Meet Julie Glasser
This month, we introduce our beaders to Julie Glasser who grew up in Michigan but has lived many years now in Georgia’s warmer climes. Inspired by her mom, artist Rita Grossberg, Julie shares that “I learned early on that you could pretty much make anything!”
Self-taught, by high school Julie was selling her beaded jewellery to friends, by 2002 she discovered beadweaving, by 2006 she began teaching beadwork, and by 2007 her work was featured many times over in Bead & Button and Beadwork magazines and in their books and “favorites” issues.
You can also find Julie’s work in Kate McKinnon’s classic, Contemporary Geometric Beadwork.
Julie’s fave pieces include her beaded house, which is an exact replica of her actual home, a flower cart, which is a recreation of her favorite Lladro figurine, and the piano, below, which she fashioned after her upright Yamaha.
These three were never committed to a pattern or tutorial. And the house must be seen to be believed so do check out the several photos at Julie’s website.
Julie now writes out many patterns for her Etsy shop where you can find her amazingly detailed, to-scale, 3D –projects.
In fact, I have purchased and created Julie’s Jeep pattern – yup, I am a Jeep lover! Here’s my version.
Julie shares that on average, each piece – many of which require armatures – takes 2 weeks to design and create and a further two weeks to write a tutorial.
Along with selling patterns, such as the dice and shaker pictured to the right (so practical as well as cool, eh?), Julie has taught beadwork and jewellery making at a local centre for the arts for more than 10 years and continues to teach advanced beading in weekly Zoom classes. The children and adults she has taught compliment Julie especially on her patience. In a genuine desire to empower beaders, Julie’s patience shows up also in her in-depth tutorials. Julie shared “I am focused on making sure that everyone is able to complete the projects.”
And I will add my thumbs up here: I found the Jeep pattern to be challenging but doable because of the clear instructions and many photos.
Julie added sewing to her skillset and is sometimes decked out in creations she has sewn – clothes and handbag – as well as jewellery she beaded! Below is one of her sewn treasures: a nifty travel kit for beaders!
When not beading you can find Julie hanging out with her family and their kitties, Snickerdoodle, Mushi, and Xaio Mao (Little Cat), and yes, like most beaders’ feline companions, they have created the odd pot of bead soup.
Until next time,
Stay bead-needy friends! – Cathy
(Originally published July 16, 2022)