Apprenticeship Enables One-On-One Instruction

On a sunny afternoon in March, Sage Holland, a well known maker of glass beads, pulls up to a compact little building overlooking Greer’s Ferry Lake, where her apprentice, Debbie Cothren, is ready for another lesson. The two have been meeting regularly since December.

Thanks to a program administered by the University of Arkansas, Cothren is learning one-on-one from one of America’s pioneers of contemporary glass bead making.

Holland, who lives near Fox in Stone County, has taught workshops in almost every state in the U.S., as well as Italy, France and Germany. She has exhibited her work all over the world, and is featured in a number of books about glass bead making.

Cothren’s interest in bead making is fairly recent. She was stringing beads together to make jewelry, but wanted to do something more exciting. Then she found out about Holland’s workshop at the Arkansas Craft School, and signed up.

Holland says Cothren quickly showed both an aptitude for the work and an interest in improving her craft.

With Holland’s help, Cothren has been able to become an apprentice through the Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, which funds teams of mentor artists and apprentices who are committed to sustaining their artistic traditions and cultural heritage. According to the program’s website, “Teams are required to develop a work plan for the upcoming project year, meet with each other regularly over the course of the year, and finally, share their experience with their communities at the culmination of the project.”

Read the full story in the April 1 issue.