Welcome to the Bead Fairies Award Page. I am please to begin this archive with the first recipient of the award,
Julia S. Pretl and hope to add many more sites in the coming years.
Julia S. Pretl lives in Baltimore, Maryland with her husband and two daughters. She says about her adventures into beads...
" I began beading in 1990 when I taught myself to bead on a loom. I knew immediately that I had found my passion. I soon fell in love with broadcollars after seeing the Virginia Blakelock book,
"Those Bad, Bad Beads". From there I experimented with bead knitting and sculptural peyote stitch. My current obsession is
bead embroidery. I have recently begun teaching classes and I'm working on a book on my
beaded boxes." Visit Julia's site at Dark Hare Beadwork
The second Bead Fairies Award goes to Mary Tafoya, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, better known and loved by many as Aunt Molly's Bead Street. It's true...web site Mistress do bead and here is proof. Mary makes
this statement about beading:"Beadwork creates a kind of hyper-reality, objects which seem to
have their own consciousness. I work most easily in bead embroidery, but call upon some of the
other stitches as needed. I appreciate the time it takes to complete each piece -- there's
plenty of space in there to meditate on the theme of the work." Come and see the magical works of Mary at Mary Tafoya Beadwork. See what the
teacher does after school.
The third Bead Fairies Award goes to Mary Hicklin owner and designer of Virgo Moon. Mary gives us the joy of going through our mother's/sister's jewelry box. An
ecclectic assortment of necklaces that already seem to have a history to them. Mary takes beads and stones and brings them together
into "gotta have" necklaces. She says about her love of beadwork..."I have loved beads and done beadwork since a child. I have taken classes from many, many wonderful teachers and artists in order to develop a rich vocabulary."
And at Virgo Moon you will find a
the Oxford Dictionary of jewelry.
The Bead Fairies Award goes to Laura Willits, bead artist extrodinaire.Laura Willets. From Laura's artist's statement, "I like to be awake and working at night. The busy world is at a low ebb then, and I am free to pursue my work
with no distractions. At night, the people who will see my work are asleep and dreaming. Logic seems less important at night than vision and sensation." One thing for sure....Laura is a visionary. Please be
sure to visit her site for a peep into what goes thump in the night.
Where does the Bead Fairy surf, hmmmmmmmm, well all over the net, I am an armchair traveler to far away places, allowing my voyeuristic tendencies to be held close and near
without the fear of being arrested. Just kidding. My love for Russian and Slavic needlework and arts and crafts is deep seated, perhaps
because I am a first generation Russian in America, but the rich designs and textures of needlework has engulfed me from an
early age. The geometric designs of Ukrainian Easter eggs and embroidered costumes has been what stuff dreams are made of for me. So I
peruse from time to time google.com to find new and exciting bead sites from Russia and her neighbors. Last night I found,Jewelry by Varvara, a pure delight and in English to boot. (Though that has never stopped me from loving
the eye candy coming out of these great sites. Varvara's twist on beaded jewelry brings the best elements of the Russian bead and
needle culture and the beholding to the eye of the history of Mother Russia. You can just imagine her work being worn by
the Royal families that once ruled or the Pasternak or Tolstoy heroines. Their long graceful necks with low heart shape necklines to accentuate her
pieces. She comes to the work of beads and thread by way of her father who is a renowned jewelry designer, Vadim Konstantinov. Varvara has
a degree in Electronics and only picked up beads to stave off the stay-at-home mother's syndrome. Yes it's a commonalty
that I fear we all suffer from, not matter where we live in this world. So it is thanks to her three children that you
may feast your eyes on the extraordinary work of Varvara. I hope you sit back with a cup of tea, enjoy and become inspired as I have.
Last Updated: 27 February 2003
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