| Dona Anderson | |
Welcome to the Spotlight Artist Feature on the Beadwork Site!
This week, it is my pleasure to bring you Dona Anderson! Dona is a wonderful person, excellent designer and a very sought after teacher, but I'm sure many of you already know that! So now, I'll let Dona take it from here!
I'm Dona Anderson of Beading Heart Designs. The author of design guides Let's Face It and Beading Heart Designs Amulet Purses. But my favorite project is the 2001 Bead Odyssey Calendar, which I co-authored with Linda Parker and Marcia De Coster. I am very proud of this calendar because it show cases so much talent in the bead art world, and a portion of the proceeds go to help find a cure for Breast Cancer. We plan on doing another calendar that will feature a student of each of the artists featured in the first calendar.
I'm spending my first winter in Southeastern Wisconsin after many years in Las Vegas, Nevada. My fiancé Richard and I live in a 100 year old farm house in the middle of a corn field 2 miles from the nearest town. Quite a culture shock, but I love it. My current passion is mini beaded kaleidoscopes. To see a few go to the Kaleidoscopes Page, on the BeadingHeart Site. They are so much fun to make and even more fun to teach. Everyone's is beautiful and completely unique to themselves."
I love teaching. I love it when I get a group of beaders together and we do a project and we all start with the same basic supplies and each artist makes something completely unusual and different, totally their own. To me teaching is the best. I learn so much from my students. I believe everyone is creative and I try to help the student find their own creative spark and learn to trust their vision. Not make something exactly like my sample. I'll have a student come up to me in class and ask "Do *you* like it ?" My first response is always "Do you like it ?" If they do then I do too. If they don't, then I make a few suggestions that might help them achieve their goal.
I would love to take a class with Dona! Be sure to check out all of her wonderful goodies, including my review of her second book Let's Face It . And don't miss her wonderful Beading Heart Website, either!! Also, Dona has been good enough to provide us with an adorable Floating Hearts pattern, just in time for Valentine's Day! I hope you like it, I can't wait to get mine started!
And I'd like to end this feature with a look at the gorgeous new project Dona has designed. I think it's just beautiful, and I think you will agree.
Please join me in thanking Dona for being our Spotlight Artist this week. It's been fun!
