Pratima Mumford Sephton After graduating from university, Pratima spent the next eight years travelling the world, largely hitch-hiking alone and criss-crossing the globe leaving a trail more than 50,000 miles long! She first fell in love with beads in the markets of Sierra Leone, West Africa during a stint with VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas). Travelling throughout the Middle East, Afghanistan, India and Laos, she started acquiring a small collection of beadwork, but it was not until she reached the United States and Canada, that she was taught how to create various stitches by Native Americans. Now equipped with a mobile beading kit, she made her way through Central America to Peru, where she lived and began selling her beadwork. In 1981, Pratima had been hitching rides on sailing boats around the South Pacific, when five days of storm made her decide to give up the sailing life and go ashore in Bali, where she knew she would find like minded travellers. An Italian fashion designer saw her work and ordered ten pairs of beaded earrings. These took her about a week to make and when the designer saw them, she fell in love with them and ordered thirty more pairs. Pratima decided it was time to teach her Balinese friend how to make them which started the ball rolling and gradually, most of the women in the village were beading for her. Sixteen years later, the same ladies have become as proficient and even a little quicker than the craftsman herself, and the labour force has extended to several Balinese villages, where the women work at home pooling their work for delivery. Tourists visiting Bali these days, imagine that beadwork is an indigenous part of Balinese handicraft, however, the only beadwork traditional to Bali, is the sewing of white beads on to the ceremonial lontar baskets that they take to the temple. The stitches they use today, are actually from Africa, Afghanistan, India, Peru, Borneo, and from native American Indians. The work has diversified over the years and ranges from earrings, bracelets and necklaces, to belts, bags, shoes, hats, clothing and interior decorating items. These days, work is commissioned for large beaded wall hangings and appliqués for various hotels, including the Four Seasons, Nikko and Sheraton groups. Private individuals also commission art work and she is proud to have a three meter by two meter beaded "Thanka" hanging in the palace of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Many of the tapestries are extremely large and two, weighing 50 kilos each, and measuring 7 meters by 1.5 meters and containing over 3,500,000 beads , have been submitted to the Guinness Book of Records. A piece of this size takes about a month to conceive and draw out and a further three months for twelve women to bead it. Many different types of work are entertained from beading favourite paintings or portraits, to beaded landscapes and scenes from history. The work comprises of glass seed beads, sequins, antique cloth and gold plated repousse, sewn down with nylon thread onto heavy cotton or acrylic canvas and with due care, should last for centuries. We can work to your designs or offer artwork site specific. Scenes from history, landscapes, portraits and reproductions are some of the types of work that are undertaken. A portfolio of the artwork, photographs, transparencies and sample swatches, plus working drawings for mounting and framing are available upon request. If you are interested in commissioning any of the artwork for your home or business premises do not hesitate to discuss this with us. The work is stunning and unique.