Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Los Gatan does the bead scene

By Shari Kaplan

Environmental toxicology and beads?

As deftly as she blends the colors and patterns of her handmade earrings, Sigrid "Sig" Wynne-Evans successfully combines her "day job" as an industrial hygienist for the state with her "addicting hobby" of beadwork.

Once a single mom struggling through UC-Davis, Wynne-Evans is the self-published author of four books on beadwork, with another one waiting in the wings.

When she is not at work investigating companies that may be out of compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards, she is at work in her Los Gatos home, surrounded by the sweet smell of incense and the ubiquitous boxes and bags of beads, thread and needles.

Wynne-Evans says arts and crafts were always of interest to her, and they function as a creative outlet. While living in upstate New York, her home state, she became intrigued by the exquisite beadwork created by an acquaintance. She ordered a beadwork book sight-unseen from a bookstore catalog and proceeded to teach herself how to make earrings.

Her colorful repertoire has expanded over the years to include detailed necklaces, amulet bags, pins and animal and human sculptural beadwork figurines.

"Beading is rather odd. Either you really hate it, or you love it, and it consumes you," she says. "It gets to the point where it's so hard to put your work down that suddenly it's two hours later--or you stay up to get just one more row done, and one more row."

Wynne-Evans is a frequent artisan at craft fairs and a contributor to several periodicals on beadwork and other creative endeavors. She is also familiar with selling on consignment. Being on the "bead scene," as it were, she says she has noticed a trend among buyers is a preference for Native American, Celtic and Goddess-inspired motifs in bead jewelry.

"Being of a spiritual bent myself, I try to bring that stuff in," she adds. Among animal designs, wolves, bears and cats fare well, as do flowers.

It's ironic, she says, that although she can't draw much of anything on a blank sheet of paper, if she has a grid in front of her, she can create a bead pattern for just about anything.

"People are so used to seeing regular earrings that when they see these designs, they're amazed at how much detail you can get with beads," she says, going through her stock of bright baubles to point out various sizes, shapes and color finishes of small seed beads, long bugle beads and other varieties usually known only to aficionados like herself.

For those who would like to know more, Wynne-Evans conducts classes on a changing basis at local bead shops, including 3 Beads & A Button in Cupertino and The Bead Shop in San Jose's Town and Country Village. She also arranges private instructions.

But a certain caveat is always there, as explained on the back cover of her latest book, An Earful of Designs : "For those who are new, beware! This is an addicting hobby."

For more information about beading, call Wynne-Evans at 379-8647.