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ABOUT BARB
I have been beading in one form or another most of my life. My earliest memory is making an indian headband on a small loom when I was around six or seven years old. I was either in the Blue Birds or the Brownies at the time. Unfortunately, we moved and I never got to finish my headband.

In the 1950's I played with pop-beads. In the 1960's my husband and I made earrings and beaded micro macrame hatbands and necklaces which we sold around the Portland area until our entire inventory disappeared when the shop owner decided to move without telling us. We continued to sell on an individual basis for a while.

A neighbor of mine,  a Sioux-Blackfoot woman,  taught me to do the first few rows of peyote beadwork. From there I experimented and taught myself to increase and decrease and worked up variations of the technique.

A few years later I got my first computer and joined the Prodigy Internet's Beads Board. I was the only one who knew how to do peyote beadwork and my cyber friends all wanted to know how so I  sent out a lot of letters with hand drawn directions at that time.

One day I bought a brick stitch earring booklet from my cyber friend Aurora Berry (now Matthews).  Her simple, yet informative booklet inspired me to write my own book on peyote. I had taken creative writing courses for years but hadn't done too much with the knowledge. I made fifty copies of my first book, Peyote At Last! A Peyote Beadowork Primer, just for my cyber friends. They started taking them to their bead stores and I started getting orders. About a year later I got a call from Helby Import Company, a beadwork book, bead and supplies distributor,  suggesting they distribute my book.  And the rest, as they say, is history. I am blessed to say that I now have three books which have gone international.

In the early 90's I started teaching beadwork at Lupin Gallery. We had one or two classes a week for around three years. I am proud to say that out of that core group of beaders, five have become instructors themselves and now teach in the area. I am very proud of them. I expanded to  teaching in other local shops and eventually to  Embellishment and traveling the country teaching  workshops at bead shops, guilds, bead societies and bead related groups. I had a blast meeting wonderful beadworkers all over the country!

I specialize in innovative beadwork techniques and absolutely love it when someone 'gets it'. I love the see the light go on in their eyes when they master a technique, or learn a new one.

I am now my husband's 24/7 caregiver after he suffered multiple strokes and a large brain hemorrhage in 2004 so I do not travel and teach at this time.  

As I often say when I sign my books, 'Look what fun we are having with our beads."
Enjoy! Barb
WORK IN PUBLICATIONS
*Beadwork Creates Earrings - Jean Campbell - Interweave Press, 2005, Project (pg 109)
*Beadwork Creates Beaded Rings - Jean Campbell - Interweave Press, 2004 Project (pg 30)
*Beadwork Creates Beaded Bags - Jean Campbell - Interweave Press, 2003, Project, (pg 23)
*Beadwork Creates Beaded Beads - Jean Campbell - Interweave Press, 2003, Project (pg15)
*Bead It With Beadwork - Jean Campbell - Interweave Press, 2002, Project (pg 32)
*Beadwork Creates Bracelets - Jean Campbell - Interweave Press, 2002, Two Projects, (pgs 9 & 73)
*Beading With Harringbone Stitch - Vicki Star, Interweave Pess 2001, Gallery Piece (pg 100).
*Beading With Peyote Stitch -  The Beady Eyed Women, Jeanette Cook and Vicki Star: Interweave Press,  2000 - Gallery Piece (pg 90)
*Beaded Chords Chains Straps & Fringe - Jean Campbell, Interweave Press, 2001 - Project (pg 23)
MAGAZINE ARTICLES
*June/July 2006 - Beachy Bangle (pg 52)
*October/November 2002 - Diagonal Flared Earrings (pg 52)
*December 2001/January 2002 - Ginger Sanders Lampwork's Art And Sour Royalty - Profile (pg 24)
*October/November 2001 - Ruby Starburst Choker  (pg 61)
*September/October 2000 - Move Over Mama Eve! (pg 36)
*May/June 2000 - Clinging Vine Earrings (pg 25)
*Fall 1998 - Rebellious Lace (pg 32

*Issues # 15 & 29 Increasing and Decreasing Peyote Stitch
*Issue #3 Two Needle Peyote Start
MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS

*Ask Barb Column - The Beadwrangler's site.
*The BeadAholic Quarterly Newsletter / Webzine (frequent contributor - currently unavailable due to Aurora's illness.)
*Bead Bugle Webzine - Beaded Bead article
*Ask Barb was formerly published in The Willamette Valley Bead Artisan's Guild and The Cascade Bead Artisan's Guild newsletters.
GUILDS / SOCIETIES

Member - Portland Bead Society
Co-Founder and past V-President -  The Willamette Valley Bead Artisan's Guild
Co-Founder and Past President - Cascade Bead Artisan's Guild
SHOWS

Adornment, Gallery Nine, Lincoln, Nebraska
Bead Artistry: A Continuing Evolution - Fall 2001
Embellishment Teacher's Showcase - July 2001
WVBAG Show Showcase - Bead & Button Show 2000
Embellishment Teacher's Showcase - July 2000
Carnage Center Art Show - 1999
Winter Blues - community Beadwork Promotional Show - 1999
Clackamas County Fair - 2nd place - Beadwork Catagory 1998
Contemporary Beadwork, Contemporary Crafts Gallery, 1997
Beads On The Mountain One & Two, 1996 & 1997
The Ubiquitous Bead - Bellevue Art Museum 1996
Beadt Artistry, A Creative Evolution - Oregon Council for The Arts 1996
Lalooska Minature Show 1995 & 1996
Dava Instructor's Show 1995
(C) Copyright 2003/2004 Barb Grainger.

 

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