Bio - Mark and Mary Abbott

Growing up, I was always interested in science. My attention was first caught by the astronauts and the space program followed by science fiction, astronomy, physics, geology and so on. I was turned on to stones and mineral collecting, in the late 80's, by a camping trip up along the North Shore, with a presentation by a camp ranger at Gooseberry Falls talking about the Lake Superior agate, and a few days later by meeting an old collector in Grand Marais.

A few years later I met my wife Mary, and dragged her to some of the gem and mineral shows in the area. Her artists' soul was captivated by the beauty of stones, and she became interested in jewelry making: wire wrapping, beading and then silversmithing and goldsmithing. After a year or so of learning from local bench jewelers, many were saying that she should try selling her creations. So in the summer of 1993, at the same time as we were married, MO'R Designs was born.

Initially, we concentrated on selling Mary's hand-made jewelry at art and craft shows, and gem and mineral shows, on weekends. We quickly discovered, though that was a very slow process, and expanded to include many other things that interested us: things carved from stone, fossils, meteorites, ancient artifacts (Mary and I were both interested in history), and more.

Eventually, in 2002, we were offered the chance to have a storefront, where we were exposed to the general public (not just people interested in rocks or jewelry) every day. One repeated request we noticed very quickly, was when a number of people were looking at trade beads for sale (in amongst Roman artifacts, Pre-Columbian pottery, and other old things). They kept asking, "Don't you have 'regular' beads?". After hearing this very regularly for a couple months, we decided "Okay, let's try 'regular' beads". From visiting other bead shops in town, we knew that glass beads were much more prevalent that stone beads, and we were already a 'rock shop', so we decided to concentrate on stone beads.

In the ensuing 9 years, we've never looked back. We have met and become friends with many beaders and bead sellers. We love rocks and talking to others about rocks. And I have enjoyed trying to make a living out of something I love.

Stairway to Heaven Necklace class by Diane Fitzgerald

March 25th
at the Textile Center

Crystals provided by Swarovski,
a $50-60+ value!

Class Fee: $30.00
Kit Fee: $35.00

March 5, 2012 at the Textile Center
The speaker is Sandi Graves,
owner of Stormcloud Trading Co.
725 Snelling Avenue North in St. Paul.

An Exploration of Stitches and Beads

We'll be looking at what stitches are most common, but how beaders need to push past single stitches and combine them to accomplish the designs that are most prevalent today. Also, We'll look at color and surface finishes and how those can affect or detract from a design.
She will bring examples.

Leslie Granbeck will talk to us about
the history of felt, why fibers felt, and then show samples of items
felted using traditional
and contemporary methods.
We will then be able
to make a wet felted bead.