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A little more about the artist...
Mugglestone is the bead jewelry enterprise started by Pamela Beattie in 2001. She named it after her maternal grandmother, Lillian Sydney Mugglestone, who came to this country from Leicestershire, England. Lillian was strong, stylish, and interesting and the name seemed appropriate for the new endeavor. Serendipitously there is a stone of that name that looks like hematite, jasper and tiger eye swirled together.
After 37 years in the financial services industry in Denver, Houston, New York and San Francisco, Pam wanted to do something with the right side of her brain. With all that time dealing with numbers, sales, financial projections, and managing over 250 people, the change needed to be creative, and at a pace that was sane and fulfilling.
While in San Francisco, the home of all those hippies of the 60’s, she became fascinated with beads. In such a multicultural setting, every kind of bead, from all over the world, was available. And while being a responsible parent and employee in the 60’s, she had missed all the fun and bedazzlement of that era. There was no reason not to capture some of that now with jewelry that was stylish and colorful, with an urban sensibility.
Recently, Pam’s sister, Meg Pash, started making earrings with hammered sterling and gold-filled wires and unusual bead combinations. She is called the family “elvensmith” since her little hammer taps long into the night. Meg has recently added jewelry making to her continuing career as a professional singer and specialist in early music and dance. Though she holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, she gleefully veered off the classical path early in her career to explore many different kinds of music.
While her interest in jewelry is relatively new, Meg has always been an artisan in various media. As a grad student she had the great good fortune to work as a repairman and case fitter for a fine maker of historical woodwinds. Later, she made theatrical costumes and masks. In recent years, she and her husband, a sound engineer, have taken on the project of rehabbing an 1887 Victorian home in the historical district of Springfield, Massachusetts.
Pam’s son, John Beattie, is the family webmaster and designed the Mugglestone website at www.mugglestone.biz. John lives in San Francisco and works for a .com firm.
Jewelry from Mugglestone is all one of a kind, or in very limited editions. It is primarily in two basic types: 1) semiprecious and natural stones and 2) seedbead creations. The natural stone jewelry tends to be imposing, colorful and unusual. The seedbead pieces are made with miniscule beads but are lariats, collars and bracelets that are definitely noticeable.