Spotlight on Nina Dusedau

My first venture into the world of art was through my interest in photography. As a teen, I developed my 35mm film and B&W photos in my darkroom. I still take pictures of nature, but with my super portable IPhone.

I got my college degree in Film and Television, then earned a Masters in Education with a specialty in Learning Disabilities. I had a deeply rewarding career in private practice as a learning consultant and educator.

My love affair with glass beadmaking began in 2004 and I felt many of the same euphoric feelings as falling in love. The world as I knew it was renewed and my mind learned to work in ways I never thought possible.

Stringing beads and making earrings was lots of fun. I got into flameworking by convincing my husband Stefan that he should take a glass bead making class because: “If you learn how to make glass beads, we’ll save lots of money!” Stefan called me to meet him for lunch but it was just a way to get me into the class and on a Hot Head torch. With the teacher’s encouragement, my husband showed me how to make a bead. He turned on the scary torch, handed me the mandrel and glass and I was mesmerized! After nine months with the Hot Head, we agreed to go all in and our little basement flameworking studio was born.

Beads of Courage is a perfect blend of two of my life’s passions: working to help children and making glass beads. I was moved by an article about BOC written by Sharon Peters. Months later I got to watch Sharon demo her BOC Monkey Bead. I was inspired by Sharon to gather beads from my flameworking classmates at our local art school. My teacher, Stephanie Maddalena, jumped on the idea and distributed my BOC fliers in all of her classes.

Stephanie collected hundreds of beads from her students that I cleaned and sent to Jean Baruch (Gribbon) in Arizona. The school even agreed to host a day of bead making just for BOC! We reached out to our local hospital, Hackensack University Medical Center, and contributed more than a thousand beads to their children’s program. HUMC arranged for a meeting with a few kids for a bead stringing activity – witnessing and experiencing their joy and excitement with all the colors and designs is forever etched in my heart.

From the very beginning, I approached bead making with a thirst for knowledge. I was blessed to be able to take classes with many gifted teachers and attend exciting glass events both in NJ and most recently on the West Coast. I’ve enjoyed playing with soft glass and boro and have explored many glass working techniques.

Though I’ve rarely stayed focused on one thing, I do have a few beads that I evolved over time and submitted to The Flow Magazine’s “Women In Glass” issue. My experiences in the world of glass came in handy when I was President of the So Cal Flame Surfers for three years. It was a joy watching our members and teachers demo. Thanks to the internet and techies like Kelly 6 and my husband, I’m still having a great time learning in this endlessly fascinating hobby.

Stefan has always been my technical assistant for my studio set ups, and now I’m his design consultant in his pen turning adventures. We’ve recently started casting our own resin pen blanks, as well as label casting. Look for our donated SDPens in the upcoming BOC events!

THANK YOU, REMARKABLE GLASS TRIBE, for making the Pandemic bearable!!!

Nina’s family

One of her nature photos