~Greetings and Salutations~

My name is D'Arsie Manzella and I am the female force behind Mamacita Beadworks.
I hand cast beads, buttons and pendants in fine lead free pewter. I am so
delighted to be part of Love My Art Jewelry.

I see many things in my future here at LMAJ. Exciting chance encounters, spiritual revelations, and of course beautiful, heartfelt designs.

I'm a mother, a wife and a full time artist. I work in and around piles of toys, before and after meals and occasionally in peace and quiet.
I've been sculpting my own bead designs for eighteen years. After my soul sister and I discovered polymer clay as girls, my creative world exploded. I studied ceramics at Fredonia State University in Western NY where the clay dictated my daily life. Yet it wasn't until after I married and moved to Asheville, NC in 2000, that I found the focus I needed and the teachers to inspire me to create seriously and market my beads.


My first business was Curvy Sasha Beadworks. I created small Goddess focal beads inspired by the Venus of Willendorf and celebrating the beauty of the female spirit . They sold locally and frequently and although I loved the freedom of polymer clay, I desired to work in metal. I wanted it with my whole heart. Events unfolded and I was smiled upon by the metal gods. I found myself hip deep in heavy machinery learning to cast pewter from Dr. Neon himself.
All the planets aligned.

Mamacita Beadworks was born.

For the past five years I have fallen head over heals with my casting equipment. I still sculpt in polymer clay to create my originals. I then create a reusable rubber mold which I pop into my spin casting machine. A ladle full of molten metal goes in and when I remove the mold and crack it open there's a radiant sun of pewter sprues with all my tiny creations at the ends!

It's a little like dancing, and a little like wrestling with a bear some days, getting the equipment to preform just right. I am still learning and hope to never stop.


I can't wait to share with you what goes on behind my Beadworks, to contribute what knowledge I can and to see where this cyber path leads. Thank you to all who create with my beads, buttons and pendants. I am honored by you all~ And thanks again to the bombastic women who are part of Love My Art Jewelry!!

kiss kiss,
Mamacita
(AKA D'Arsie Manzella)

P.S.
My parents were creative with their children's names. I am not exotic. I am mostly french. My name is pronounced "DAR-c" but you can call me Mamacita.

Love My Art Jewelry...

Who are we now and what is our hope for the future?

I will start off by sharing our slogan:

CREATING HANDMADE WITH HANDMADE

Without going into too much and risk droning on and on, I think that our slogan speaks for itself. We are bead, component and jewelry artists with a goal of bringing recognition to the unique quality of creating handmade jewelry using all handmade components. Owning a piece of jewelry that has been created by an individual artist or a piece that has been created by the artist using components created by many artists creates a personal connection each and every time it is worn. It is also the kind of piece that makes someone stop and ask, "Where did you get that? I have never seen anything like it before..."

And why haven't they seen anything just like this before?

The following pics don't actually go together, but I just grabbed them for a visual....So...here goes...

You take some copper beads that look something like this...

Use some methods that you can learn from one of our members, Barbara Lewis, to turn them

 into something like this...

And in the end, you create a beautiful one of a kind piece that could look like this......

Now that's original!!!

Or....how about creating with a few different pieces of art (created by other handmade bead/component artists) and taking some beads that look something like this...

Use some of your own methods or a combination of other artist work (findings, metalsmithed components, etc.)  and create something like this one created by Kelli Pope...

Now that's what we call Creating Handmade with Handmade!

What is our hope for the future? 

 It is one of bringing recognition to the unique qualities of jewelry using all or mostly all handmade components in your creations... or...  If you are someone who loves jewelry, but doesn't particularly like to make your own, then our hope is that you will recognize the uniqueness of wearing something that has been created from all handmade.