Bead Retreats
Online Classes
Meet the Teachers
You'll have a chance to meet the teachers Thursday night at the dessert and wine reception, but read a little about them here first!
Through out my life, I have always needed a creative outlet. I have played with many different types of media’s and loved them all. The media that really captured my heart and inspired my creative soul is seedbeads! There is just something alluring and special about those little bits of colored glass that I cannot resist. I love the challenge of designing with seedbeads using off-loom techniques. So many colors, textures and shapes! So many ways to express yourself with beads.
I've been teaching my designs nationally for the past thirteen years. It is my hope that students will be inspired by what they have learned in class and continue to do beadwork and enjoy it as much as I do.
My designs have been published in the Bead and Button magazine and in Larks Showcase 500 Jewelry Book.
Kimberly Stathis
My name is Katalin Budainé Nagy, alias BéKata.
I live in Budapest, Hungary. I have always loved all kinds of creativity, in my younger years I was sewing, drawing and painting for years. I graduated as an interior designer in my early thirties, where I studied art history, chromatics, drawing, and furniture history amongst other subjects. I enjoyed those years very much, these studies developed my creativity and design skills. I turned to jewelry making 15 years ago, at first I worked with wire, but that was not for me. Then I started beadweaving, but it was not satisfying enough either, I felt I could not fly high enough. So I decided to try bead embroidery… When I saw the American and Russian ladies’ artworks, I felt I had arrived in my own creative world… I am continuously learning new techniques, and looking for new materials, and tools, I love mixed media, and my new love is polymer clay. It is huge fun to combine these two techniques, the result is always a completely unique piece of art. I have been teaching bead embroidery in Hungary for 4 years, in the biggest beadshop of Budapest.
My personal Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/budaikata
My jewelry Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bekatajewels/
My Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/budaikata?ref=si_shop
My blog: http://bekataekszer.blogspot.com/
Katalin Budaine' Nagy
Alexandra was born and raised in Ukraine. When Alexandra was about six years old, she saw a magnificent beaded herdan made by her great-grandmother Anastasia. Instantly falling in love with this beaded treasure, she learned how to make this kind of jewelry herself.
A little over fifteen years ago Alexandra went through a series of unexpected events that led her to start combining beads, leather, and semiprecious gemstones. This revelation was nothing short of a miracle for her. A year later she decided to enter a beading contest and, to her utmost surprise, the first piece she ever submitted won! She has since accumulated over the years both national and international victories and publications in US, Ukrainian, British, and German magazines. She had her pieces modeled on a runway. A few of her necklace creations spent a year on exhibit at the TOHO Museum in Japan, and two others were featured in Creative Beading, Volumes 9 &10. Alexandra says: “The most frequent question I get is what was my inspiration for a particular piece? At first, I thought the answer was simple, as most of my pieces were inspired by nature. But with time I understood that my sources of inspiration range from music to architecture, from the colors in famous paintings to emotions. Very often it is also the case that I am simply and deeply inspired by the unique designs of the cabochons I work with. So, when I am now asked about my inspiration, I say that it’s the manifestation of life in all of its various forms. In my work, I always strive to select the highest quality materials. Some of the combinations may seem odd and unexpected, but I take care to merge the shapes, colors, and textures that will best express my ideas. I work with seed beads, fine semi-precious stones, gorgeous Swarovski crystals, leather, silks, soutache, gold and silver wires, hand-painted cabs, and so on. I am always open-minded to using new items and to introducing elements from other crafts which I have experience with.”
Alexandra teaches beading classes at US bead shops, at bead shows, on Zoom and sometimes internationally.
Alexandra Sydorenko
Melissa G Shippee is a published beadwork designer who teaches workshops internationally, contributes regularly to books and magazines, and illustrates diagrams for other instructors. She studied physics and art in college but turned her attention to beads when motherhood changed the direction of her life.
Her publications and contributions include two full-length instructional beading books called Beautiful Beadwork from Nature and I Can Herringbone, as well as projects in Beadwork Magazine, Bead & Button Magazine, Bead Star Magazine, Perlen Poesie, and Beading All Stars.
Melissa has been a Beadwork Magazine Designer of the Year and a Starman Trendsetter and also won awards for her bead artistry. To view more of Melissa's designs, visit www.mgsdesigns.net.
