While attending a St Jude’s benefit show, Charley was blown away by the jewelry creations of Dale ‘Cougar’ Armstrong and asked to take classes. That was three years ago and now, to relax during “downtime” from her real job of making parts for American army tanks, Charley enjoys making wire jewelry. Her favorite projects are earrings because they can be easily made in an evening. Charley’s previous way to unwind included all types of small needlework. She is proud of her Cherokee heritage and often it influences her personal jewelry designs. A native of southeast Tennessee, Charley lives with her two furry companions, T-Bone and Maryjane

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Albina Manning was one of our Tucson 2012 Instructors! Discover Albina’s wire wrapping and weaving classes here: Albina Manning Course Listings
Jewelry designer and instructor Albina Manning was born in Yoshkar-Ola, Russia, a small town not far from Volga River. Ever since she was a child, Albina has loved doing anything by hand, especially knitting and sewing. She graduated from Mari State Pedagogical Institute and then worked for 9 years as a certificated elementary and physical education teacher in her hometown.

"Although I really loved my work as a teacher of young children, in 2003 my life changed a lot! I met my soul mate Peter and moved to Arizona where we were married, and a year later our beautiful daughter Anya was born. Then a Russian friend living in Japan sent me a beautiful, red beaded rose as a Christmas gift. I thought, ‘is it possible to make something as lovely as Mother Nature creates? Probably not, but sometimes copies can be worth that of the original.’ That is when I fell in love with beads and wire. My first experience was to make a beaded Money Tree. In spite of the fact that it looks like an old untrimmed tree and has a lot of ‘technical’ mistakes, I still love it."

Albina has taught at The Bead Museum, and at the J.O.G.S Gem & Jewelry Show, (where she and Dale ‘Cougar’ Armstrong became friends). Her work Bonsai Shakkan has been used by Fire Mountain Gems both as a back cover advertisement and inside their catalog. In 2009 Albina won the 1st Place Gold Medal award with her piece titled ‘Inca’s Gold Necklace’ in FMG’s wirework category. She presently teaches private classes and at The Beaderie.

Albina has written several E-books and has been published in ‘Art Bead Circle Magazine’ as well as the book Mixed Media Jewelry Techniques, a collaboration with Dale “Cougar” Armstrong and eight other talented jewelry artists. Learn more about Albina on her website: http://www.around-beads.info

Albina’s latest success is her Coiling and Weaving Wire Jewelry Designs Series, a 3-DVD series devoted to working with round wire to create beautiful designs, released in April 2011 through Wire-Sculpture.com:

Coiling and Weaving Series Set: 3 High-Definition DVDs	Beginner: Coil Drop Earrings and Arabian Bracelet
Intermediate: Sprig Earrings and Moonlight Pendant	Advanced: Golden Medallion Pendant and Viking Knit Chain

Be Sociable, Share!

•