| Barbara Grainger |
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Barbara Grainger is one of the first beadwork artist I "met" online.
She has been helping, teaching and creating beadwork on the Internet and in
books for a long time. Her books Peyote At Last and Peyote Design Techniques are two
books I recommend to every new beader. Her newest book Dimensional Flowers, Leaves and Vines is also a
must-have for anyone wanting to embellish beadwork with her gorgeous little flower, leave and other lovely creations.
Here's what Barbara has to say on the home page of her own Web site. Also, Barbara has provided us a free bead patterns for making her charming Leafy Vine Fringe, which works up into wonderful beaded
fringe and also makes the cutest earrings you could imagine! And now, Barbara:
"I have been beading in one form or another most of my life. My earliest memory is making an indian headband on a small loom when I around
six or seven years old. I was either in the Blue Birds or the Brownies at the
time. Unfortunately, we moved and I never got to finish my
headband."
"In the 1950's I played with pop-beads. In the 1960's my
husband and I made earrings and beaded micro-macramé hat bands and
necklaces, which we sold around the Portland area until our entire
inventory disappeared when the shop owner decided to move without telling us.
We continued to sell on an individual basis for a while."
"A neighbor of mine, a Sioux-Blackfoot woman, taught me to do the first few rows of peyote beadwork. From there I experimented and taught myself to increase and decrease and worked up variations of the technique."
"A few years later I got my first computer and joined the
Prodigy Internet's Beads Board. I was the only one who knew how to do peyote
beadwork and my Cyber friends all wanted to know how so I sent out a lot
of letters with hand drawn directions at that time."
"One day I bought a brick stitch earring booklet from my Cyber friend Aurora Berry (now Matthews). Her simple, yet informative inspired me to write my own book on peyote. I had taken creative writing
courses for years but hadn't done too much with the knowledge. I made
fifty copies of my first book, Peyote At Last! A Peyote Beadwork Primer just for my
Cyber friends. They started taking them to bead stores and I started getting orders. About a year later I got a call from Helby Company, a beadwork book, bead and distributor, suggesting they distribute my book. And the rest, as they say, is history. I am blessed to say that I now have three which have gone international."
"In the early 90's I started teaching beadwork at Lupin Gallery. We had one or two classes a week for around three years. I am proud to say that out of that core group of beaders, five have become instructors themselves and now teach in the area. I am very proud of them. I expanded to teaching in other local shops and eventually to Embellishment and traveling the country teaching beadwork workshops for bead shops, guilds, bead societies and bead related groups. I am having a blast meeting wonderful beadworkers all over the country."
"I specialize in innovative beadwork techniques and absolutely love it when someone 'gets it'. I love the see the light go on in their eyes when they master a technique, or learn a new one."
"I am available to teach workshops for your group, please
see current workshops by clicking the appropriate link above. If you don't see
the one that tickles your fancy, E-mail me and we may be able to construct a custom workshop just for your group."
"As I often say when I sign my books, 'Look what fun we are having with our beads. Enjoy! Barb."
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