
with endless combinations of fibers and beads. And there are many different braid
structures, so the possibilities are endless.
The next step was to decide on a business name: Beads On Hand. (Sort of working
with whatever beads I had on hand.) Now I share my love of braiding by
teaching at Beads on the Kennebec in Augusta, Maine. In the last year, working
with Dawn Howard in California, I designed a necklace
using her painted beads and my braids that took second place in a color challenge
on the Starving Artists jewelry
forum.
While braiding I realized that there were no clasps that met my needs so I learned
a few rudimentary wire working skill and developed my own. These were recently
included in the BEADS 2008 beading resource magazine
and included in the "Editor's Picks". I can be contacted: Susan
Daigle
Brian
Quirion
Polymer Clay Beads
RAISING CANE
Having decorated literally thousands of cakes and pastries for a
multitude of tastes, and having once thumbed through my wife's subscription of
POLYMER CAFE it was only natural for me to assume that making beads out of
little
bits of clay would be, well, a "piece of cake" . What I hadn't yet
realized, even as I shaped my first hand-molded clay rosette, was how versatile
a
medium polymer clay can be. And unlike gum-paste, fondant or chocolate, it
doesn't melt in your hot little hands if you take more than a minute to shape
it"
just right".
Then I made the mistake of "thumbing through" a multitude of other
polymer clay-friendly publications. It wasn't long before I realized that #1)
the
possibilities were endless, and #2) I wouldn't be getting much sleep for
awhile. It is quite conceivable that almost anything can be made out of this
stuff. You can mold, roll, twist, spread, shape, squeeze, stencil, emboss and
pull polymer clay into just about any variety of ways one could imagine. You
can get this stuff in every color of the rainbow and if these don't suit you,
just mix a few colors together to suit your needs. In fact, it seems, the only
limit to what you can do is your own imagination. As you can tell, I'm
hooked.
I enjoy caning. Now THAT'S a sentence that I'm sure I'd never have said
were it not for my wife. She thumbed through a polymer clay magazine, saw
something pretty, handed it to me and said "make this". It looked complicated.
I would have to roll one color, flatten and roll another, learn the
skinner-blend technique, then put it all together, then cut it in half and squeeze,
stretch, roll, twist, slice, assemble etc. Thinking that this would be nothing
but a labor of love, I gave it a shot. And now I can't stop. No matter how
you slice it, clay beads rock! Geometry, symmetry, ingenuity. What's not to
love? Every husband should consider doing this for their wives. Not only will
you have an excuse to buy a new toolbox - to store your clay, tools and pasta
roller (did I forget to mention, you should invest in one of these), but when
she tells you about the beautiful strand of turquoise she saw at the
jewelers, you can simply tell her you'd love to make her as many as she'd like
to
have.
Johanna
Bierwirth
Johanna Bierwirth, a current resident of Alton, has been a resident of the Greater Waterville area for over 20 years. Having been an avid beader for most of her adult life, she has sold her own beaded designs for the past 8+ years. She's had the opportunity to study bead art and develop her beading skills with a number of well known bead artists. She willingly shares her aquired knowledge and expertise through classes at a number of Mid-Maine bead shops and Adult Education Systems.
Johanna has also developed three high quality, easy to use and affordable looms that are made right here in Maine with Maine products. Visit the shop to view these wonderful beading tools.