WHAT’S NEW • Classes / Events

• Where to Next?
Paradise City Arts in Marlborough

Thrilled to be heading back to a Paradise City Arts show! This time the spring show in Marlborough Massachusetts. I’ve done their larger Fall show in Northhampton twice before. The staff takes great care of exhibitors and the attendees were many and wonderfully discerning. Looking forward to meeting folks at this show, fellow exhibitors and attendees alike. It’s only 35 minutes west of Boston!

I’ll have lots of new work and a newly configured booth to show it all off. If you’re anywhere in the neighborhood, put March 21-23 in your calendar.

The show website with all the details is HERE.

My artist page with a few pretty pix is HERE.

Check it out and I’ll hope to see you there.



• EXCITING NEWS!
You Tube Interview with Valerie Hector

Exciting news! I’ve recently had the great privilege to be interviewed by Valerie Hector as part of her new series, Beading Globally, that appears on her You Tube Channel. Called “Bead Knitting Now,” it is a recorded visual interview with Valerie about my work, interspersed with a slide show of images. The interview has gone live HERE (There may be a skippable ad prior to the interview’s start.)

As time permits, I hope you will check out at least some of it. (Fair warning: it’s two hours long!) This is kind of a big deal for me. ;-) No actually, it IS a big deal for me.

PS If you are not familiar with Valerie’s own work, please do check her out HERE. She is a big deal in the bead and art jewelry world. She is a consummate bead artist (using off-loom bead weaving) and deeply knowledgeable beadwork historian and educator. And she was an early supporter and encourager to me. I owe her a lot and was thrilled to be asked to do this interview, only the second in her series, after the incredible bead artist Laura McCabe.

Thanks in advance for your time.



• More Retail!
Studio B at Artisans on the Avenue

I’m thrilled to announce that my Limited Edition Pipeline necklaces and Slider Bracelets are now available at Artisans On The Avenue in the beautiful northwest Philadelphia neighborhood of Chestnut Hill. I am a long time customer of this high end shop and honored to have my work on offer there. If you’re in the area I hope you will stop in for a look-see. Whatever you leave with will make your life that much more beautiful. Promise!



• Where to Next?
Paradise! Here I Come

I’m excited to be returning to Northhampton Massachusetts on Columbus Day weekend, October 7-9, for the Paradise City Arts Festival. I exhibited there two years ago, at the tail end of the pandemic, when folks were just starting to feel comfortable attending large events with lots of people. It was a very successful show for me and I was so pleased at how well the show organizers took care of everyone, exhibitors and attendees alike. Not easy during those times. Mad respect.

If you are able to travel to the area (and it’s beautiful, especially this time of year) I hope you’ll stop by to see me and lots of new work.

Click HERE for detailed show information

And HERE for a discount coupon for your ticket.



• Help Us Help Ukraine
Multi Artist Studio Sale – May 21, 11-4

Very happy to be joining great friend Leslie Pontz for a studio sale to benefit Ukraine. One week from today. Saturday May 21 from 11-4. Sale will take place at Leslie’s beautiful home (worth the trip on its own!) at 1027 W. Allens Lane. Philadelphia.
I will be offering bead knitted fiber jewelry at a wide range of price points alongside Leslie’s incredible fiber sculpture. Need more info? Call 215.248.0658.
Get some new jewelry for spring and/or add to your art collection AND help us send some financial support to the brave, resilient people of Ukraine. That’s what we call a win-win. Hope to see you there.

 



• Back to Virtual Reality
CraftBoston “Pins + Needles” Next Show Up!

Next up!! Always happy to have my work appear in a show sponsored by The Society of Arts and Crafts (SAC). This time it’s the virtual show “Pins & Needles,” up on their site from March 4 – April 17.

I work on anywhere from two to five knitting needles at a time, but given the tiny scale of some of my stitches, some might think that I’m working on pins! And in truth, early knitting needles were actually called knitting pins. So I guess I fit right in!

For this show I am offering a wide selection of my Slider bracelets. They are the fiber equivalent of a bangle bracelet. They have some stretch so fit a wide range of wrist sizes. And best of all, NO clasp. Just roll them on. So, as I call them, partner free! 😉

Head over to the Society of Crafts website HERE to see this wonderful show!



• Dreams Come True…
MAD About Jewelry 2021 in NYC

Yes, I guess dreams do come true! This is where you’ll find me and my work from 12/6 – 12/11.

Could not be more honored to have been invited to be part of this show at the Museum of Arts and Design on Columbus Circle in New York City. Details HERE

If you are in or around the city, I hope you’ll stop by. And oh yes… It’s FREE!!!



• Look What’s Next…
Paradise City Arts Festival

Thrilled to share my debut participation in this beautiful show. And can you think of a nicer place to be in early fall (my favorite season!) than Northhampton, Massachusetts? I can only imagine how beautiful the foliage will be. Need an excuse for a Columbus Day Weekend road trip? I think you have it! I can’t wait.

The Three County Fairgrounds exhibition space, covered but open air, is the perfect choice for a live show given health concerns in our current climate. It’s my first in person show since the onset of the pandemic and I wouldn’t have signed on without the sincere assurances from the show’s organizers that the health and safety of both attendees and exhibitors is their top priority. I believe them. You can too.

Click on the image above to be taken to the show website for further information. Hope to see you there!



• Now available as a paperback book, downloadable PDF or “Stitchip” (a USB flash drive)!
Betsy Beads: Confessions of a Left-brained Knitter

 

 

 

 

This is my book. Plain and simple, I am as proud of this effort as anything I have ever done professionally and forever grateful to the team at XRX Books who encouraged me to write it and provided all the support any author could ask for in bringing it to reality and putting it out into the world. Along with technical bead knitting instruction and over 30 pattern designs, it tells the story of my creative awakening in a series of seven essays scattered through the book as well as a publisher’s colophon.

How I got from where I was to where I am today encompasses quite the journey. I share an abbreviated version of that journey in the short form video I created for the Society of Arts & Crafts “CraftBoston: Fiber Stories” online show that runs from July 16 thru August 29. You can view the video on You Tube HERE. Visit the online show HERE. See my work in the show HERE.

If you are sufficiently intrigued to learn more, the book is available for purchase HERE in its original paperback edition, or as a downloadable PDF or on a USB flash drive called a Stitchip that you can connect to a computer or laptop. All from the original publisher, XRX Books. Still undecided? You can preview the book by clicking HERE or on the link named “Betsy Beads” that you should see in the Navigation Menu to the left of this post. I hope you’ll check everything out as time permits. Proud knitter here!



• Studio B Knits in the News!
Philadelphia Weekly Highlights Fiber Stories


  

What a nice surprise! The PR folks from The Society of Arts and Crafts alerted me to a listing in The Philadelphia Weekly, sharing news of my participation in the upcoming CraftBoston Fiber Stories Show. Not gonna lie… Always nice to see my work and name in print. Show opens on Juy 16. In THREE DAYS!! Counting down… 3 – 2 – 1… 🎆