Bead Retreats
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Online Classes
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Meet the Teachers
You'll have a chance to meet the teachers Thursday night at the beverage and dessert reception, but read a little about them here first!
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Sherry Serafini
Unusual objects and shapes become part of a new story as Sherry stitches beads and gemstones, one at a time, to a felt like base. Most pieces are born spontaneously as the beads and Sherry’s imagination dictate the design. She seldom works from sketches. Sherry finds this meditative form of art to be a rich counterpoint to a society full of instant gratification. Some pieces take a year to complete. Each is unique.
Sherry was raised in a military family, moving every few years. She credits that nomadic lifestyle with giving her an adventurous and uninhibited approach to her work.
Sherry was voted one of the top 10 instructors in the United States by Bead & Button magazine. She lectures and teaches throughout the U.S. and has won numerous awards for excellence in design, including Saul Bell Outstanding Jewelry Design Award, Bead International 2006, People’s Choice Bead Dreams, Runner Up Best in Show Bead Dreams, Kennedy Best of Nationally. She has been published and has written articles for several well-known magazines. Her work has been featured on the covers of trade magazines and catalogs and is the co-author of the Art of Bead Embroidery with artist and dear friend Heidi Kummli and Sensational Bead Embroidery by Sherry Serafini
Sherry’s beaded art is known internationally and is owned and worn by Grammy winner Melissa Etheridge, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz, and singer Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas. Her beadwork has been seen at fashion week in Milan by the artists who commission her.
Cliff Swain-Salomon
Cliff Swain-Salomon is an off-the-loom seed bead weaver known for creating non-traditional jewelry shapes and pushing the boundaries of color exploration. After injuring and losing use of both of his hands for over three years, he began beading when a friend recommended he try it as part of his hand rehabilitation therapy. Once he started, he was hooked.
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In all of his pieces, Cliff integrates over 30 years of study in multiple fields, including graphic design, painting, sacred geometry, and chromotherapy, as well as apprenticeships with several medicine men and women.
He has exhibited his work internationally, including at the Toho Bead Galleries in Osaka and Tokyo Japan. Several publications have featured his jewelry, including Beadwork Magazine, Facet Jewelry, and Bead & Button, to name a few. Cliff’s beadwork has earned him several awards—he was the grand prize winner of Bead Dreams in 2018, where he was chosen for the People’s Choice Award, and he also received the Facet Jewelry Reader’s Choice Award in July 2019 and Judge’s Award in November 2019. His work has also been featured in ad campaigns for The Museum of Beadwork in Portland, Maine, and Toho Beads in partnership with Bobby Beads & Starman. Toho Beads has also invited him to be a featured artist for their 2019, 2020, and 2021 Toho Bead Challenges. He is also a permanent ambassador for the Bead Worker’s Guild and International Beading Week, as well as the international tutor for Melbourne, Australia for 2021.
Cliff teaches beadweaving at various stores, for bead societies, and for retreats internationally. Before becoming a full-time artist/teacher, Cliff had worked as an instructor for a college of natural medicine, as a chef, and had held a private holistic medicine practice. He is married with a 4 year-old daughter and lives in California, near San Francisco.
Shona is a London based bead designer who loves to create a big impact with tiny beads and makes elegant, wearable jewelery with a focus on beautiful finishing. Primarily self-taught, Shona began beading as a teenager and her love of beads has continued ever since.
Shona has taught at the Bead & Button show in Milwaukee since 2016 and regularly teaches across the UK, Europe and USA. You can see more of Shona’s work on her website at www.shonabevan.com
Shona Bevan
Catherine Haedrich
Guest Instructor for Optional Classes
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Catherine Haedrich was introduced to the fun world of beading by a knitter-cross-pollinator friend who offered a lesson on flat and circular peyote in her home. She initially tried to pass on taking up another new hobby, claiming, “I have yarn beyond life expectancy”. She credits her early experiences with more advanced beaders for giving her insight into what was possible for the future. Her motto for why she beads is, “Woman cannot live on spreadsheets alone”. She is haunted by the fact she worked in Czech Republic three years but was not yet a Beader, a fact she has tried to make up for over the years with many visits to Jablonec Nad Nisou. While her husband is supportive of her hobby he recently returned from a business trip and asked, “Did you miss me?” When she hesitated (he had only been gone two days), he mumbled in defeat, “If only I were a bead”. Indeed, if only we all were beads!