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Albina Manning



Bonsai Shakkan
2007 Fire Mountain Gems and Beads' Contest
Finalist
As featured in Rock and Gems magazine, August 2009 and Today's Creative Home Arts magazine, March 2009

Inka's Gold
2009 Fire Mountain Gems and Beads' Contest
Gold Medal Prize Winner
Category: Wirework
Meet the Designer-Artist


My name is Albina Manning. I was born in Yoshkar-Ola, Russia, a small town not far from Volga River. Ever since I was a child, I have loved doing anything by hand, especially knitting and sewing. I graduated from Mari State Pedagogical Institute and then worked for nine years as a certificated elementary and physical education teacher in my hometown.

Share Your Background


Although I really loved my work as a teacher of young children, in 2003 my life changed a lot! I met my soul mate Peter and moved to Arizona where we were married, and a year later our beautiful daughter Anya was born. Then a Russian friend living in Japan sent me a beautiful, red beaded rose as a Christmas gift. I thought, ''is it possible to make something as lovely as Mother Nature creates? Probably not, but sometimes copies can be worth that of the original.'' That is when I fell in love with beads and wire. My first experience was to make a beaded Money Tree. In spite of the fact that it looks like an old untrimmed tree and has a lot of ''technical'' mistakes, I still love it. I then discovered The Bead Museum in Glendale, Arizona where displays include the incredible beadwork of Lana May from Phoenix. Just ''down-the-road,'' I contacted Lana who inspired my jewelry-making hobby (which was a perfect fit for the stay-home-mom).

Beading Success


Now I enjoy teaching annually at the Tuscon Gem and Mineral Show. My work Bonsai Shakkan has been used by Fire Mountain Gems both as a backcover advertisement and inside their catalog. In 2009, I won the 1st Place Gold Medal award with Inka's Gold Necklace in Fire Mountain Gem's wirework category. I have been published in Art Bead Circle magazine as well as in an book Mixed Media Jewelry Techniques. In 2011 I got the 3rd Bronze Medal award with Nautilus Necklace in Fire Mountain Gem's wirework category. The latest success is my Coiling and Weaving Wire Jewelry Designs Series, a 3-DVD series devoted to working with round wire to create beautiful designs, was released in April 2011 through Wire-Sculpture.com.

View all of Albina's designs in the Gallery of Designs.

All products sold by Fire Mountain Gems and Beads are not intended for use by children 14 years of age and under.

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