Corning Museum of Glass
to hold 52nd Annual Seminar Focused on Beads

18-19/10

The Corning Museum of Glass presents its 52nd Annual Seminar on Glass, October 18-19, 2013. The focus of the seminar is Beads - Life, Trade, Ritual. The event, presented in a new two-day format, will feature lectures and live demonstrations focused around the topics represented in the Museum's exhibition, Life on a String: 35 Centuries of the Glass Bead, which showcases beads and beaded objects created throughout glass history and from all over the globe.

Experts such as Robert Liu, editor of Ornament magazine, and beadmaker Kristina Logan, will discuss historical beads, techniques of beadmaking, Native American beadwork, beads used and made in West Africa, 1920s French fashion, and much more. Seminarians will also have an opportunity to make their own unique glass bead (included in the price of the Seminar). Registration is required; the cost is $300 for non-members and $255 for Museum Members. Visit cmog.org/seminar to learn more.

The speaker schedule is as follows:
Friday, October 18

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Corning Museum of Glass
The Corning Museum of Glass
One Museum Way
USA-Corning, NY 14830
+1 (800) 732-6845 or 607-937-5371
www.cmog.org

The Corning Museum of Glass
The Corning Museum of Glass is the foremost authority on the art, history, science, and design of glass. It is home to the world’s most important collection of glass, including the finest examples of glassmaking spanning 3,500 years. Live glassblowing demonstrations (offered at the Museum, on the road, and at sea on Celebrity Cruises) bring the material to life. Daily Make Your Own Glass experiences at the Museum enable visitors to create work in a state-of-the-art glassmaking studio. The campus in Corning includes a year-round glassmaking school, The Studio, and the Rakow Research Library, the world’s preeminent collection of materials on the art and history of glass. Located in the heart of the Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State, the Museum is open daily, year-round. Kids and teens, 19 and under, receive free admission.

See also NEWS >3,500 YEARS OF GLASS BEADS FEATURED IN MAJOR EXHIBITION AT THE CORNING MUSEUM OF GLASS