Session Information
All sessions take place in the Auditorium of The Corning Museum of Glass, unless otherwise noted. Schedule is subject to change.
Rakow Research Library Hours (during Seminar only)
Friday 9am–7pm
Saturday 9am–5pm
Sunday 9am–12pm
Friday, October 18
8am
Registration/Coffee
If you wish to make your own bead during Seminar, please sign up at the registration desk.
9am
Welcome and New Acquisitions
Karol Wight, Executive Director and Curator of Ancient and Islamic Glass, The Corning Museum of Glass
9:30am
Explaining Historic Beads through Contemporary Glass Techniques
Robert Liu
Founder and Co-editor, Ornament magazine
This lecture will emphasize significant historic glass beads, such as Chinese Warring States beads of the Zhou Dynasty, Roman mosaic beads, and Islamic glass beads. Where possible, Liu will relate what contemporary glass beadmakers have done to elucidate their construction.
10:30am
Coffee and Pastries
11am
Chevron Bead Stories
Mary Mullaney
Artist, Heron Glass
Chevron beads are visually, historically, and technically rich and complex. Using stories as their %%thread%%, this lecture will explore the colorful history. The discussion will include contemporary Chevron beads, their makers, and the layers of variation and ingenuity that make these classy beads unique and treasured.
11:30am
%%Bits%% of Glass, Pieces of the Past: Beads and Beadworking in West Africa
Christopher R. DeCorse
Professor of Anthropology, Syracuse University
This lecture examines the use, age, and origins of glass beads in West African cultures. The peoples of West Africa present a spectacular array of decorative arts, many of which incorporate beads. The beads used include many made of local materials: %%stone%%, bone, %%seeds%%, and shell. Some of the most spectacular, however, are beads made of glass, including both imported and locally made varieties. The majority of glass beads found in West Africa are from Europe but there were also significant imports from India, Asia, and the Near East, as well as several notable centers of African glass bead production. Beads are a tantalizing category of material culture, presenting countless varieties and a multitude of cultural expressions. Given the extraordinary detail of some, they can indeed be considered masterpieces of “Lilliputian art.” Although some beadmaking techniques remained virtually unchanged for centuries, thereby making dating a challenge, beads nevertheless offer an important resource for dating artifacts and establishing the chronology of archaeological sites. This lecture explores two major themes. It begins by briefly considering the use of beads in African cultures. It will then review the history and technology of glass beads with particular emphasis on recent data on West African glass bead manufacture.
12:30pm
Lunch (on your own)
Make Your Own Bead Sessions
At The Studio (12:30, 1, 1:30)
2pm
From Basket Making to Beadworking: An Examination of the Evolution of an Indigenous Art Form in the 19th-century Pacific Northwest
Alice Scherer
Founder of the Center for the Study of Beadwork
This lecture will showcase the woven beadwork of indigenous peoples of the greater Pacific Northwest, from northern California through Oregon and Washington and into British Columbia during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Scherer will describe the evolution from the very early basketry-derived techniques to the time when Western-introduced beading looms and frames and easier, more design-flexible bead embroidery became the predominant forms of beadwork expression.
2:45pm
Souvenir Beadwork of the Six-Nations Iroquois
Karlis Karklins
Editor, Beads: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers
While many North American aboriginal peoples produced distinctive beadwork for personal use and for sale to tourists, one people that stand out for uniqueness of design, technique, and variety are the Haudenosaunee or Six-Nations Iroquois. Distinguished by the raised nature of the major design elements and the multitude of forms, their souvenir beadwork has been produced since at least the late 18th century and sold at tourist attractions like Niagara Falls, fairs, expositions, and other events. These items were eagerly purchased over the years by visitors who proudly brought their souvenirs home, whether they lived in Europe or in Canada and the United States. That these pieces were cherished is revealed by the large number that have survived to the present day.
3:30pm
Coffee
4pm
Beadmaking Demonstration
Kristina Logan
4:45pm
Make Your Own Bead Sessions
At The Studio (4:45, 5:15, 5:45, 6:15)
5–8pm
Evening Add-a-Bead Art Walk
%%Gaffer%% District, Downtown Corning
Saturday, October 19
8am
Breakfast and Beadmaking
After having a continental breakfast, continue enjoying your coffee while watching a beadmaking demonstration (8:45) by the Museum’s premier bead artist.
8:45am
Dynamic Surface Pattern Techniques in Glass Beadmaking
Caitlin Hyde
Flamework Artist and Interpreter, The Corning Museum of Glass
Hyde will demonstrate a combination of flameworked glass shaping and color application techniques resulting in complex, graphic patterns on the bead surface.
9:30am
Bedazzled: Bead Embroidery in 20th-Century French Haute Couture
Michele Majer
Assistant Professor, European and American Clothing and Textiles
Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture
Demanding highly skilled labor that made it both time-consuming and expensive, elaborately beaded garments represented the height of expert craftsmanship and luxury in dress associated with the French fashion industry. Highlighting key designers and their creations as well as embroidery houses, this talk will present an overview of bead embroidery in 20th-century French couture.
10:30am
Coffee
11am
Life on a String and Art in the Round: Contemporary Beaded Sculpture
Tina Oldknow
Curator of Modern Glass, The Corning Museum of Glass
Artists may approach the bead with various intentions—as decoration, texture, palette, or symbol—in the creation of abstract and representational works. In this lecture, sculpture by internationally known artists who incorporate beads or the bead form will be discussed, including Joyce Scott, Sherry Markovitz, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Liza Lou, and David Chatt.
11:30am
Contemporary Glass Beadmaking
Kristina Logan
Artist
Logan will offer an overview of the past 20 years of the contemporary glass bead movement. Her lecture will focus on aesthetic diversity and the wide range of techniques used today to make glass beads.
12:30pm
Lunch (on your own)
Make Your Own Bead Sessions
At The Studio (12:30, 1, 1:30)
2pm
Demonstration: Creation of Chevron Beads, from Bubble to Bead
Ralph Mossman and Mary Mullaney
Artists, Heron Glass
At The Studio
This demonstration will show the various stages of creating a Chevron bead, from the hot, blown glass component, through the lapidary steps required to finish.
3:30pm
Make Your Own Bead Sessions
At The Studio (3:30, 4, 4:30)
6:30pm
BEADazzling Festivities
In the Museum
Cocktails and dinner at the Museum. Be sure to wear your beads.
