Zoya at My Lovely Beads works with seed beads, but she also creates designer gemstone jewelry, and much of her work is a combination of the two. She is well-known for her intricate designs using tiny seed beads. In 2007, she won first place in the Rings & Things Design Contest in the Glass category for her design, Aquamarine Morning and Amethyst Night Necklace.
This necklace perfectly illustrates the way she uses seed beads and gemstones in the same design:
Amber Lace Necklace
Seed beads and Amber gemstones
This is one of Zoya's gemstone creations. I love the big hunk of Agate in this design:
Lone Leaf Necklace
Agate, Tiger Eye, Mother of Pearl
Artist Statement
During my childhood in the USSR, my mother taught me to sew and knit, both with hooks and needles. I really took to needlework, and have continued its pursuit in all of its variants during all of my life. Very many different categories of objects have been produced for my children, my family, my good friends, and myself.
Also, during my childhood, I became familiar with bead work. At that time I was studying ballet, and needed a dress for practicing. A dress was sewn for me. However, I decided to decorate it, and sewed a gentle bead work flower onto my chest. The beads were a transparent yellow color, very pale, and the dress was of a cream-colored material. At that time I felt was an appropriate combination, and I was right. It looked very pretty.
When I came to the USA about 10 years ago, I decided to continue my bead work. I scurried around, trying to acquire everything about bead work, but it turned out that too few books were available. At that point, I started to experiment by myself, with beads of a whole range of various dimensions, and with gemstones.
The experimentation started to bear fruit, and were my first serious efforts. In a while I was invited to participate in selling my handicrafts at an art market in Manhattan. It gave me a good feeling of encouragement, that my artifacts are desired and appreciated.
Inspirations for my designs come to me night and day. At night, when I close my eyes, fantastic colors and forms of my future efforts appear before me. Often, I cannot even find beads of those colors. During the day, images appear when I see flowering trees outside, or just flowers in the spring; during the winter, geometric frozen shapes; and then during sunrise and sunset.
SOURCE
Potomac Craftsmen GallerySee full article.
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Paper Jewelry by Anna Sofia - 20 December 2006
Valentine's Jewelry Finds on Etsy - 06 February 2007
Call for Irish Jewelry Designers - 23 August 2007
Novice Jewelry Designer Stumbles Into Beads - 15 October 2007
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