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Stephanie M Daigle

Artist's Interview

How long have you been creating?: During High School I worked for a dress maker and we used the leftover material to make dresses for me without using patterns. In the 70's, I made scarf shirts and embroider on jeans. In the 80's, I dabbled a little bit in beading on a loom and making beaded earrings. I have had a wide variety of creative endeavors, but I never really took any of them seriously until I around the year 2000. I was making hats and decided one of them needed beads. It was then that I discovered my local bead store, and since that fateful day there's been no looking back.

What is your medium of choice?: Glass seed beads - I can never get enough of them. With a handful of seed beads, anything is possible. New to my repertoire is my latest addiction - lampwork bead making. Since I'm new to the art, I have a lot to learn but I'm having a lot of fun in the meantime. I took up bead making to make beads to go with my seed beading, definitely not to replace it. While a year ago I would have answered this question with a definitive answer of "seed beads", I have now become fascinated with all forms of glasswork. I suspect I have only touched the tip of the iceberg.

What are your motivations for creating?: It's just something I have to do. If I'm sitting, my hands need to keep busy. I just can't sit and do nothing while watching TV or listening to music. If my hands weren't keeping my mind occupied with beads, I would be looking around, planning a room redecoration on a whim or something equally as drastic. I have done a lot of that! The motivation wheel has no brakes; it just keeps on turning.

What other artists and movements inform your work?: I'm so fortunate to live in an area with so many talented bead artists who take the time to teach some pretty awesome classes. Three of them are my heroes; Janet Skadsberg, Lisa Netzel, and Kelly Lightner, who were all so encouraging when I first started seed beading.

What do you find stimulating right now? How does this influence your creative process?: I live in the woods, and it's the way the color changes daily within the four seasons. I am always telling myself, "I've got to remember those colors together!" The colors in sunrises and sunsets, the contrasts of a clear blue sky against the sparkling snow crystals, or the many shades of greens in early spring when the leaves come back on the trees all inspire me. Also, just walking into my local glass shop, Peachies, is incredibly stimulating. I always leave there on overload, after being surrounded by so much beautifully done glass art hanging everywhere.

Read anything good lately?: Until beading took over my hands, I used to read quite a lot. The last book I read is One People, by Guy Kenneway. It is a hilarious true to life fiction, set a few decades ago in a small village on the western tip of Jamaica. I used to read a lot of Dean Koontz and Stephen King when I worked the midnight shift, but now I read less and bead more.

What are some of your artistic goals for the future?: I have so many goals for 2007! I hope to launch a new website in early 2007, featuring jewelry with a Reggae/Jamaica theme, and hopefully travel to at least one of the of bigger bead shows to gawk & take a class. I want to learn glass fusing and take a stained glass class or two, and definitely continue on with the lampwork bead making. There is a wide variety of classes offered at my local glass store and I plan to explore some of them. I have this grand necklace planned in my head that will be my rendition of the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior, that I want to start after the holidays.

What would you like your fellow EBSQ artists and collectors to know about you and or your work?: I have really enjoyed my time being a member of EBSQ so far, and have come in contact with some wonderful people here. Although I'm not here as much as I'd like to be, I plan on sticking around for the long haul. When I'm spending too much time at the computer I'm not doing anything with my beads! To any collectors that may be interested in my work, I want you to know that each piece is created carefully, professionally and passionately. You will not be disappointed.