The seventh annual Exhibition of the San Diego Bead Society opens in Gallery 21 in Spanish Village, Balboa Park, with a gala public reception on Friday, Aug. 4, 6 to 8 p.m. Twenty-four exhibitors from the 135 members are participating, showing off jewelry and artifacts incorporating beads of all styles, sizes and textures. This event is heralded as a premiere exhibition for local beaders in San Diego County.
Beads have long been used as a show of wealth and status and a symbol of adornment. They are worn by both men and women in every country of the world and are still used as trade in some countries. Italy and the Czech Republic continue to dominate the world in high-quality glass bead production with bead-making secrets passed from one generation to another.
The lamp work process used oil lamps to heat glass rods and then manipulate them into beads; now artisans mostly use a torch with propane and oxygen, winding molten glass off a thin glass rod onto a mandrel and working it in the flame. The mandrel continuously turns, which keeps the molten glass from falling off. “Different color rods can be combined and are often covered with clear glass to give a magnifying effect,” said master bead maker Arlene Watson. Watson uses the lamp work process: “It is only limited by the expertise of the bead maker,” Watson continued. “There are lamp work beads that stand alone as art pieces and will be exhibited in the show.”
Arlene’s husband Burt is a leather beader, adorning leather bags with beads. He became hooked on leather beading when he made a small leather pouch and decorated it with beads that he entered in a fair in Anchorage, Alaska – winning a prize. And as they say, the rest is history. Burt’s leather pieces incorporate beads and lacings that he trims himself. From smooth, tanned leathers to computer-printed designs on real cowhide, there is a choice for everyone – including quite fine, masculine-oriented landscape leather and suede cushions.
The dichroic glass furnace beads are the specialty of Grace Miller. Layers of metallic oxides are placed on the surface of glass in a high-temperature vacuum furnace; air inside is heated and the metallic oxides are vaporized as the rotating glass is evenly coated with as many as 96 thin layers. The transmitted color is different than the reflected color and a third color is produced by viewing the dichroic glass at a 45-degree angle. Firing temperatures range from 1,000 to 1,800 degrees. The hotter the glass, the more inclined it is to puddle; maintaining a square edge requires lower temperatures.
Marcia DeCoster is president of The Bead Society of San Diego and works with delicate seed beads that come from Japan. She combines myriad intricate stitches in bead weaving. “There are a variety of shapes now in the tiny seed beads that open up all avenues of creativity,” explained this nationally recognized seed beading teacher. Her exquisite, delicate jewelry is inspired by Venetian architecture and often incorporates the Edebele stitch (named after a South African tribe). DeCoster is referenced on the Web site of the famous Victoria and Albert Museum in London, identifying her as an expert in seed beading.
A question often asked of beaders is “how does the hole get in a series of beads?” It begins by blowing a vessel that has a void, or hollow space in it. As the glass is blown out, the void extends with it, and as it is extended, the hole becomes an elongated void. Glass can be stretched out up to 25 feet, which is then cut with a mechanized saw into the sizes required. DeCoster mentioned that it is a closely guarded secret of how the hole gets in the middle of the tiny seed beads.
Jonna Faulkner departs from the traditional bead work, using a process of art clay silver in which microns of silver, an organic binder and water are mixed together and then manipulated into the design, which can be enhanced with decorative stones or beads. It is dried, then fired in a kiln at 1,200 degrees, allowing the binder to burn off, with the resulting piece being 100 percent pure silver. The jewelry comes out frosty white from the kiln due to the molecules being compressed, and it is then buffed to a soft patina. Faulkner is a respected teacher of this delicate art clay silver process.
The Bead Society of San Diego Exhibition, Spanish Village, Balboa Park, Gallery 21, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily through Aug. 13.