Face to Face: Meet Irene Landaw

I started to create when I was tiny. The first thing I remember was a puppet of a witch I made from a piece of egg carton. The tall pyramidal dividers looked like pointy nose and chin to me. I got mom to find me grey yarn I think for hair and used a black sleeve from a discarded garment for the body of the puppet. I am guessing I might have been four.

I went to the High School of Music and Art in New York City and majored in visual arts. It was the most amazing 4 years-surrounded by musicians, artists, poets. I wanted to be a children’s book illustrator or the editor of the New Yorker, but somehow I became a pediatrician instead. I learned needlepoint and cross stitch during my Pediatric residency, and continued both, with a little quilting, including after  I discovered classes in making jointed mohair teddy bears (like Steiff).  I made a lot of those as my friends and I had our babies.

About 25 or 30 years ago I saw a torsade necklace I loved in the shop at the Museum of Natural History in NYC while visiting my family. It was all shades of grey and purple; amethysts and pearls. I couldn’t afford it, but I had seen a bead store near my new home in California, so I went there and tried to reproduce it. The ladies were very helpful, and I made a beautiful version of that necklace, but I am not sure I saved any money! They had many beadwoven projects on display there, and I was mesmerized. I took my first basic peyote class there and was instantly hooked! I took many classes there and at big bead retreats before bead stores and retreats started to disappear-long before the pandemic. I have been lucky enough to take classes  in person, and later by zoom, with wonderful artists like Cynthia Rutledge, Laura McCabe, Jean Power, Katalin Budaine-Nagy, and so many others.

Since discovering beading, I have spent very little time on other craft hobbies. I would love to learn to knit, but I don’t have time, space, or money for another obsession!

Is beadwork your hobby or profession? How does your average day look like? When do you have time to create?  

I am now retired as a pediatrician, doing only volunteer work, so beading has always been a hobby. Somehow while working and raising my two children and caring for many many pets I managed to find time to take several in person classes/year and finished almost everything! Imagine that! I used to bring needlepoint or cross stitch, and later bead weaving, to our morning and noon medical meetings. At first the leaders were very concerned, but they quickly noticed I asked and answered many relevant questions and, unlike many colleagues, I NEVER fell asleep, so they had to admit it was helping, not hindering, my concentration. Pretty soon others were bringing their knitting and needlework to meetings too.

In 2018 my husband was diagnosed with brain cancer, and he died in 2021. It was catastrophic, and it still is. During his illness and since I have beaded furiously to keep myself at least a little sane, which was very useful during the pandemic as well. The advent (our favorite word!) of Zoom beading classes has been a blessing and a curse. I have taken hundreds of classes, but there are not enough hours in the day to finish everything! The proliferation of UFOs makes me anxious. So I am trying to slow down so I can finish more, AND do more projects of my own design. When the “bead mojo” is strong, my other duties suffer. I have a beautiful large yard and garden, and many indoor plants, which are sometimes neglected if I spend all my time beading. But my dog makes sure I get outside and get some exercise!

What did beading bring to your life?

Beading has brought so much beauty and creativity to my life. When I am stressed or grieving or in pain, it is a very soothing form of meditation. When I am creating something new, the excitement is thrilling. Sometimes I think of a new variation or color palette right before falling asleep and I am so excited I can’t I have met many wonderful people through beading as well, including a friend in Finland with whom I have traveled.

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

That is a hard one! I love color and so creating new colorways is my specialty. My sense of spatial relations is terribly underdeveloped (be glad I’m not a surgeon!), so I sometimes struggle with 3 dimensional shapes, unless the instructions are written in a very precise way that fits my weird neural pathways. I’m also not very good at engineering, so creating in reality a structure that is in my mind is not my strong suit! I have several original complex projects in mind which are not completed, but there are a few pieces, or series’ which have evolved from classes of which I am proud.

It began with completion of earrings and stands of Jean Power’s Cosmic Crystals, which were originally designed as pendants. I decided to make them earrings, and reversed the colors in the pattern between the two. That was fun.

While doing that I realized that the pendants could be strung on very fine chain as beaded beads, and I wondered what they would look like in solid colors with matching central bicones. So I tried it in jewel tones and I love the result. The bicones catch the light in a way that is enchanting and mysterious, since the colors are the same as the surrounding delicas. That necklace is much cleaner and simpler that most pieces I make but gets so much attention and admiration when I wear it.

While making the little triangles which are in the center of each side, I noticed they reminded me of peacock eye feathers.While making the first electric blue beaded bead, it occurred to me the shape was not unlike the breast of a peacock. And so, my peacock Cosmo was born. I actually made him a hinged box to hold a (very)tiny treasure. I thought I would hang him up, but I have kept him instead as a tiny art object and talisman.

My husband was a very talented biochemist who worked in pharmaceutical development. He was “married” to a tiny macaw parrot before we met.  One year I had portraits made of each of us based on our beloved Harry Potter books, by artist Micah Hendricks. I had her make him Potions Master. He loved it.  When he was ill, dear bead designer/teacher Alexandra Sydorenko surprised me by making his portrait into a cabochon. This year I made it into a simple embroidered brooch and gave it to our daughter, who was good at chemistry like he was.

Where do you like to create? Do you have a designated area in your home where you keep your beads? Can you show it to us?

Oh my goodness! I usually bead in my armchair in front of the TV, or on the kitchen table.  I have never been good about organizing my stash, which has grown exponentially since joining the Beadingschool. Since my children have their own homes and my husband is gone, my beads have spread out all over the big house to every room except the bathrooms! If you are coming to visit, be sure to give me enough notice to clear the guest beds of beads! I am gradually trying to organize this massive inventory and create a bead room where my son’s room used to be, but it is a slow process!  I do waste hours and hours every week looking for beads I can’t find, and I order things I already have, so I am determined to organize it all, no matter how long it takes.

What is your favourite stitch? Which colours do you like the most? On the other hand, is there any colour or colour combination you try to avoid? 

I love peyote stitch, and it is definitely my best. I just finished my first project of mostly brick stitch, which was quite a learning process. My tension for herringbone has always been inconsistent, but is getting better.

I love so many colors, but the turquoises and teals might be my favorite. I adore the blue/purples, from periwinkle to indigo. I love pinks, and had great fun making Barbie jewels this summer. I love jewel colors on black backgrounds, so they really pop! I love black, red and gold together!

I love yellow, orange, and green in nature, but I almost never wear them. However, I combining orange with fuschia is acceptable ;). I can handle some blue-greens, but not yellow-greens (and my birthstone is peridot!). I was therefore very surprised when I fell in love with Marianne Epping’s color palette for Amyris. I had to replicate it and then make matching Genlis, and I adore the set even though it contains all my  “forbidden” colors. I guess it’s all about how the colors “play together, isn’t it?”

Do you follow instructions or do you like to develop your own designs? How would you define your style?  

I most often follow instructions but often create my own color palettes. I also enjoy combining different structures as in the Cosmic Crystal series and the black/orange/green set. I am not good at creating new thread paths, but may be ready to try! I definitely have a couple of original designs which are aching to make it out of my head and onto my mat! They will not be structurally complex, though. My style is very eclectic, artistic, and colorful. It ranges from clean geometry to ornate and baroque. It is often playful. There is no style I would not try!

Who are your favorite designers? Why? 

Well of course I adore all the Beadingschool designers. The thread paths and structures are so original and clever I don’t even know what to call them most of the time. They are almost always quicker and more “finishable” than my other class projects, which is immensely satisfying. I often work and complete 3 beading school projects during the time I am “supposed” to be completing my last bead Zoom project. And I LOVE the sparkle and the unique, beautiful components we can get-ask the Treasury Ladies how often I order!

Some of my other favorites are Jean Power, Cynthia Rutledge, Katalin Budaine-Nagy, and Melissa Grakowsky-Shippee. All of them write really clear step by step verbal instructions with really great diagrams or photos, so I struggle less than with some other designers, who are just too hard for my brain to handle. Jean has  made Contemporary Geometric Beadwork accessible to me, Cynthia’s are much more ornate than Jean’s. Kata’s embroidery projects are different, with glorious colors, and can actually be finished in less than a lifetime! And Melissa has very eclectic designs, but always beautiful and lyrical.

Do you have a favorite design by Erika? Tell us about it! 

I love Swallowtail, though it was tricky for me. It was probably my first Beadingschool project, and all the techniques were new to me. I’d love to find time to do more and see if I got better! I love Red Lak and Amyris and lots of the new ones.
The favorite ones I haven’t made yet but are on top of my list are Tirana, Coumarin, Angel Wings, Theodora, Chandr Devee, and the Harmony set-that’s a LOT!

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

I’m using real opals to make a jellyfish. I had a porcelain cab made of a painting I loved, and need to finish making it into the unique piece I’ve been dreaming about for years!