This Venice artist and business owner 'thinks in beads'

VENICE — Marla Salezze owns a company called Beaded by Marla. But she doesn’t sell her finished jewelry.

Instead, she sells kits and instructions for numerous beadweaving projects in various color palettes for people to purchase and make their own jewelry. Those kits can be purchased online through her website, beadedbymarla.com.

Salezze, who has lived in Venice for eight years, is a native of Allentown, Pennsylvania, has a Bachelor of Arts degree in advertising and communications, with a minor in marketing, from Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland.

In addition to her website, people can see her art previously published multiple times in issues of Bead & Button, Beadwork, Beading Daily, Step by Step Wire and Cloth Paper Scissors magazines. She also has published a book entitled “Learn to Stitch Beaded Jewelry, 50+ Projects You’ll Love to Make,” where people can view her handmade jewelry designs and learn to make them, too.

Salezze discusses how she developed her lover of jewelry making and beadweaving and how she get ideas for her designs. This Q & A has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Do you teach or have you taught art? When and where?

I taught the art of beadweaving, a jewelry-making technique utilizing beads, needle and thread, for 10 years. I have taught classes, workshops and retreats across the country, including the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the To Bead True Blue Show in Tucson, Arizona, and bead cruises on the Royal Caribbean cruise line to various international destinations. I have also taught at local brick and mortar bead stores across the country, including Donna’s Beads, which is still open and located in Sarasota. I have also taught at the Venice Art Center.

What is your favorite art genre?

My favorite art genre to both admire and create in is beadwoven jewelry. I have an affinity for accessories and therefore I love creating unique and one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces I myself love to wear. I consider the jewelry I make to be wearable art and consequently anyone wearing my jewelry is a blank canvas showcasing my designs.

How did you get involved in creating art? Did someone inspire you, mentor you or train you?

I have always been fascinated by jewelry, specifically beads. I was in second grade when I first began making jewelry with beads. I was on the swim team and missed my shotgun start because I was making bracelets for my team members in our school colors. It was decided then that I would be an artist instead of an athlete!

I was self-taught in bead stringing during my elementary years, and then learned how to beadweave during high school, where I attended art classes at the Allentown Baum School of Art. I began creating my own beadweaving designs at that time and one thing led to another.

I began teaching my designs at local bead shops in Pennsylvania and was recruited to be on the Nunn Design Innovations Team, where I worked in research and development to create jewelry components for other beadweaving designers. I was eventually approached to write a beadweaving book to showcase my own designs and to teach other beaders classic beadweaving stitches and techniques. My book discusses nine beadweaving stitches and has over 50 projects beaders can make.

Where do you get your ideas for the art you create?

I always say I think in beads. I am inspired by everything I see. Whether it is a geographic pattern along a building in Mexico that inspires a bracelet shape, or the warm, rusty colors of the Arizona canyons that inspires a color palette for my next necklace. Everything I absorb in my life makes its way into my jewelry. You will definitely see my interpretation of the world in which I live, see and experience, in my artwork.

Why art and not some other craft or hobby? Any other passions?

While I do still enjoy swimming — despite my failed attempts at swim team —the water is what initiated my relocation to the Gulf Coast. I am invigorated and inspired by the salt water, the sun and scenery in Florida. I enjoy dipping my toes in other art mediums, such as painting, printmaking and collage. I just really love expressing myself through any form of creative outlet.

What are your favorite materials to work with?

I love creating jewelry with little Japanese seed beads, called delicas, and I adore the high quality and exquisite luster of working with Swarovski crystals. Since I’m a self-proclaimed “Pearl Girl,” I love incorporating Swarovski glass pearls and freshwater pearls into my designs, too. I also love creating with gemstones since each one has a special meaning. They allow a piece of jewelry, when worn, to offer the wearer an extra level of sentiment, such as labradorite for serenity or tiger eye for harmony.

What do your customers like to buy? Explain.

I love the design process and mostly enjoy creating jewelry that I can teach others to make. I prepare kits for my jewelry projects that include detailed instructions, graphic illustrations and all the supplies and tools an individual needs to recreate and make my design. My kits are the most popular items I sell. I have kits available for sale for most of the projects detailed in my book.

What Southwest Florida community inspires your art?

I was a longtime member of the Florida West Coast Bead Society and being surrounded by other individuals who have an appreciation and passion for the same medium in which you love to create in is so inspiring.

How important is the Venice Art Center to artists like yourself?

The Venice Art Center is a warm and welcoming place that encourages each and every participant to creatively express themselves and share their artistic talents with the community. I am a past instructor and current program director at the Venice Art Center, and I am tremendously grateful for the opportunity they have given me to share my talent with the community.

Writing is essential to calming my stress. What impact does your art have on your state of mind?

Beadweaving is a form of meditation for me. When I am on my bead board with my needle, thread and beads, I am in another world where I feel inspired, grounded and connected to the creative power within me. When I am beading a piece for a specific person, I always set an intention for them and attempt to infuse that intention into my creation for them.

Is there a style of art or material you have never worked with that you desire to try?

I have briefly worked with precious metal clay, also known as PMC, which I have really enjoyed. I would love to explore that medium, along with metalsmithing, to be able to create and incorporate more handmade components and findings into my beadwoven jewelry.