Saturday, March 28th, 12:00pm-3:00pm

Karen Woodman and her brother Michael Woodman will be the first artists featured in our Saturday afternoon artist in residence series.  In addition to showing their work, Karen will teach the peyote stitch which she uses to make beaded bracelets and jewelry.

Artist Bios

Karen M. Woodman is a long-standing Gainesville, Florida resident and has been working as an artist and depicting scenes for over 35 years. Having been trained in early childhood education in Salem, MA., Karen moved to Gainesville Florida 20 years ago. Karen has a long history of teaching the arts. Her early love is in ceramics and pottery and remains her favorite medium while teaching painting classes. Her vibrant paintings in oil and acrylic are rendered in vivid detail and glowing true to life colors. She paints everyday, which provides her with a solitude and inspiration necessary due to a crippling back injury. Her latest creations are in beaded jewelry, including the difficult, time-consuming French flower work. Besides teaching oil painting, she has taught ceramics classes and is constantly teaching beading classes. Karen is best known and primarily makes her living designing and creating fine jewelry.

Michael Woodman is a local artist living in Gainesville, Florida for the past 20 years. He specializes in digital photography, photography with computer manipulation and stained glass. Michael has recently developed a passion for the art of fusing glass. Working in warm glass involves technical skill and precise planning in preparation for the process where the elements are alone to heal. The whole process requires intense knowledge of what is expected to happen while allowing very little margin for error. His journey in glass a personal and intense study of experimentation coupled with technique to create swirly, chaotic, and colorful glass designs that are cut, shaped, polished, and used to enhance his compositions. Depending on the particular piece, the glass Michael uses may be transparent or opalescent; textured or smooth; glossy or satiny. However, the common theme is his use of geometric shapes with wild chaotic design elements. Michael is presently the Membership Chair and serves on the board of the Gainesville Fine Arts Association. His work can be seen in shops throughout north and central Florida.

Peyote Stitch

Native Americans have been the most giving, sharing people throughout our more contemporary beading history. Their sharing of techniques is one of the reasons for the resurgence of beading today. We do not know when this stitch was first created by Native Americans, just as we do not know when Africans discovered the stitch. Established trade routes in ancient times made it possible for beading and stitchery techniques to pass from one group of people to another and variations of the stitch evolve. On the other hand, Native Americans as well as Africans may have discovered this stitch individually. If you take beads, thread and a needle and play with them enough, you will come up with the same stitches another person discovered on their own. Such is history. It repeats itself.

The Peyote stitch is a side-to-side stitch usually in one direction. The use of different types of beads makes it a versatile stitch giving many different looks and styles to your jewelry from necklaces, earrings, broaches and bracelets. It is a fun and easy stitch to learn especially for beginners.