Glasser Leads with Beads
Julie Glasser felt overloaded with Christmas crafts, so she created a space for Judaica and the tutorials on how to get them built.
After 37 years with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and now with the AJT, , Jaffe’s focus is lifestyle, art, dining, fashion, and community events with emphasis on Jewish movers and shakers.
Julie Glasser magnifies her bead weaving with intricate, realistic, and whimsical creations that begin with everyday items.
In composing her business model, Glasser doesn’t stop at crafting — she makes her mark by selling bead boards, patterns, and tutorials. Imagine a Yamaha piano with 88 keys, a “lighted” menorah, and Lladro sculpture composed of tiny beads.
Of her own talent and vision, Glasser said, “I made a beaded yad for my oldest daughter for her Bat Mitzvah. I created the entire thing, soldering a handout of sterling silver wire and using copper tubing for the rest. I covered the entire thing in seed beads, weaving them in a spiral design. The yad was used again for both my younger daughter and her friend. Four years later, I ventured into my largest project — beading a miniature version of my house using blueprints to make it to scale.”
Growing up in Michigan, Glasser was immersed in art and started making jewelry using seed beads and wire. After relocating to Atlanta, she took metalsmith classes at Spruill Center for the Arts, where she eventually taught bead weaving, sewing classes, and kid’s camp.
Since her artist mother introduced her to sewing in 1997 and bead weaving in 2002, she is entirely self-taught in both disciplines. She recalled, “In my earlier classes, everyone wanted to make jewelry, so I focused on designing mostly bracelets, having my work published over 30 times in various beading magazines and books.”
When the pandemic hit and Glasser was no longer teaching in person, she “back pocketed” jewelry making to concentrate on some more fun things for herself. In 2020, she re-created her favorite Lladro sculpture using seed beads, making a flower cart, complete with a beaded umbrella and potted flowers.
She recalled, “To this day, it’s one of my favorite pieces. Following that, I made a mini beaded Yamaha piano that was 4 inches tall and looked exactly like the one I used to have. I made hinges to open the keyboard cover, the top and the seat top. And it has 88 ‘keys’!”
Around this time, she joined a Facebook group for beaders and shared photos of her work. Glasser stated, “Each time I posted a photo, I would get hundreds of people asking, ‘Is there a pattern?’ They all wanted to make one of their own.”
In December 2020, she created her first beaded menorah. She saw so many social media posts of Christmas related minis (all beaded), she felt like Jewish people were underrepresented in projects they could make and gift for the holidays.
Glasser continued, “There were plenty of bracelets with Jewish stars on them, but nothing spectacular. I wanted my menorah to be functional, so that I could put one candle in each night and ‘light’ it without an actual flame. After I posted a Happy Hanukkah with a photo, I got over 1,000 reactions and 600 comments asking for a pattern. Someone else saw this and offered to write the tutorial for me (me giving her photos and basic instructions), and my first 3D tutorial was born.”
Glasser had several more tutorials written for her, then found Affinity Publishers, and started writing her own.
Her process is to design and create a “mini” — examples are cars, flowerpots, guitars, bowling set, Shabbat candles, mezuzahs, and menorahs, all to scale. She designs and beads each item, while taking photos of every step. Then she starts the process of writing tutorials, which are usually around 20-30 pages long. Glasser takes and edits photos of the items, adds her logo, and then posts on both her website at www.julieglasser.com, and on Etsy store JulRiDesign. Each tutorial is available to download in PDF format.
Her most popular items are the Retro Bus, flowerpots, and cars. Her most recent tutorial is for four different miniature mugs and saucers, complete with steaming coffee/latte/hot chocolate inside. The only physical product that she sells is a lightweight, handmade travel bead board/bag constructed for beaders to use so they can bead on the go.
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