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Stella Broughton - A Fairy Tale
Category: Body Adornment.
This piece was done using flat peyote stitch.
'A Fairy Tale' was not designed to depict any specific story. It is, instead, a bit of woven fantasy intended to embody the spirit of fairy tales through time. Fairies, wood nymphs, goblins, brownies and their ilk, who are seldom readily visible, have a long history in Celtic myth and legend - sometimes humorous, sometimes mischievous, sometimes dark, always enchanting.
The breastplate design is an original pencil sketch and the beadwork was done using flat peyote stitch. The first line of beadwork was started at the point running approximately across the top of the squatting fairy's arm and worked down to the bottom. The remainder of the beadwork was picked up on the starting line and worked to the top. Glass flowers, leaves, twigs and wing enhancement were added to the finished beadwork. The process used to create the entire piece was to 'paint' with beads using the sketch as an approximate visual guide.
I was born and raised in Montana but became a 'desert rat' a long time ago, the high desert of Las Vegas for many years and the low desert of Yuma AZ for the last ten. My husband, Ken, and I find that the low desert and Yuma suit us just fine and this is where we plan to stay.
I have a 'mixed media' background in art. I studied painting with the retired head of the art department of Texas A&M for four years in Las Vegas and received my BFA from the University of Nevada Las Vegas with printmaking as the focus. Prior to returning to school to get my degree, I spent several years designing and making customized tote bags, clothing and various gift items that sold in a shop at a Utah ski resort.
I became interested in - and immediately addicted to - beading about eight years ago when a wonderful bead shop, Dragonfly, opened here in Yuma. I taught classes in a number of different techniques for over six years until Dragonfly closed last year. While I enjoy working in all mediums, beadwork has been my main passion for the past eight years. I work almost exclusively with seed beads of all sizes and look at beadwork as just another method of expression.
Currently, I have a web site under construction that will hopefully be up and running in a few months and will, among other things, offer free projects. The site address is www.stellartonline.com.
I can be reached at my home email address, seedbeader.no.spam@juno.com, and will do my best to answer any queries in a timely manner.