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Needlecrafts first caught my attention when I was a child growing up in
small town in Holland. Encouraged by my mom, grandma and the local
needlecraft store owner, I picked up crochet, knitting, tatting, macramé,
bobbin lace, needle lace and embroidery with ease.
In high
school, I discovered the theater and loved every aspect of it. I
strengthened my existing skills and learned new ones: acting, directing,
puppetry, costume design, stage design, backdrop painting, singing and
writing.
In
1995 I moved from Holland to San Francisco, and I opened a small arts and
crafts workshop and gallery on Nob Hill. Inspired by a chance encounter
with 19th century Russian beadwork, I discovered the beauty and challenges
of designing with beads.
I
use different sizes of beads as a building material – like little bricks –
and a variety of traditional stitches as a flexible, tensile sort of
mortar. Placing beads one by one, row by row on top of each other, I
combine my needlework, theater and jewelry skills to create sculpted bugs,
butterflies, birds, and sea creatures in their environments. The result is
a unique kind of wearable art that offers the intricacy of embroidery and
lace, the depth of a theater set and the durability and brilliance of
glass.
I
have been doing beadwork full time for the last seven years, and all of my
pieces are unique. |
