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!!!
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!
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!
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… 🎆
Only nine more days until the opening of CraftBoston Fiber Stories, the newest virtual show to be offered by The Society of Arts and Crafts. I’m honored to have 10 pieces selected for this show and always happy to support and have my work recognized by this terrific organization, the oldest continuing non-profit champion of fine American craft. Lots of stories will be shared by the 40 some artists in this show, myself included. New for me was the creation of a short form video – really more of a slideshow – telling a bit of how I came to this work and what it means to me. It will appear on my Artist Page when the show opens on July 16. I look forward to reading the stories of others in the show and will welcome feedback on or questions about mine. I will share links as they become available, both here and on my Instagram page bio.
Here’s the bottom line. I don’t have a “Shop” component here on the website. Never have. But you can follow the links below or in the Navigation Menu to the left to see what’s available in the Galleries. I’ve listed both the regular retail and 20% discounted prices (which are in effect thru 12/31/20.) Contact me HERE with any questions or to arrange a purchase. FREE PRIORITY SHIPPING ON ALL SALES.
Thursday is the big day. The grand opening of CraftBoston Holiday online. I’m so pleased to be among the 75 artists from all over the country to be represented in this first ever online show mounted by The Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston, MA. Along with the sale of beautiful fine craft, they have lined up online opportunities for virtual attendees to learn from and connect with the artists. And they are FREE! Click HERE to see the line-up for the first week of scheduled events, including my studio tour and demo on Friday Nov 13 at 10 am. I’ll be showing you how I construct basic bead knitted beads. I’ll have pieces for sale in my CraftBoston Retail Space (see three of them above) as well as posting the prices for available pieces here in the website galleries. This will be a first for me. And BONUS! I will discount all website prices an additional 20% for the seven week duration of the show. When you see something you like, CONTACT ME to arrange the sale or simply to ask further questions. Let’s do this!!
Wonderful news! Leave it to the Boston based Society of Arts and Crafts to find a way not only to offer a safe, virtual version of their highly regarded juried Holiday Craft Show, but EXPAND the show in a way that will provide exhibitors a longer time to show and sell their work and lots of different ways for virtual attendees to connect with and learn from artists in real time. I’m thrilled to be one of those artists this year.
If this is your first visit to my site, I hope you’ll take a moment to look around, especially in the jewelry galleries, using these direct links in RED or the Navigation Bar on the left. Check out One of a Kind Necklaces and Bracelets and Limited Edition Bead Ball Necklaces. If you are a return visitor, look again. I’m posting some new work as of 9/23.
Watch this space for updates as more details are coming. Thank you SAC!
So many situations these days offer us reasons to be happy or sad, hopeful or fearful, grateful or resentful. You might even experience all of these feelings in a single day.
Today was to be the opening of Craft Boston Spring 2020. I was so looking forward to a wonderful weekend back in the Cyclorama with my sister/best helper Dulcie Flaharty by my side, connecting with friends old and new and being inspired by the creativity of artists from all over the country.
So today I am both happy for my memories of years past and sad not to be there now. But also grateful and hopeful. Grateful to my friends at The Society of Arts and Crafts for choosing the image of one of my necklaces for the show’s promotional postcard. (You can see a full image of the necklace, Meander II, if you scroll down on my One of a Kind Necklace Gallery page HERE.) The postcard never made it to the printers because, well, you know. But we live in a digital age. So there’s that. And I choose to be grateful.
And last but certainly not least… There are heroes out there in the world. Every day kind of heroes. Never more than today. More to be grateful for. And we will make it through this together. So I choose hope. Always hope. Please stay safe.
These are challenging days. My heart breaks for such loss of life and financial hardship for so many and I send out heartfelt sympathies to those who are struggling. By comparison, as the gallery opening and two juried shows I was looking forward to have been either canceled or postponed, losing the opportunity to share my work in person feels like just a temporary inconvenience. It is absolutely the responsible thing to do. I am, however, an eternal optimist. So I choose to believe that, mindful of the extraordinary personal loss for so many, the world will eventually return to some semblance of normal. And when that time comes, I hope to be back sharing my work in a manner more personal than on this website or on Instagram.
We all need to find some source of light in days that can feel so dark. Personally, pictures and videos of my children and grandchildren are the last things I look at before going to sleep and they give me the happiness and peace to rest. Professionally, I am spending lots of time in the studio. But for the first few weeks of self quarantine, I found that I needed to return to “mindless” knitting – a scarf, a baby sweater – the kind of soothing knitting I have done since I was a child. The urge to get back to my knitted jewelry is slowly returning. Ideas have once again begun to bubble up and it won’t be long before those creative voices will not be denied and I’ll return to “work” knitting.
But for now, I hope no one will take offense at my sharing what was a last bright, professional light for me as we entered into these times of concern and uncertainty. It was this necklace I made as a commission secured for me by my terrific gallery director Bruce Hoffman at Gravers Lane Gallery. A regular client had purchased a fabulous Sarah Nolan silk coat (pictured below, both front and back) and was interested in a necklace to wear with it. She admired my work in the gallery and asked if I’d be willing to design a piece for her to wear with the coat. She had fairly specific parameters but was fondest of another piece of mine that she asked I keep in mind when creating her necklace. I haven’t taken commissions in years because they too often resulted in work more to the client’s taste than mine. But the coat was so fabulous and the client turned out to be really open and excited about my preliminary proposal, so together we forged ahead. I was thrilled (and relieved!) to learn that the buyer is very happy with the result. So is the maker.
Please take good care everyone! We will make it through these times. All together.
