My name is David Bingell, and together with my wife, Charlene, we wish to give you a visual feast of beadwork.  My passions are for designing and executing my own bead work, and for collecting bead work from various  cultures around the world. 

Charlene cares for me deeply in many ways, including advising me with all of my the financial decisions I make.  I would love to believe that I am purely an artists, with no thoughts or concerns for restocking my supplies.  However, many people ask to purchase my work, and this creates a situation that drains me of my supplies, and must restore myself to a full and interesting collection of beads for my work.  I now have turned this into an "advanced hobby,"  and sell the one of a kind pieces through this website with Charlene's assistance.

Throughout the site, please take note too of Charlene's ventures, and use them as needed.

Now, before I start with my story, I must say that somewhere in Southern Africa, I am someone's daughter!  While I was in college, I was showing my bead work to a group of women from South Africa.  They loved the fact that I, a man, was interested in "women's work," that I was a White Man interested in Black African craft.  But mostly, the fact that I was good!  Then one woman leans over, gropes me, and gleefully announces to all that "yes, ladies, this IS a man!"  It seems that she was making some sort of claim of my talents, in short, I was her daughter!  I couldn't get my professor to explain what happened then, as he couldn't breathe he was laughing so hard!

I have been a beader nearly my whole life.  Growing up around the San Carlos Apache Tribe, I was exposed to beadwork at an early age.  Some of my earliest memories is handling the Apache beaded necklaces of my mother, my Apache godmother or any other Apache woman who were holding me. 

As a teenager, we lived in an area where kids didn't have afternoon jobs, but afternoon chores at home.  So when I started to feel a "need" for pocket money, my sister taught me how to string liquid silver necklaces that were all the rage then. 

After High School, I went into the military, and I found it funny that so many people had no knowledge about men wearing jewelry, or beadwork.  So when I would go home on leave, I was given a long list of different things to bring back.  I spent most of each leave at home, beading!

Charlene and I started our family while in the military, and when we needed inexpensive activities for the kids, of course I would turn to beads.

When I entered college, I needed a stress reliever, and took a class for Peyote Stitch.  From that point on, I am completely self-taught.  I earned my BA in Anthropology and then interned with the Gerald R. Ford Conservation Center in Omaha, Nebraska.  This is where I started to learn the importance of Preventive Conservation and its application to my precious love of beads and beadwork.

I went to Graduate School at UNL and earned my degree in Museum Studies.  It was required that students serve an internship during their course of studies; I did two.  My first was at the Bead Museum in Glendale, Arizona in 2000, and the second at the Nebraska Museum of History.  I attempted to earn a double major, in both Museum Studies and Anthropology, as I saw the need in both fields in caring for both personal and professional collections.  I devoted my studies for an Anthropology degree to the specialization of understanding what can affect beadwork. 

Since that time, I have conducted several museological surveys on jewelry and beadwork, identifying the conditions of decay, tribal affiliations in the origins of their collection, and even finding beadwork the museum had written off as being “lost in the collection.”  Tenacious is the word for my approach to beads!

As to private surveys, I can say that I can’t give an accurate representation of that number.  Some people, especially at bead shows would come up with their "problem child" piece and ask my opinion.

Some of the highlights in my career has been to work on a sacred N'dee ceremonial dress.  Generally, men aren't allowed to touch these pieces, but because of time and need, I was given permission by their Medicine Man to work on the pieces.  It didn't take long, but it helped out a lot, or so I've been told.

Other times that I've been brought together with Tribal individuals, was a session a friend and colleague organized for a Health and Wellness conference.  It was amazing!  By the end of my time with the individuals from Canada, to Maine, back to California and down to Mexico.  I was repeatedly told that it's good that someone of education and intelligence will be available for Tribes and their collections needs.  Saying I was humbled doesn't begin to describe that experience.
 

Please understand that I am not a professional Conservator.  This is a different field of study, and I have elected to keep my study of beadwork in a Preventive Conservation classification.  The reason for this is simple; it’s impossible to accurately replace beads from one time period to another.  It’s difficult to reproduce the technique with 100% accuracy; the best that can be done is to dismantle the entire piece, and reconstruct it – a practice I’ve seen done, but do not condone.  It’s much easier to keep beadwork healthy from the start, rather than trying to find the original materials.

To see my a couple of my articles, please refer to the August/September 2003 issue of Beadwork “Four Easy Steps to Conserve Your Beadwork.” Also 44 (4) October 2001 issue of Curator,  A Museum Journal “A Beadwork Primer.”

Sincerely,

David Bingell

My question is simple:  Is this STILL the Ship of Thesius?  So it is with beadwork; how much can be taken away and replaced before the beadwork ceases to be the original artist’s interpretation?

My wife, Charlene, runs a business from our home that gives special discounts for luxury travel vacations at some very "rock bottom" prices.  If you find yourself in need of a travel agent, or want to self-book a trip, please visit her site at:

Charlene's WorldVentures.biz