Seeing the beaded jewelry created by Sherry Serafini takes your breath away. It is impossible not to admire the talent and skill of this artist. Embroidered with beads for a long time. Noble ladies spent hours on this work, embroidering various items, most often they were handbags, belts, paintings. Icons were embroidered with beads and pearls. Beadwork is a very laborious and lengthy process, it takes a long time, but what a result!
Sherry Serafini is an American beaded jewelry designer. Possessing a unique imagination, she creates works of art that have repeatedly won many international beading competitions.
Her works are amazing and original beaded jewelry. Some of them resemble jewelry that came out of past centuries, you look at them as if they were a museum rarity that archaeologists accidentally found somewhere, and it belonged to some famous empress or an ancient beautiful princess.
Sherry Serafini first trained as a graphic designer at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. After working for some time in the advertising department of a newspaper, Sherry married and gave birth to her eldest daughter. It was in the early 90s, and in 1997 a tragic incident changed her life.
Sherry's mother was in a car accident and was in a difficult situation. Sherry devoted a long time to caring for her mother, and, being near the hospital bed, she began to make her first attempts at beaded needlework. Mom recovered, and Sherry acquired a new business, to which she devotes all her free time after her family.
Sherry works almost 24 hours a day, she gets up early - at 4 o'clock in the morning, in order to have time to do household chores, and then quickly do what she loves. Beading has long been her life's work, except, of course, her beloved daughters.
Modern bead embroidery is quite different from the one that was earlier in terms of the technique of execution and the materials used. How and what modern craftswomen use, Sherry Serafini tells in her master classes. She developed new embroidery techniques using natural materials.
Sherry uses in her works not only beads, but also Swarovski crystals, natural stones and pearls, leather, suede, velvet, as well as natural materials and sequins. In the color palette, she is attracted by natural brown shades. Most of all she dislikes red.
Her beaded masterpieces are familiar to many. Beaded jewelry has become an integral part of the style of many bohemians. They are worn by world famous people, artists, musicians. Steven Tyler is a big fan of Sherry's talent. He wears a beaded design on his jeans that Sherry made. The craftswoman spent about a year making two leather belts for Stephen Tyler. And also, she did the stage design for the Aerosmith concert.
Sherry Serafini's work is unique. Photos of her designer jewelry can be seen on the covers of the most popular magazines. Among the works of the craftswoman you can find bracelets and necklaces, rings and earrings, bags and belts made of beads.
Sherry Serafini jewelry for a special occasion, they will decorate a luxurious evening dress or create a unique image of an Egyptian or Scythian beauty.
«Egyptian jewelry for me they are also a source of inspiration, as they are also examples of the “vintage” style…”.
How are these masterpieces created? Sherry Serafini just starts weaving and everything happens by itself. "I never plan."
Sherry boldly experiments. Since about 2013, in combination with beads, Sherry began to use the shibori technique. Success was not long in coming, and today many modern artists, following Sherry, began to use the shibori technique in beading.
Shibori is a Japanese silk dyeing technique that folds or even twists when dyed, resulting in uneven color tones on the fabric. Modern dyes allow you to create a large color palette. This technique was used by the Japanese in the 8th century.
In addition to beads, she likes to return to her roots - drawing two-dimensional drawings, doing papier-mâché and illustration.
For 20 years, Sherry Serafini has made not only unique beaded jewelry, she is the author of many books on beading, although she herself still no-no, and she will open her favorite book "The New Beadwork", which has become a textbook for her, and now and source of inspiration.
“Art has become part of my soul. Even as a child, I was inspired by my grandmother's caskets filled with precious stones and antique jewelry. Love for costume jewelry and art led me to create beaded jewelry…”.
