Introduction: Mary Harding

                                                   altered image of ceramic pieces being glazed in my studio

Hello to all you readers of Art Bead Scene.  My name is Mary Harding. I am delighted, excited and honored to tell you that I have accepted  Heather Powers' invitation  to become a  member of  the ABS Team.  I have long been a follower of this wonderful blog and cannot tell you how pleased I am now to be writing blogs posts here.

I thought in this first post I would tell you something about me.  I am a ceramic bead maker and have been since 1998.  Although I am mostly self-taught, I did major in English and Art History in college and lived in England and Germany for a number of years as a guest and  participant in their visiting artists programs. I moved back to the United States and Upstate New York afterwards and have since been focused on the land in this beautiful rural farming area.   Once I began making ceramic beads, and pendants I found that my interests and inspirations were nature inspired.

 I love colors and enjoy hand painting the glazes onto my ceramic work.  I am especially interested in creating work that reflects the wild, native plants of where I live in Upstate New York.  The area is rich in pasture, woodlands and swamps.  It is these plants that I enjoy hanging out with for endless hours in my studio.  Since my studio is a long enough walk from my house, I see many of them each day as they grow and change along with the seasons of the year.  Right now there are only a few that have managed to stay above the thick layer of ice over our  land.

In addition to making ceramic beads, I enjoy learning about and experimenting with different media.  I like to 
design jewelry using art beads and try out different techniques. My favorites are off loom beading and working with wire.

Free form Herringbone stitch double wrap bracelet by Mary Harding with her handmade  fern frond copper button.

            Wire wrapped necklace by Mary Harding with her handmade ceramic and copper beads and toggle clasp

I am fortunate that I am able to share my experiments, skills and creations with others on my personal blog and each summer in the classes that I teach at the Thousand Islands Art Center in Clayton New York.

      One of the classes I taught last summer at the Thousand Islands Art Center in Clayton, NY.

Here at the Art Bead Scene Blog I will be starting out writing some tutorials and participating in Inside the Studio write ups and giveaways. I look forward to your  input and would love to have you leave a comment about future blog posts you would like to see from me here at the Art Bead Scene.  I am always open to new ideas and suggestions.

                                      Picture of me wearing my Louise Bourgeois  Maman shirt


You can see more of my work in my  Etsy shop and on on my website and Facebook page.

Thanks so much for stopping by.