online since 4/17/97
Aunt Molly's
online since 4/17/97
What's New?
April 30, 2007 -- Check out my summer class schedule! I hope you'll join me at the Harwood Art Center, Albuquerque, for two different classes on Thursday evenings in June and July! We'll explore my favorite technique -- bead embroidery! And if you're in the New Mexico Bead Society, thank you for inviting me and other local gals to teach at your Wild About Beads Workshop July 21! We'll explore the Tidepool Necklace, an embellished stringing project.
Woohoo! Just saw my Hamsa/Hand of Fatima Earrings in the June/July issue of Beadwork. The article referred to the magazine's format for brick stitch, which is the standard loop-around-the-thread version, but you can also use the stitch-through-the-bead method. In the next issue, the folks at Beadwork will publish an updated version of my peyote stitch tassel earrings. Look for a new way to make a wire hanging loop (instead of using thread).
Meanwhile, back at the gallery, I freshened up my portfolio with a few new samples of Beaded Artist Trading Cards (scroll down), which I made up to take to Bead Expo with me.
Now that Bead Expo Oakland has come and gone (whoo that was fun!), I'm back on eBay again with weekly auctions of vintage beads, nailheads, sew-ons, cabochons, and other odds and ends from the final frontier -- my bead stash! To get a heads up on whats up, along with the occasional list member special, you can join my mailing list -- MaryTafoyaBeadwork at Yahoo Groups.
And speaking of eBay -- I revamped my About Me page a bit to reorganize all the guides there. If you haven't checked them out in awhile, there are projects, guides on bead collecting, book reviews and more.
September 12, 2006 -- Freshened up the Classroom and Neighborhood pages with links to new quickie tutorials. eBay is having a writing contest, so I'm also posting new beadwork book reviews regularly, along with the usual blog posts.
Great news! Looks like I'll be teaching 3 classes at Bead Expo in Oakland, April 2007. They accepted my beaded artist trading cards proposal, which will be a full day of mixed media play, along with a Faux Enamels shrink art class (look for that project in the next issue of Belle Armoire by the way), and my color theory lecture for bead and fiber artists, called "Reinventing the Color Wheel." At least I'll have a few months to figure out how to lug all that stuff out to California! Toaster ovens! I'll post more about these classes later, and they'll also eventually be shown on the Bead Expo site of course.
July 25, 2006 -- Well I finally got bit by the blog bug. I started one over at eBay and so far I've been having fun posting once or twice a week about new work, samples of what you can make with your new stuff (my old stuff ;-) and also links to some of my favorite artisans on the web. It's called Aunt Molly's Seriousbeadin' and today's link is to a wonderful resource for free paper folding crafts and gift projects.
May 7, 2006 -- Check out my new eBay Guides and Reviews on beadwork, altered art, collage, and polymer clay. Still a nice selection of auctions every week, and if you want to get a heads up on list member specials, check out my announcements at MaryTafoyaBeadwork.
Bead International 2006 opens May 26 and closes September 3, 2006. After that, this high caliber biannual show will tour from November 2006 to December 2008. If you know of a gallery or museum in your area that might be interested in hosting the exhibit, go to the Dairy Barn for contact information. You can see a preview of my entry here: Unity Mandala.
March 18, 2006 -- What a great year so far! I've been posting lots of eBay auctions every week, usually on Saturdays and Sundays. Lots of unique, quality goodies for the bead and craft fanatic, such as orphan lampwork beads; vintage nailheads, sequins and sew-ons; bamboo tile beads, gently used fiber arts books, etc.
Today I updated a few links, including the Beaded Cabochon links page. Here you'll find many tutorials for beading around stone and glass cabochons. The latest links are from Ruby! She writes great, photo-illustrated tutorials. I also freshened up the Auntie's Neighborhood page, adding a direct link to some forum avatars I created for the new About.com Beadwork and Jewelry forum formats. They're sized exactly right for your profiles; hopefully you'll find an image that's just right for your personality!
Check out my designs in the latest issue of Stringing (Spring 2006) from Interweave Press. I see that Stringing now has its own website too. Cool! If you've seen the mag already, I have a limited edition kit available for the Sunset Journey design -- it features a carved feather mother of pearl pendant, faceted carnelian, and other cool gemstones. I'll have a sale page up soon, but in the meantime, contact me if you're interested.
January 15, 2006 -- Woohoo! I had a great sabbatical from eBay and teaching and writing (not to mention going to school), and now I'm excited to get back into the swing of things. To start, I updated my Polymer Clay Art Doll Faces page now that I'm doing auctions again. As before, let me know what you're looking for, I'll add it to my database and let you know when I come up with something. Sort of a modified custom order thing. I've had requests for face beads, pendants, and specific color schemes. Talk to me! :-) Meanwhile, visit My Auctions to see what's up.
Classes: I taught at China Phoenix 2 in December, and Nancy invited me back again this month! It's a great little stamping, etc. shop, now in Albuquerque's North Valley. On Saturday, January 28, I'll be teaching a Valentine-themed shrink plastic class from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Cost is $20.00. Call Nancy at 505-884-8217 to register. I don't have scans of everything, but here are a few examples of what you'll get to make: Old Fashioned Heart Pins, Tiny Heart Charms, Embossed Love Letters Hearts, and sorry but no pictures yet of the Layered Angel Heart Pendant.
I didn't entirely abandon beadwork in 2005. I did a project for Deborah Cannarella's book, Beading for the Soul, published last fall by Interweave Press. The Unity Mandala is in my portfolio gallery. I found out last month this piece was accepted into Bead International 2006 at the Dairy Barn! Also, I designed several pieces for the forthcoming spring issue of Stringing, using materials from several of Albuquerque's wonderful bead stores! I'll have a couple of necklaces and several earrings and bracelets in this really cool magazine. It will hit the stands in February 2006. And Lark Books is coming out with a book on beaded beads later in the year. I'll have two projects in that book, but I don't see it being publicized yet. However, there's a call for gallery images at their website -- due date is February 1.
Have you heard about the Bead Artist Trading Cards? Beki Haley, through her Delphi forum All About Beads, has sponsored a couple of swaps so far, the first one in December 2004 and the second in September 2005. Here's a link to my BATCs from the first swap, using Rumi's poetry as the theme. For the second swap I did an edition of this Bead Artist card. What fun!
Finally, if you want to take advantage of pre-auction specials and get early announcements about what's up, you can join my Yahoo announcement list:
Click to subscribe to MaryTafoyaBeadwork!
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This page was first posted on 6/7/97, ©2006 Mary J. Tafoya