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beaded amulet necklaces bead weaving alison oman

Beads by the Thousands — Alison Oman Weaves Magic

beaded amulet necklaces bead weaving alison oman

A collection of beaded amulet necklaces by bead weaving artist Alison Oman

The next time you’re around a metric ruler, look at the size of a millimeter.

It’s really, really itty bitty. Jewelry seed beads of this size are problematic to pick up and work with.

Now, go out and look at a horse, which is . . . rather larger.

buffalo beadwork amulet bag alison oman necklace

Buffalo, beaded amulet necklace by bead artist Alison Oman of Clarkston, WA

Combine the two, and you have entered the world of beadweaver Alison Oman. The Clarkston artist creates what she calls tiny glass tapestries, woven drawings with beads that she fashions into bracelets and amulet bag necklaces. (This latter is a Native American “pouch” worn around the neck. It contains small treasures that ward off evil, enhance the wearer’s safety, or bring good luck.)

One of the many challenges of beadweaving, Oman explains, is fitting the detail and meaning of a much larger subject into a “canvas” of 2 x 2 inches in size.

“As an example, I have always loved horses, and have beaded many pieces featuring them. But an animal that big reduced to just a few beads must still make a statement. It needs to show freedom, grace, and intelligence!” Oman says.

“So I try to produce pieces that focus on emotions that I feel when I look at a certain animal, or remember a particular event, place or person.”

Beadweaving Design

Born and raised in London, England, Oman fell in love with the American West on a visit to Oregon in the mid 1970s. Now a U.S. citizen, she incorporates all elements of her background, travels, and experience into her designs — from childhood horse rides in the fields and parks around her London home to a mental image from the latest book she is reading.

iris garden flowers beaded bracelet alison oman

Iris Garden, woven beadwork bracelet by Alison Oman of Clarkston, WA

“I love to draw, so all the pieces are from my own designs,” Oman says. “I tend to shy away from most Native American designs. As a Londoner, I don’t think I can do their motifs justice!”

For the weaving, Oman works with primarily Delica beads — Japanese manufactured seed beads that are uniformly shaped to be as tall as they are wide — and incorporates a variety of beads for the finishing work and fringe: glass, silver, gold, metal, anything that catches the eye and works with the particular piece. Describing beads as “dangerously addictive,” Oman finds buying inventory a joyful and exhilarating experience.

mermaid seahorse beaded amulet necklace alison oman

The Mermaid and the Seahorse, beaded amulet necklace by Alison Oman

“In London’s Piccadilly Circus, I found a small bead store with some beautiful, wooden, hand-carved creatures. Some have not yet been used, as they still have to ‘tell’ me how they want to be used.

“In Kona, Hawaii, I found beautiful glass beads forged with lava and ash to create amazing colors and designs.

“And in Ketchikan, Alaska, I walked out of a jewelry store without buying a silver mermaid, only to jog back later because I could ‘see’ this particular piece, which later became The Mermaid and the Seahorse.”

Thousands of Beads

Depending upon its finished size, each woven project incorporates from several hundred to multiple thousand beads. It can take months to complete, as the weaving is just the starting point of the process.

“Finishing, adding the neck piece, adding the fringes — this all takes time and, as I age, my eyes quit working for me after a few hours! So I bead often, but for short periods of time.”

Oman works out of a studio at the Dahmen Artisan Barn in Uniontown, WA, where she also teaches classes. Describing the studio situation as her “happy place” and one of the best gifts she has ever given herself, Oman enjoys interacting with the artistic colleagues surrounding her. They offer encouragement and criticism, are ready to share a glass of wine, and — most importantly — know how to leave each other alone when it’s time to create.

“I’ve been there for the last eight years, prior to which I worked in our family room on a desk with my back to the TV. I still use that desk, but the Barn is where I most love to work.”

Weaving Three Interests into One

Oman has shown and sold her beaded artwork in London, UK; as well as in galleries and gift shops throughout the Pacific Northwest.

She is delighted to, well, weave three longtime interests into one: animals (especially horses), drawing, and beadwork. If one is going to have an addiction in life, she feels, it ought to be a good one. And beadwork is just that:

“Thankfully, no matter how many beads I have, there’s no chance that I will ever suffer from an overdose!”

Wenaha GalleryAlison Oman is the Featured Art Event from Monday, September 9, through Saturday, October 5 at Wenaha Gallery. She will be at the gallery Saturday, October 5, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for a special Autumn Art Show, also featuring Western scratchboard artist Sandra Haynes and Yakima acrylic painter Paul Henderson.

Contact the gallery, located at 219 East Main Street, Dayton, WA, by phone at 509.382.2124 or e-mail art@wenaha.com. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday through Saturday, and by appointment.

bracelet colorful bead jewelry mary calanche dayton

Beads, Beads, and Beads — The Jewelry of Mary Calanche

bracelet colorful beads jewelry mary calanche dayton

A selection of bracelets, beaded using various techniques and beads, by Dayton jewelry artist Mary Calanche

It sounds like one of those alarming math story problems people avoid if they possibly can:

“How many beads — of all sizes, shapes, and colors — fit into a 12 x 20 storage shed, with room left for the artist to work?”

finger weave jewelry beads blue bracelet mary calanche

Finger weave bead bracelet with blue and aqua beads, by jewelry artist Mary Calanche of Dayton

Beading artist Mary Calanche of Dayton, whose studio is in such a shed, doesn’t have the answer, but she does know this:

“It’s stuffed full!”

Insulated, wired, and lighted, Calanche’s unique workroom is a place for intense concentration, meticulous attention to detail, and now and then, judicious use of the vacuum with a nylon stocking over the nozzle — one of the best ways to remedy the calamity of a flipped tray of tiny, tiny beads.

“If you haven’t ever dropped beads, then you’re just getting started into the craft,” Calanche, who has been creating beaded jewelry and other items for 25 years, says.

beaded necklace blue green beads mary calanche dayton

Beaded necklace by Wenaha Gallery artist Mary Calanche of Dayton

Beads, and This n That

Under the business name, This n That, Calanche fashions earrings, necklaces, and bracelets using  a variety of techniques: stringing beads onto wire or thread, weaving, wirework (which involves coiling, looping, and twisting wire that holds the beads), and bead embroidery (using a needle and thread to attach beads to a surface like fabric, suede or leather). She also experiments with finger weaving, metal work, and kumihimo, a Japanese technique of braiding silk strands to create colored cords.

“This is why I chose This n That as my name!”

Calanche started her foray into beading shortly after marrying her husband, GrayEagle. Watching him do projects for his dance regalia, Calanche decided to give it a try, with her first project being a flat, beaded rose. It remains a favorite piece because of its leather backing, which came from the last deer her father shot.

“It took a long time for me to finish,” Calanche remembers. But from that point, she was unstoppable, poring through books and magazines for project ideas and teaching techniques. There is no end to potential projects, Calanche says.

blue beads necklace bracelet earrings jewelry mary calanche

A selected of blue beaded jewelry by Wenaha Gallery artist Mary Calanche of Dayton

Beads of Every Shape, Size and Color

“New beads of every shape, size, and color come out constantly,” she explains. “You can take an old pattern and change it up. Or you see a new project and change it into something of your own.” Sometimes, if enough time and learning curve has gone by, she revisits something that was once impossibly difficult and discovers that, somehow, it’s not so impossible anymore.

“My favorite project is whatever I am working on! It doesn’t matter if it is a new project or one I’ve done before, I just love to bead!”

The process is soothing, she adds, describing her time in “the shack,” with the family Corgis to keep her company, as crucial me time. Even when a tray of beads drop, or she must undo an “oops,” or the beads on a project are so small that it’s difficult to see the holes, it’s simply an opportunity to practice yet another skill — patience.

“Patience is something I need to practice, and beading is a marvelous instructor.”

black white beads bracelet mary calanche jewelry

A black and white, patterned beaded bracelet by Wenaha Gallery artist Mary Calanche.

Beads around the World

Calanche has entered her work in the Columbia County Fair, and maintains inventory at both Wenaha Gallery in Dayton and Divine Serendipity Spa in Walla Walla. She has sold her creations to buyers as far away as South Korea, Australia, Scotland, and Thailand. When she isn’t beading or learning a new technique in beading, she continues to tackle her storage shed studio, which she describes as being in a state of turmoil ever since she took it over.

“I have painted, changed the tabletops, built shelving. In between all that, I have tried to organize and tidy things up — I think I will get it done in a few years.”

Or . . . not.

What matters is that there is room for the beads and all their accoutrements, and time to transform them into something unique and beautiful. Story problem or not, it’s not the number of beads, but what you do with them, that counts.

To purchase Mary Calanche’s jewelry online, click on this link.

 

Wenaha Gallery

Mary Calanche is the featured Art Event artist at Wenaha Gallery from Monday, May 21, 2018, through Saturday, Saturday, June 16, 2018.  Calanche will be in the gallery in person during a special Art Show Saturday, May 26, from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., as part of Dayton Days.

Contact the gallery, located at 219 East Main Street, Dayton, WA, by phone at 509.382.2124 or e-mail art@wenaha.com. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday through Saturday, and by appointment. Visit the Wenaha Gallery website online at www.wenaha.com.

 

Torch-fired Coneflower necklace by Lynn Gardner, guest artist at Wenaha Gallery

Where Color Meets Metal — Torch-Fired Enamel Jewelry by Lynn Gardner

Torch-fired Coneflower necklace by Lynn Gardner, guest artist at Wenaha Gallery

Torch-fired Coneflower necklace by Lynn Gardner, guest artist at Wenaha Gallery

When you’re pulling together an outfit, the right accessories — earrings, scarf, necklace — make all the difference. So when jewelry creator Lynn Gardner dresses for her day job as an escrow officer and can’t find the right earrings, she goes down to her studio, puts together the perfect pair, and heads to the office.

Jewelry by Lynn Gardner

Jewelry by Lynn Gardner

“Life is too short not to wear art,” the Sandpoint, ID artist says. Unique, customizable, and vibrant, Gardner’s torch-fired enamel pieces are, as she describes it, “where color meets metal.” Frequently collaborating with her husband, Mark, who began his art career in high school as a jeweler’s apprentice for the princely wage of $1 an hour, Gardner operates her business under the name of Lonesome Dove Designs, maintaining an Etsy shop under the same name.

It has nothing to do with Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, the book, or the movie, but everything to do with an actual bird.

“When we lived in Arizona, I used to have an aviary in my studio with two diamond doves in it,” Gardner explains. “When one died, the other called out continuously for its mate. So I named my business Lonesome Dove.”

An aviary is a fairly unusual accoutrement to a studio, but Gardner loves animals. Upon moving to the much colder climate in Idaho, she disbanded the aviary except for a 28-year-old Cockatiel that rode in the front seat with Mark during the move, singing, non-stop, the Andy Griffith theme tune. At his new home, the bird was joined, eventually, by a new menagerie — six chickens (not in the studio), two black labs, two cats, and six horses, one of whom is a Belgian draft horse named Bob, adopted in a near-starved state from owners in Arizona.

Earrings by Lynn Gardner

Earrings by Lynn Gardner

“Bob’s been trained to drive, but honestly his harness weighs a ton,” Gardner says.  “I don’t like riding him as it takes a ladder to get on him and then it’s like straddling a sofa.

“So Bob is just basically a big yard ornament that eats a lot!”

But Bob, like the lonesome dove, has his part in Lynn and Mark’s art business. Visitors to their studio and students of the couple’s jewelry and pottery making classes enjoy the gardens and landscape on the Gardner’s 10-acre spread, after which everyone wants their photo taken with Bob.

“After a few hours of that, he hides in the back of his pen,” Gardner says.

Outside of the barn, Gardner finds inspiration for her jewelry in nature, and five acres of aspen and fir in the back of the property are a haven where she walks, meditates, picks up rocks and leaves, and plans what she will create next.

“My son has built trails winding through the forest and made benches for me to sit upon and reflect,” Gardner says. “Mark and I often find ourselves taking a bottle of wine and sitting on the bench watching the leaves.” Each is inspired differently, and the collaborative work they do reflects their individual personalities.

Necklace by Lynn Gardner

Necklace by Lynn Gardner

“Mark is very architectural and is inspired  by Frank Lloyd Wright. I am inspired by hobbits . . . I love the quirky. When we collaborate on pieces, we have a lot of fun doing it.” Much of the jewelry is a tandem affair, with Mark creating the setting and hand-forged clasps or chains, and Lynn responsible for the enamel and color work.

Recently featured in Belle Armoire Magazine, a publication showcasing wearable and hand-crafted fashions, Gardner is represented by galleries in Montana, Idaho, Colorado, and Arizona. Active members of Art Works, a local art cooperative that taps into the tourist industry of the area,  both Lynn and Mark take turns with other members in staffing the gallery’s retail store.

“The other day, when it was Mark’s turn to work, he was just ready to close up when a young couple came in, walked right to my case, and said they had to have one of my pieces as a gift for their mother who collects my work,” Gardner says. “That was a thrill!”

It is a thrill that she and Mark regularly, and gratefully, feel.

“We make each piece knowing that the right person will come along and be enamored with their purchase,” Gardner says.

“Nothing pleases us more than to be approached by someone wearing our work.”

Wenaha GalleryLynn Gardner is the featured Pacific Northwest Art Event artist from Monday, November 7 through Saturday, December 10. She will be at the gallery Friday, November 25, from 3 to 7 p.m., as part of the Christmas Kickoff Celebration. Free refreshments will be served.

Contact the gallery, located at 219 East Main Street, Dayton, WA, by phone at 509.382.2124 or e-mail art@wenaha.com. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday through Saturday, and by appointment. Visit the Wenaha Gallery website online at www.wenaha.com.

Wenaha Gallery is your destination location for Greenwich Workshop Fine Art Prints, professional customized framing, and original fine art paintings and sculpture by notable Pacific Northwest artists.   Books, gifts, note cards, jigsaw puzzles, and more are also available. Visit the gallery today!

Fishing Tackle Boxes Make Great Artist Studios — The Hand-crafted Jewelry of Anna Steinhoff

A selection of jewelry by Anna Steinhoff, guest artist at Wenaha Gallery

A selection of jewelry by Anna Steinhoff, guest artist at Wenaha Gallery

Artists work in all sorts of spaces, but the waiting room of an airport has to be one of the more exceptional studio venues. Recently, while fellow travelers absorbed themselves in cell phones and digital notebooks, jewelry maker Anna Steinhoff settled back in a coffee-shop rocking chair and created wearable accessories until her flight boarded.

“I keep my supplies organized in tackle boxes,” the Dayton artist explains, “and I have one tackle box that has a little bit of everything for traveling.”

Bracelets by Anna Steinhoff, guest artist at Wenaha Gallery

Bracelets by Anna Steinhoff, guest artist at Wenaha Gallery

Jewelry making, while it is intricate and detailed, is highly portable, an aspect Steinhoff discovered at the age of 13, when she originated her sideline career in yet another unusual place: the hospital room where she was receiving treatment for lymphoblastic leukemia, a type of blood cancer.

“I had almost three years of chemotherapy treatments, so I needed something to do,” Steinhoff says. “I started making jewelry because I needed a good distraction — you can only watch so much TV.” When a local leather-craft store offered Steinhoff supplies in exchange for her creating projects and displays for their windows, the teenager used her time well: she fashioned intricate seed bead projects, bags, and moccasins, as well as tooled carved leather into wallets, purses or belts.

Jewelry artist Anna Steinhoff gives demonstrations during Art Walk at Dayton's Wenaha Gallery

Jewelry artist Anna Steinhoff gives demonstrations during Art Walk at Dayton’s Wenaha Gallery

Out of hardship grew something beautiful, with the skills Steinhoff developed during adolescence growing and flourishing into adulthood and a business, Blue Mountain Made, which she advertises primarily through her Facebook page of the same name. And while leather and beads still factor into the supply list, Steinhoff has added extensive variety to her material stockpile, scouring antique shops, outdoor stores, and the proverbially treasure-laden family attic for unusual design elements.

Assorted rings made by Anna Steinhoff, Many feature the primer cut from the end of a used bullet shell

Assorted rings made by Anna Steinhoff, Many feature the primer cut from the end of a used bullet shell

“I’ve used parts from bicycle chains, antique pocket watches, fish hooks, fishing flies, bullet cases, old belts, rocks, and flowers,” Steinhoff says. “A lot of my materials are recycled. Almost all of the leather I use are scraps from upholstery stores or even motorcycle chaps.”

An especially impressive find unfolded in her grandparent’s attic, where she stumbled upon a jar filled with brass buttons. A note within described the buttons as from Steinhoff’s great, great Uncle Frank Jobe’s World War I uniform, and it didn’t take long to incorporate this memorabilia into a leather bracelet.

Steinhoff loves leather, it being a major component in many of her pieces. A highly natural, organic element, leather adds a sense of the mountains and countryside, not to mention its ability to impart beauty without being “girly-girl,” an appellation Steinhoff avoids.

“I like wearing something that comes from nature and/or reminds me of the olden days when things were hand forged and simpler,” she says.

Handcrafted earrings by Anna Steinhoff, guest artist at Wenaha Gallery

Handcrafted earrings by Anna Steinhoff, guest artist at Wenaha Gallery

“It’s important to me that I make quality goods, but I want them to have a hand-crafted, simple beauty to them — things you can tell that someone put a lot of time and love into.”

In addition to the wearers of her jewelry, Steinhoff has another, unusual fan named Tikka, the family Labrador with a leather addiction. Because the artist’s primary place to work is the kitchen table, she keeps a watchful eye out for Tikka, but sometimes the dog’s muzzle is quicker than the human eye.

“I have to keep leather put away, or she’ll eat it every time. She has actually eaten a lot of things I’ve made.

“I have some dangly leather earring’s I’ve made, and every time I wear them she nuzzles my neck/ears and it tickles. The more I giggle, the more she nuzzles and tries to nibble the earrings.”

Freeloader. But a fetching one.

With a day job in human resources at the Walla Walla Penitentiary, Steinhoff balances family time with commercial endeavor, and launched her business officially last year at Dayton’s Blue Mountain Station. She has recently been invited to share store space at Azure Mountain Botanicals in Dayton.

“I never know what I will make next,” the artist says. “I just like things that are simple, pretty, rustic, and handcrafted.”

Wenaha GalleryAnna Steinhoff is the featured Art Event artist at Wenaha Gallery, 219 East Main Street, Dayton, WA from Monday, October 5 through Saturday, October 31. 

Contact the gallery by phone at 800.755.2124 or e-mail art@wenaha.com. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday through Saturday, and by appointment. Visit the Wenaha Gallery website online at www.wenaha.com.

Wenaha Gallery is your destination location for Greenwich Workshop Fine Art Prints, professional customized framing, and original fine art paintings and sculpture by notable Pacific Northwest artists.   Books, gifts, note cards, jigsaw puzzles, and more are also available. Visit at 219 East Main, Dayton, WA.

This article was written by Carolyn Henderson.