Susan Etcoff Fraerman:
Traditional beading provides the springboard for my work. I’ve reinterpreted classic African and Native American stitches in a new way, both technically and thematically. I work intuitively, without loom, pattern or graph, allowing each bead to suggest the choice of the next. The beads, varying in texture, size, degree of translucency and hue, are woven in a free form interpretation of a classic stitch –right angle weave.

My work often speaks of contemporary issues: children in need, mutability of the body and the vicissitudes of life. The hand serves as metaphor in my most recent body of work. Fist tightly closed, fingers open and upright, one finger beckoning, extended upturned palm - are all universal signals.

Cassandra employs the beads as one element – assemblage as the other. In her delicate fingers, the enigmatic Cassandra holds the past, the present and the future.

My creative life began as an actor with the Boston Children’s Theater – a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theater followed. Narrative beadwork satisfies my creative impulse through many of the same devices and materials used in the theater. In both my fiber art and in acting, there is the catharsis achieved through the expression of emotion. Similarity can also be found in the subtext of the script, the narrative; the texture of the found objects, the props; the beauty of costume, the cloak of beads; and finally, in the presence of the viewer, the audience. I now have maturity and far greater life experience to bring to a creative process. How fortunate I feel to have found the vocabulary of beadwork.

Trickster Box	Trickster - Detail
Cassandra	Cassandra - detail
One Soul	Noah