Brilliant Bead Mosaic Jewelry by Mary Kanda, a Gifted Artist from Santa Fe

Описание: Have you seen the beaded jewelry of Mary Kanda? She was one of the world's leading bead mosaic jewelry designers at the time of her death in 2014. A metalsmith as well as a beader, Mary first soldered her sterling silver bezels in organic or geometric shapes, filled the bezels with tile grout, and then set glass seed beads into the grout. Clients used to line up at her booth when she did juried craft shows in various cities. I know because I was there - and I gladly lined up with the rest. Mary was smart, sensitive and fairly soft-spoken, never boasting about her prodigious talent for bringing new concepts into being in her art jewelry designs. Everyone loved her.

Mary's website seems to be down - but you can find out about her work online through the links below. Ornament Magazine featured her work on the cover of one issue that's well worth acquiring if you can still find a copy. (See link below.)

As I mention in the video, Mary's work in bead mosaics has an uncanny parallel in beading history in the work of 18th century artist J.M van Selow of Braunschweig, Germany. Like Mary, van Selow created bead mosiacs with organic shapes, subtle colors and motifs drawn from the natural world. However, unlike Mary, van Selow ran a workshop that produced his designs for the home in quantity. The workshop made bead mosaic tabletops and other decorative items. Alas, van Selow's designs went out of style and his workshop eventually folded. But you can sometimes see pieces of his at auctions or in books. People value them to this day.

Mary's pieces are still sold online through secondary markets on Etsy and Ebay. Just do a search for "Mary Kanda beaded jewelry" and see what turns up.

Link to the Ornament Magazine article on Mary Kanda's work:
https://www.ornamentmagazine.org/shop...

Link to Mary's obituary - with color photos:
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/...

Link to Mary's work on page 121 of my book, The Art of Beadwork: Historic Inspiration, Contemporary Design (2005):
https://search.worldcat.org/title/560...

If I come across more resources on Mary's work, I'll post them here.

I hope you enjoyed this video. Please stop by again soon.

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Happy Beading,

--Valerie

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