Passion...My Art Bead Carnival Blogging Topic

I am passionate.  I love my family, but a close second is my addiction for pretty and fun art beads!  These are some of my favorite artists.  I am continually amazed at the gifts demonstrated by lampwork bead artists, PMC (precious metal clay) artists, mixed media artists, and by anyone who can make something so amazing out of ordinary items. 

The first artist I want to share with you is my very talented husband, Chris. Chris started making glass beads in July 2007.  He took a beginning lampworking class in Grand Island, NE (about an hour from where we live), and right from the start I was amazed at his talent.  Last year, he took classes with Leah Fairbanks and Sara Sally LaGrand, and in just a few weeks, he will be taking a button making class with Heather Trimlett.   Chris works with animals for his "normal" job as a lab tech, and his ability to create animal beads is amazing.  It is also a terrific thing to live with my own  personal lampworker!

Chris has learned how to make floral focals, and improved his stringer control as a result of his class with Leah Fairbanks.  The Sara Sally class taught him to work with reactive glass and how to make different styles of beads.

Tera Belinsky-Yoder, a talented lampwork bead artist from Iowa, owns Beadygirl Beads.  I love Tera's fun and funky style, and the color palette she works in is beautiful.  The first time we came across Tera's beads was at the Omaha Bead Show. Chris and I could have spent all day looking at Tera's beads! Chris and I each have a stash of Tera beads.  These are some examples of her work.  The wheel and the peace/flower are both  MINE!  I wear the disc all the time and have tons of compliments every time I do, but the peace sign hasn't  "spoken" to me yet!  I made Swarovski crystal earrings to match the disc that are "mismatched", each earring has 3 crystals that bring out the colors of the disc.  The long focal bead is not in my Tera stash, but it illustrates her fun style and color palette.  If you would like to purchase beads from Tera, you can find her Etsy store here.

Lori Ramotar, who lives in Florida, is another very talented artist and a favorite of mine.  Lori specializes in mixed media paintings and mixed media jewelry.  I happened to acquire some really beautiful hand-painted ceramic beads from Lori last year.  These bracelets were made with Lori's beads. The Art Noir bracelet on the left is pale pretty pink, with Lori's gorgeous black and white beads, and the bracelet in the center was made for my niece, Caitlyn's, 17th birthday last year. I did the seed bead work on both bracelets.  The piece on the right is for sale in Lori's Etsy store.  I have a few of Lori's hand painted beads secreted away in my stash waiting for them to talk to me, made even more special since she says she won't be making anymore!

Lori tells me that she isn't planning on making anymore of the hand-painted beads, because she is focusing on her mixed media painting and prints found in her Artwork by Lori Etsy store.

Another artist I am inspired by is Maria Grimes of Garden Path Beads.  Maria lives in California, and uses a variety of mediums, including lampwork, PMC fairy houses (some of the houses even have working hinged doors) and fairy doors, and more recently, terrariums with her lampwork pokes!  I am a big fan of mixed media art and jewelry, and I really love the detail Maria puts in her pieces.  Definitely fun and whimsical, my favorites being her octupus tide pool pendant, and the hedgehog poke in her terrarium (and the possum shown in her website page banner).  The fairy door and the terrarium are for sale in Maria's Etsy store .

The last artist I wanted to share with you is Keiara Wells.  Keiara grew up in Florida and moved to England, where she started lampworking and making jewelry.  I love her whimsical pieces and she has really beautiful nature focals.  Here are some of my favorites.  I told her in an email recently, that I would like to own one of her cute Schnibbles bunny focals for each season/holiday!  She also made baby beads that have pacifiers!  Too cute! The detail she adds to her pieces is wonderful and she makes some really fun cat focals (pirates, hula girls, zombies).  All of the beads shown here are for sale in Keiara's Etsy store.

A special Thank You to Tera, Lori, Maria, Keiara, and Chris for allowing me to use the images of their work.  You guys rock!

So what are you passionate about?  I love beads, especially beautiful, whimsical, and fun beads!