Tube Bead Inspirations

There are times when the synchronicity of seeing a concept in “threes” propels me as an artist to experiment with and reinterpret an idea.

• Margaret Regan gave me a fabulously simple and elegant rainbow tube bead necklace. Her beads were small and delicate ( 1/2″ x 1/8 “) and strung with small black glass hex beads on elastic.
• I saw a large, outrageous dyed bamboo tube bead necklace at a clothing boutique
• Pier Voulkos gave a demo on tube bead construction on a rod at a workshop for the Art League School at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia

My first versions of my rainbow tube bead necklaces featured textured beads with a burnt umber acrylic paint wash. Later versions became larger in scale and included glitter and metal spacer beads.