Face to face: meet Susan Sassoon!

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In this new series of articles I would like to introduce you beaders,

who do not make a living from beadwork but keep it as a hobby in their free time.

Have fun reading!

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Susan Sassoon is an architect, living and working on Long Island, in a suburb of NYC. She has a very bead supportive husband who helped furnish her bead room, a fashion conscious daughter who tells her when a design doesn’t work, and a really cute little dog who makes her smile and is careful to never spill the beads. When she’s not working or beading, she enjoys theater, taking walks, and traveling.

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Susan Sassoon has an Etsy shop with her beadwork tutorials, and you can follow her on Facebook, too.

When and how did you start to create? How did you learn to bead?
Did you also try other techniques?

I was very much into all types of arts and crafts when I was young. Once I had kids, there was no more time. I remember my last craft project was sewing all of the baby items I needed such as crib bumpers, a quilt, a car seat cover, and some small stuffed toys for the baby. Once the baby was born, there was certainly no more time for crafts. I enjoyed doing arts and crafts projects with the kids, but my own work was put aside. One day, when my kids were older, I saw my neighbor beading on the train to NYC. She was on her way to shop at the city’s many bead stores. I was fascinated with the work she was doing, and was soon visiting her home to see all of her creations. I asked her to teach me and she gladly helped me get started. I then found lots of bead blogs, YouTube videos, books, and classes at my local bead stores and I couldn’t get enough. I learned as many different techniques as I could and began designing from the very first piece I created.

 

Tell us about the piece of jewelry you are the most proud of!

It was very exciting for me to get my “Curlicue Necklace” published in Beadwork Magazine (December 2014 issue) and then get my beaded business card holders published in Bead and Button Magazine (February 2016). But I think my favorite piece is my Stained Glass Soutache necklace as it is one of a kind and really feels like a piece of artwork. I learned the technique to make this from Liisa Turunen and I am still experimenting with different ideas using this technique.

 

Where do you like to create? Do you have a designated area in your home where you keep your beads and play with them?

I pretty much took over my basement to gradually turn it into a beading studio. It used to be a home office, and then was refurnished to become a TV/media room. Now it’s a hobby room. My husband has a small table where he builds model airplanes, and I took over the rest of the room to house my bead collection, finished pieces, photo booth, bead books, and work space. My favorite workspace is on the reclining couch and under my Ott light. I bead every day after work while watching TV or listening to an audio book and checking Facebook, and playing a few hands of online Scrabble.

 

What is your favorite stitch? Which colors do you like the most? On the other hand, is there any color or color combination you don’t like?

I love CRAW, herringbone, peyote and netting. I usually work in bronze, gold, silver, black, turquoise and purple. I love shiny and sparkly beads. I find myself shying away from the warmer colors and earthy tones, but will occasionally enjoy working with those colors as well. I really like to change things up a lot and try different things.

 

Do you follow instructions or do you like to develop your own designs?

While I enjoy learning the techniques that other designers offer in their patterns, I have a hard time following instructions – I always see ways of changing patterns and I like to explore where these ideas will take me. Sometimes when I begin with a pattern, the final result will look nothing at all like the original pattern.

 

Who are your favorite designers? Why?

Miriam Shimon was one of the first designers to inspire me. Her floral designs and her soutache work have such beautiful shapes and colors! I was lucky enough to travel to Israel to take a class with her. I also fell in love with the work of Liisa Turunen and Glenda Paunonen. I saw their work at Beads Gone Wild in Florida and was so impressed with their creative designs that exude elegance and look like fine jewelry. I was also thrilled to take a class from Liisa during one of my visits to Florida.

 

Do you have a favorite bead shop? Tell us about it!

All of them!! I love to visit different bead shops when I travel. Each one is as different as each owner’s personality. It is so much fun to see all the different types of beads and the different ways they are displayed. My favorite shops are the ones that carry materials for many different techniques. While I love bead weaving the best, I like to dabble in everything from stringing, to wire work, to chain maille, soutache, bead embroidery, macrame, kumihimo and bead crochet.

 

Which is the bead / component in your stash which you treasure the most? Where and how did you get it? Do you already have plans how to use it?

I can’t say that there is one piece like that. There are many! I keep most of my favorite beads in a drawer that I call “special beads”. It’s fun to look at them, and think about what I might do with them, but I often don’t want to use them because then I won’t have them as beads anymore! It’s silly, but I don’t want to part with them (even if they would wind up in my jewelry collection).

 

Have you ever visited a bead show, a cruise or any other meeting dedicated to beading? If yes, tell us about the experience!

I’ve been to many local bead shows, but my most favorite is the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee. I was there in 2014 and 2015, staying for 4 – 5 days. It was so full of energy, excitement, creativity and wonderful people – I was in heaven! One of my favorite things to do is to get together with other beaders. I organize a group that meets in our local Panera twice a month. I also attend 2 other local beading groups organized by friends. It’s great to share ideas, teach each other techniques, and to see what we are all working on.

 

Is there a beadwork-related book you would like to recommend to other beaders? Or maybe a clever storage solution or any other trick to make a beader’s life easier?

If I had to chose one book, I’d recommend Carol Cypher’s book, Mastering Beadwork. She covers so many different stitches with some simple but fun and colorful projects. When people ask me for advice on how to begin to learn bead weaving, I usually point them to Jill Wiseman’s videos. I think she is an amazing teacher and she has very professional videos that begin with the very basics. For more advanced beaders, I recommend the workshops taught by the many international traveling bead artists.

I love my storage drawers! I used to keep my beads in stackable boxes, but it was time consuming to put the beads away properly as I had to move the other boxes out of the way and open up the lids, etc. Now, everything is in clear plastic drawers with labels on them. It is very easy to just slide open the correct drawer and throw the tube or small bag of beads into the drawer and be done with the cleaning up. It is also very easy to find what I need quickly.

 

What are your plans for the future as a beader? Is there something you would really like to learn or an instructor you would like to meet?

I really enjoy designing and sharing my designs with others. I write up some of my favorite designs and sell the tutorials on Etsy. When people buy them and then post what they make on Facebook, it is very gratifying! The wonderful comments that beaders leave me about my designs lift my spirits tremendously!

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Thank you very much for answering my questions, Susan.

I wish you a lot of inspiration and beads!

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