World of Bead VIII

Plans are in place for a bead-filled weekend celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Bead Society of Greater New York. World of Beads VIII: A 20 Year Retrospective Celebrating the Art of Beadwork will be held in the Great Hall of the Fasion Institute of Technology in New York City June 19-21. The celebration will include:

• an exhibit of beadwork pieces from past World of Beads


• a new juried exhibit


• beadwork demonstrations


• exhibit of work by FIT students


• free hands-on-jewelry projects


• childrens' table


• vendors

For more information visit http://nybead.org/web.html

Permanent Finish Galvanized Seed Beads

My favorite mother-in-law ( she's my only MIL but that's beside the point) asked me for a silver snake bracelet. I decided to try the new Toho permanent finish galvanized seed beads from Beyond Beadery (http://www.beyondbeadery.com) in hopes that the silver-colored beads might last longer. I was trying new thread and new bead crochet techniques, so it took me four tries to get the bracelet to the right length. The silver beads showed no discoloration or wear from all of the handling, so I am hopeful that they will hold up.

Larry Vrba lecture

Wednesday night (3/25) was the monthly meeting of the Bead Society of Greater New York and our speaker was the very talented Lawrence (Larry) Vrba. For those of you who are not familiar with his work, Larry has been making jewelry for over 40 years and was the head designer at Miriam Haskell Jewelry in the 1970s. Larry also makes jewelry for the Broadway stage (which is where I met him years ago), Metropolitan Opera productions, and boutiques. He has a wonderfully huge collection of vintage beads and rhinestones from which he fashion his beautiful--and usually large- creations like the one shown above. Larry turned out to be a very entertaining speaker and we had a great time.

ATAC Portfolio Party

Monday night (3/23) was the annual portfolio party for the Association of Theatrical Artists and Craftspeople, or ATAC for short (http://www.atacbiz.com/). The members of this organization are the designers and craftspeople who make some of the props and costumes that you see in films, theater, opera, dance, tv, and even professional wrestling. Whether it be boots worn on the Broadway stage, lights for The Lion King, leather masks for beloved/hated wrestling figures, fiber fish in Spamalot, or sweaters for M:I:III, one of our members has been involved. We are also the authors of The Entertainment Sourcebook, an industry staple.

Once a year, we organize our portfolios and gather to show theater professionals, fellow craftspeople, and prospective members what we have been working on during the past 12 months. Shown above left are some of the theater folks who attended the party.

The above right photo shows some of the work of Margaret Cusack ( http://margaretcusack.com/), one of our newest members. Among her other fiber accomplishments, Margaret makes the stuffed fish for Spamalot.

Whole Bead Show

The Whole Bead Show http://www.wholebead.com/ was in Manhattan over the weekend. I slogged through the big, fluffy flakes of snow on Friday (first day of spring, huh?) to meet my friend Judith Schwab at the show. Judith is the owner of Bodacious Beads in Des Plaines, Illinois and has a great eye for unusual items, so it was fun to go through the show with her.

Despite all of the temptations, I only bought two things. One is undyed, slabbed, green turquoise above, left photo) and the other is pumpkin or squash-shaped, dyed turquoise (above right photo), both from Commercial Resources Corp. http://www.ecoralturq.com/.

After the show, Judith and I had lunch at Crema (http://www.cremarestaurant.com/) on West 17th Street. Crema is an upscale, Mexican restaurant and we were not disappointed in our choice, especially because the space was an inviting respite from the cold day. Judith had the house salad and I enjoyed the roast pork in corn tortillas with black beads, avocado, and salsa. Sadly, neither of us had room for one of the delicious-sounding desserts.

Since we were in the area, Judith and I toured two exhibits at the Museum at FIT (http://www.fitnyc.edu/museum). "Seduction" showed the act of temptation and enticement through clothing and "Muriel King: Artist of Fashion" focues on the career of Muriel King, American female fashion designer from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Bead Presentation for the Bead Society of Great Britain

We are going to England this summer!

I will be giving a lecture on Turkish Prisoner-of-War and Balkan Beadwork as part of the Bead Society of Great Britain's June meeting. There will be many other interesting presentations including:

• Stefany Tomalin on "Realistic Replica. Ingenious Imitations and Fantastic Fakes. Collecting Brazen copies in the World of Beads.



• Margaret Carey on African Beadwork--Two Puzzles



• Carole Morris on Early 17th Century English Beadwork Purses from the Reign of Charles I



• Sarah Withers on The Arkell Bead Collection at the Pitts Rivers Museum in Oxford



• Margret Carey on the History and Manufacture of 'Garden Roller' Beads at Zimbabwe



• Plus the World on a String film

The presentation will take place on Saturday, June 27, 2009 in at the Birmingham Midlands Institute in Birmingham, England. For more information, visit the website for the Bead Society of Great Britain at http://www.beadsociety.org.uk/

Intro

Hello. Exciting things are happening right now and it was time to expand past the confines of my website. For those who don't know me, my name is Adele Roger Recklies, sometimes known in the bead world as the Snake Lady because of my book Bead Crochet Snakes: History and Technique. For more about the book, visit http://www.beadcrochetsnakes.com.

By day (and many long nights), I knit, crochet, or embroider costumes for film, theater, opera, and dance. Some of my work has been seen in films such as Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Big Fish, Charlies Angels: Full Throttle, MI:3, and Memoirs of a Geisha. My knitting has also been part of CATS on Broadway as well as productions at the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Ballet.

The name for my Etsy shop and blog came about because almost no one can correctly pronounce my married name of Recklies. My beady friends started teasing me about reckless beading because of some of my unusual projects (like my 15' 6" bead crochet snake) and I thought " you know, that's kind of catchy." Thus was born Reckless Beading.

When I am not knitting for a client, I play with beads, fiber, kniting, crochet--whatever piques my interest. Right now I am studying Turkish oya, both needle and crochet.