Mother's Day Weekend...

You might have known her as Jenny Snyder at Bedford High School back in the 80's, but now you can see her as jewelry designer Jennifer Judd on Saturday, May 10th, at Elaine's Wearable Art in downtown Bedford.

Jen is lucky enough to be back in the local area--if you call Washington, D.C. local--as a US Air Force Major stationed at the Pentagon. Just over 16 years ago, she took on the challenge of an Air Force career and has enjoyed tours around the United States and even some time in Italy and Qatar.

Even though she wears camouflage at work, her jewelry art lets her show a more colorful side in her spare time. To make a break from her job as a human resource analyst during the day, she spends hours a week at her home workshop coming up with unique, funky and fun pieces of wearable art. Shopping is part of the thrill--finding fun beads in a variety of materials from recycled bottle glass to semiprecious faceted stones is a joy. She likes to discover glass artists who create one-of-a-kind handmade beads that add a flair to her projects. Her bracelet called "Jumble Love" was selected as the winner of the Beading Daily glass bead design challenge.

Another of her favorite techniques is to find a bunch of beads that might not seem to make sense together and sculpt them using wire into free-form funky focal pieces. Her "Hot Malasadas" is an example of jade, citrine, wood, and other materials working together for a fun and unique necklace that celebrated a recent vacation to Hawaii.

Featured materials:

- Sterling silver beads and components

- Semi-precious stones

- Lampworked glass beads

- Imported exotic glass beads--some of recycled glass

- Seed beads in lots of colors and sizes

- Leather cord

- Cotton fibers

Jen plans to demonstrate at Elaine's on Saturday (10-4):

- Bracelets featuring lampwork focal beads and fun combinations of stones, glass, & pearls

- Free-form bead and silver wire focal sculpting for necklaces