Art Seymour
Collectibles
Art Seymour’s name has been synonymous with chevron beads for decades. No contemporary beadmaker has made so many, nor of such quality, of these historically recognized trade beads and their more innovative contemporary interpretations. Some of his chevrons have nineteen layers and may require six pots of differently colored glass. Seymour tells his own story well on his website, of his decades of involvement with glass (www.seymourchevron.com). He belongs solidly with those at the forefront of the American studio glass movement, having worked at Chico, California, an early center of hotglass innovation. Other well-known glass artists, like John Curtis, also started his glass career there, making electric glass melters (Liu 1998).
In the spring of this year, Seymour came to our office primarily to discuss his long-planned chevron bead book; he is the biggest collector of his own beads and had wanted to share these with his many fans. His Mac laptop was loaded with bead photographs for the forthcoming book, but I felt that just as important was inclusion of portions of his own fascinating life. Artists often do not realize that what he or she contributes to a piece of art is just as important as the backstory. The technique-laden aspects of his chevron beads also demanded information on the processes, perhaps best presented in a visual and descriptive timeline, since Seymour writes so well about his work. His beads can be as difficult to decipher as to how they were made as the Rosetta stone.
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