Artist Statement

I love creating unique jewelry, combining my flameworked glass beads and sterling/gold-filled wire beads.

I have been designing jewelry for over twenty years. I began by trading work (stringing beads for a San Francisco Street Artist) for old African Trade Beads. Going back a bit further, my Mom always came up with crafty projects to keep us busy. My current influences include two glass blowers, one of them being my sister, Karen and the other is my friend Marti. Another influence comes from NASA’s space picture of the day. Many of my beads resemble ‘space matters’.

The whole process begins in my bead studio, where I create the mystical lamp worked beads. I slowly melt glass rods with a gas torch, forming the bead around a mandrel. Then, I decorate the beads with different colors of glass and gold or silver foil. When I am satisfied with the results, I place the bead in my annealing kiln to relieve internal stresses and strengthen the glass. The next day, I remove my beads from the kiln, remove the mandrels, and clean the bead holes.

More fun begins as I make little piles of accent beads and decide what to create. My jewelry is put together on gold-filled wire, sterling silver wire, or beadalon 49-strand cable.

Finally, at point of sale, my pieces are “Bagged” in little hand-sewn treasure pouches. Thus, BagzNBeadz!