 Jari Sheese began her love affair with beads as a college student in Lima, Peru in 1983. Immersing herself in all aspects of Peruvian culture, she became most intrigued by the street artisans selling jewelry on the sidewalks outside the University. After buying a set of pliers, wire and beads from the local handicraft market, she began her life changing journey by actually becoming a street artisan and surviving from the meager profits each day. Jari never looked back and continued down the creative path when she opened her bead store, Boca Loca Beads, in 1989. The amazing world of beads has allowed Jari to travel far and wide in search of unique and beautiful treasure for her store focusing in on all the great bead destinations of the world. The next creative stage of Jari's life began ten years ago when she offered a lampworking class at her shop. She was hooked immediately and quickly built a lampworking classroom in her store. Since that time, Jari's main focus has been working with glass. She has introduced this amazing artform to more than 500 students and recently enlarged her classroom to a 10 station state of the art lampworking studio. Over the last several years, Jari made a small side step into the niche of making glass buttons. These little works of art are sought after by button collectors all over the United States. Most recently, Jari Sheese received the 2007-2008 Creative Renewal Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis allowing her to travel to Venice and the Northern region of the Czech Republic in order to explore and exchange ideas with other lampworkers.
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In this two-day workshop, 
Working off mandrel is very liberating and allows a new freedom to controlling glass. Students will learn how to create a variety of buttons with glass shanks using very tiny punties and a tungsten probe. This same technique can be used for making pendants and earrings. The key to centering a pattern, laying on a twistie and creating geometrical designs will be taught in this portion of class. First of all, a button is a fabulous clasp for any necklace or bracelet. A button can be converted into a pendant simply by changing the shank from the back of the button to a loop on the top. I love to work without mandrels and bead release. I grew so much as a lampworker when I put down my mandrel and thought of the other possibilities. 
