VisArts Teacher Ingrid Bernhardt Returns to ArtVenture with Two Beading Classes for 9 to 12-Year-Olds

Ingrid Bernhardt started beading and weaving as a young girl. Her mother handed her a Family Circle Magazine and she began making beaded flowers using the patterns she discovered inside. This summer, she’s looking forward to returning to the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, where she’ll continue to share her lifelong love of the craft with children enrolled in VisArts’ ArtVenture Summer Camp program.

During 10 different one-week sessions this summer, Bernhardt will teach one of two classes: Beading a Peyote Stitch Bag and Create a Beaded Charm Necklace. The peyote stitch class is designed for 11 and 12-year-old campers and the charm necklace class is perfect for 9 and 10-year-olds.

Bernhardt will show students in both classes how to use beads and wire to create intricate, beaded art. Campers in the charm necklace class will make a collection of wearable, miniature creatures like lizards, butterflies and bees. Students will use graph paper and colored pencils to create animal or word designs that can be sewn onto clothing, hung from a necklace or attached to a backpack. The small, peyote stitch amulet bag that older students will make in Bernhardt’s second class can also be worn as a necklace.

Bernhardt looks forward to the energy that her students bring to the studio each summer.

“They’re very enthusiastic and always having fun,” she said. “But they’re very quiet on the first day because they don’t know each other.”

Bernhardt said playing music is the trick that seems to encourage students to start chatting and getting to know one another.

“I let them choose the music and I ask them to tell me who’s singing what because I need to be brought up to speed,” she said.

Bernhardt is a longtime VisArts instructor who’s been teaching beading and weaving classes at the center since 2004. For several years, she has also taught classes at Albert Hill Middle School as part of the center’s Art After School program.

In her own creative practice, Bernhardt creates mostly beaded jewelry and evening bags. She uses wood or polymer forms as the base structure for small boxes, bracelets, necklaces and earrings, which are covered with scores of tiny beads, woven carefully together.

For more information about Bernhardt’s classes or the other ArtVenture Summer Camp workshops VisArts is offering, visit the center’s website or pick up a print catalog at the front desk.