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 On any given morning, in the foggy city of Santa Cruz California, Carrie Tahquechi sits huddled behind her flame, the radiant heat of the torch warming the chill of the day. She peeks at the clock, Yes! There is just enough time to try to fit in one more before picking up the twins from school. She sits, intensely turning, combining and forming molten glass to create another exquisite handmade glass bead. She may take the beads she makes and expertly weave them into a beautiful chain mail necklace or bracelet, her newest obsession.
Carrie started beading in 1986, when during a visit to her fiancée’s family; a tribal elder and master bead designer taught her the fundamentals of Native American Indian bead weaving for authentic native clothing and jewelry. Carrie became adept at bead weaving, making countless moccasins and traditional Native American arts as well as contemporary native designs, but she longed for more. She wanted to have complete artistic freedom over every aspect of her intricate jewelry designs. The loom work and traditional stitches, while beautiful, were very restrictive. In looking for more sources for seed beads for loom work Carrie stumbled across a local bead store. Here she found rows and rows of tiny cups containing brightly colored glass beads of all shapes and sizes. She fell in love with the design possibilities that were available with the diverse range of colors, shapes and sizes of glass beads. For many years, while raising very active twin boys, she designed jewelry for small shows, friends and family. As she collected beads, lots and lots of beads, she noticed she was drawn to handmade lampwork beads due to the intricate color combinations and design possibilities.
In 2004 Carrie found a night course in beginning glass bead making at the local college that fit into her busy family’s schedule. It was there that she received instruction from Jackie Marr on the fundamentals of handmade (lampwork) glass bead creation. The loom went into storage that same night. Since then, mornings and weekends and any time the kids were not demanding her time, Carrie has developed her skills as a glass bead artist. With much practice and additional instruction from Sharon Peters, Kim Osibin, Scott Peterson, and Jim Smircich she has perfected the skills needed to make the beautiful beads you see here.
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