Staff
Let's Bead! has an incredible staff of instructors to help you discover your inner beader! Each instructor has different skills and expertise to create a unique learning experience for her students.
Cathy Batchelor
Cathy can't remember when she hasn't been making jewelry - she's been at it at least since she was a preteen. Texture and color are most important to Cathy, and she loves learning new techniques for different types of jewelry making - seed bead, pearl knotting, wire work - she likes it all.
Cathy has taken dozens of classes with local and nationally known teachers. As for her favorite time to bead, Cathy says classes are the best time to bead, since there are no interruptions. Although she tries to bead all the time, there's never enough time to bead! Cathy loves seeing what other people are doing - to be inspired by, and to inspire others - she loves to bring out creativity. Cathy is also PMC certified.
Julie Brancato
Julie Brancato lives in Henrietta with her husband. When she is not working, she spends her time creating jewelry. What started out as a hobby 11 years ago has turned into a passion! Her first love is working with sterling wire, hand crafting individual chains, links, findings, and chain maille. She uniquely crafts each piece, often combining her own lampwork beads, gemstones, and sterling wire work.
Terry Byrne
Terry Byrne has been beading since 1993. Her area of expertise is bead-weaving, stringing, and basic wire-working techniques. Terry has the reputation around the store for making the perfect wrapped loop. Ask her how!
Terry loves to bead in her studio whenever she can find the time, but she is definitely not an early morning beader! She loves working with beads and wire, and loves many different stitches, depending on what she is making and what pattern she wants to incorporate into the design. Before coming to Let's Bead!, Terry taught at the Weaving and Fiber Arts Center for six years.
Molly Colegrove
Molly Colegrove is mainly a fiber artist, but also a bead artist. Beading since 1967, and creating fiber since the 1980's, Molly loves to seed bead, bead embroider, bead with peyote, herringbone and netting stitch. She also dabbles in fused glass, lampwork glass, copper enameling, weaving, kumihimo, and loves to spin, felt and rug hook sculptural objects.
Molly has an extensive resume of exhibits, including "Pushing the Limits: New Concepts in Rug Hooking", Newtown Hooked Rug Show, Newtown, Ct., where she was awarded Best in Show October 2009. She has also been published in several books and periodicals, including Rug Hooking Magazine and Beadwork. In addition to her classes at Let's Bead!, Molly offers workshops in Fiber Arts at local studios and museums.
Debbie Coller
Debbie Coller, BS in Art Education, Nazareth College, started making jewelry - specifically wire jewelry - at an early age. She would “borrow” her Dad's tools and wire and disappear for hours pounding and creating with wire!
Debbie still loves creating and often signs her emails Mom, Wife, Friend, and Artist. She takes each of those titles seriously as a mother of two wonderful children. Her time in the studio is limited, but she spends so much time sketching, journaling, and asking "what if" when she is away from the studio, that much of her time is spent on art. She eats, sleeps, and yes, dreams in beads! As a teacher, Debbie loves watching the light go on with people of all ages as they explore the world of jewelry.
You can visit Debbie's website at www.artisticambitionsjewelry.com.
Susie Cotsworth
After 30 years of teaching and making primitive folk art in her Brockport business, Susie Cotsworth has shifted her passion to "bead art". After raising their two children in Brockport, Susie and her husband of 42 years moved to the shore of Lake Ontario in Hamlin. Living on the lake has provided Susie with a renewed awareness of what is most valuable in her life. She uses her connection to nature, spirituality, and Native American wisdom to inspire her loom and beadwork designs. Susie has recently become PMC certified, and hopes to combine these techniques to create designs that tell her stories.
Mary Elter
Mary Elter has been beading for more than 40 years. Mary loves bead stringing, bead embroidery, and anything to do with Metal Clay! Mary began her beading career by making rosaries for the missions with her father.
Mary loves beading any time of day, especially with friends. She is also a Rio Grande PMC Certified Artisan.
Susan Jefferson
Susan Jefferson is a self-taught beader and self-proclaimed artist! Susan learned the techniques of seed beading from books and magazines, and loves to experiment to create her own designs. She has been known to spend hours in her home studio perfecting a new stitch, or creating an intricate pattern to match a scarf or blouse!
Susan loves the classroom because she can share her love of beading with others, and pass along tips she has learned along the way. There is no better way to learn something than to do it thousands of times! Susan also likes to experiment with other materials and techniques such as metal clay, glass, and polymer clay. She loves playing and designing with color, and has been known to become so obsessed with a design that she makes one to match every outfit!
You can also read more about Susan's beading tips and techniques on the The Beader's Blog.
Janis Loehr
Janis has been coordinating colors and working with seed beads for more than 10 years. After many years of enjoying needlework, the beads have taken over! Janis especially enjoys bead embroidery and off-loom techniques such as peyote, herringbone, right-angle weave, and St. Petersburg chain. She loves to share her enthusiasm with others and is always happy to teach and guide others in various techniques. Janis loves learning new techniques to share with students, and makes time to learn new skills by regularly taking classes from nationally known instructors.
Eugenia (Gene) McLouth
Gene McLouth has been beading for about 4 years. Although her favorite is knitting with beads, she also loves to do beaded projects in miniature. She often finds herself sorting through her beads and imagining them in a design. Letting her imagination run wild is part of her creative process! Gene's favorite time of day to bead is 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. Whenever!
Gene has been knitting for about 50 years, and was thrilled to include beads into her knitting projects. Gene learned to bead by taking classes. Says Gene, "Taking a class is pure luxury. You come in and all the ingredients are available, plus a teacher!" Gene has also learned from reading books and by searching the Internet. She is very stubborn and will not be defeated by a bead project! Gene has also used her creativity with rubber stamping, quilting, and embroidery. Now Gene has added beads to everything - beaded cards, beaded quilts, and one of her favorites, beaded embroidery.
Kara Seay
Kara has been designing and making jewelry for almost 16 years. Her background in Interior Design gives her a great sense of color and balance for designing jewelry. Kara loves to use semi-precious stones and Bali sterling silver beads. Inspired by the great selection of components at Let's Bead!, Kara challenges herself to come up with one of a kind designs, which are frequently on display in the store. Kara does much of her designing at Let's Bead!, but her favorite time to bead is when her house is quiet, which doesn't happen too often with two young boys!
Kerry Stich
After graduating from Syracuse University with a BS degree in Personnel Management, Kerry worked for over 15 years in the retail industry as a Human Resources Executive. Kerry became interested in Personal Color Analysis after observing the dramatic effect wearing the right colors had on a co-worker. She realized what an important resource this simple natural tool would be, not only to people in the Human Resources field, but to those in all professions. Kerry was certified in Personal Color Analysis in 2004 and has been working to bring professional personal color analysis to the Rochester community ever since. As a co-founder of Bella Bleu Color, Kerry has overseen the design and development of all aspects of the business.
You can visit the Bella Bleu Color website at www.bellableucolor.com.
Website photography by David Hoffend