South Shore Beaders - Marilyn Oliveri

Continuing my features of members of our South Shore Beaders group, today I'm featuring Marilyn Oliveri . Several members of our group met Marilyn at our favorite local bead store, Beadcache in Mansfield, MA. We had gathered in the upstairs room to meet with Linda, an employee of Beadcache who had offered to show us how to end Kumihimo ropes. We had recently learned the technique and ending it nicely was our next thing to learn. Marilyn came in and heard about our "gathering" and not to miss out on anything, joined us upstairs. One thing lead to another at it often does. She is now a regular member of our group.

We found out that Marilyn does bead crochet. The results is a similar rope to Kumihimo but in Marilyn's hands, they are spectacular. Her choice of beads, focals and color is always part of her process to make the perfect piece. Needless to say she spends many hours on each piece.

She explains her process:

"The necklace has a pendant made from bronze clay. I made a mold for the pod from a seed pod from a plant in my garden (false indigo/baptisia australis). I used a magnolia leaf as a template for the base. Completing this pendant almost became a 'career' because of some of the issues I have in working with bronze clay. I had to do multiple firings to repair cracks and joints and then simply to change the color until I was satisfied with the results. I love gardening and have extensive perennial beds so I call this one 'Seeds of Inspiration.' It's one of my favorite pieces."

Inspiration indeed! Look at the colors in the pendant and the layers!


The second piece demonstrates how an original idea transforms in to something different.

This piece is titled "Santa Fe Sunset" Her process is explained:

"I had crocheted this rope for one of my bronze pieces, but wasn't really happy with the combination. So I went searching in my box of "focal beads" and loved the coral donut with it. Then I had to figure out how I was going to combine the two pieces in a different way.

"I spent some time with Gerri at the Bead Cache and she patiently showed me various wire wrapping ideas, but I kept coming back to the larks head knot and coiled bale that I had had in mind initially. I've only just begun to fool around with wire so this was rather ambitious, but I wanted to try it.

"Then Rich brought out gold-filled half round wire which I'd never worked with, but it is SOOO elegant! I went home and used "practice" wire to try many of the techniques Gerri had shown me in addition to the larks head knot. I was pretty timid about moving on to the $9/foot gold filled wire, but as they say, nothing ventured. . .

"After an entire afternoon on top of the hour or two I spent with Gerri, I'm very proud of the result."

I really enjoy hearing the stories that go with creations made by jewelry artists such as Marilyn.

We all tend to inspire each other. These two pieces are real inspiration.

Thanks Marilyn for letting me share your talent and lovely pieces.

B

www.bevsjewelry.com and www.bevsjewelry.1000markets.com