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Valerie Hector of Wilmette IL (USA)

See Valerie in the May 2000 issue of Smithsonian Magazine, pages 6 and 91.

It is unfair to Valerie to call her just a beadworker. She is a Renaissance Woman of Beading. She does beading, of course, but she also invents, researches, publishes and organizes. One of her inventions are these patented beaded beads. Aren't they yummy?

Beaded Beads donated by the artist, Valerie Hector.

One of her research projects has been the beadwork of Asia.
She lectured on this at Bead Expo 98 and published a lavish article on it in BEADS 7. Here are a couple of photos from that article:

Close-up of a mat from Lampung, South Sumatra, ca. 1850 or earlier. Most of these beads are European, but the reddish-brown ones in the lowest central triangle are Chinese "coil" beads, highly prized as Mutiraja beads, heirlooms for the elite in Eastern Indonesia. They are several centuries old.

A small section of a wedding bed panel from Penang, Malaysia, ca. 1900. This intricate work(it does not translate well from print to jpeg) is typical of the Straits Chinese, who live in Malaysia and Singapore. Very small seed beads are used to form complex floral and other natural designs.

Both images above from Prosperity, Reverence and Protection: An Introduction to Asian Beadwork by Valerie Hector in BEADS 7 (1995, pp. 3-36 + color plates. The image on the left is Plate IIB and on the right Plate IVB.

Valerie is also a founding member of the Bead Society of Greater Chicago,
one of our featured Bead Societies.

A small section of one of many postcards Valerie produces showing a variety of her Beaded Beads and beaded other things.

To read more about Valerie check out an article about her by Linda McDaniel in the June 1999 issue of Lapidary Journal entitled "The Very Fiber of Her Being." Valerie also has a major neckpiece on display at the current beads & beadwork show at the American Craft Museum in New York City.

Featured Beadworker 1

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