Ornamental Elements

Valerie Hector approaches beadwork as linking bits of color. She has a reverence for the artists who preceded her and the history of the materials.  “You follow in the footsteps of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of beadworkers of other centuries, and anticipate those who will follow you in the centuries to come. In a sense, you form one small link in a vast metaphorical web of beadworkers that stretches from past to present,uniting beadworkers of the Eurasian Ice Age of ca. 25,000 years ago, to beadworkers in the early 21st century. This imaginary web, not unlike the one evoked in Nam Dev’s poem (see top of this page), unites beadworkers of all races, cultures, religions and nationalities. Each beadworker is a radiant point of light, invisibly connected to beadworkers in the immediate area, and to beadworkers in the far distance.”