VOA慢速英语2009-THIS IS AMERICA - When Beaders Form a Circle of

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Beadwork has a long history as an art form practiced by American Indians and other cultures around the world. Today millions of people enjoy making -- and in some cases selling -- their own beaded jewelry². This week on our program, we meet some of these beaders.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:
　
Interweave Bead¹ Fest Santa Fe

We begin in New Mexico in the American Southwest at a show called Interweave Bead Fest Santa Fe. Interweave Press is a major publisher in the craft media industry. The company also produces events around the country including Bead Fests.

For example, this August in Pennsylvania is Bead Fest Philadelphia. Then, in September, beaders will gather in Oregon for Bead Fest Portland.

This year's show in Santa Fe took place over four days in March at the city's convention center and nearby hotels. Karen Keegan, the event manager, estimated the attendance at about three thousand people.

More than four hundred fifty of them took jewelry making classes. The others just came to buy from the one hundred twenty-seven vendors³ at the show. Vendors sell their own jewelry as well as jewelry making supplies.

Visitors to the showrooms could find everything they needed to produce one-of-a kind rings, bracelets⁵, necklaces and earrings⁶. There were low-priced beads⁷ and high-priced beads. Beads made of glass, of wood, of clay and of crystal. Round beads, square beads and beads in a riot of other shapes, sizes and colors.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Why make jewelry? For one thing, it can save a lot of money. Retired⁸ Special English writer Paul Thompson once saw a crystal bracelet⁴ in a store. The price was two hundred fifty dollars.

Paul examined the bracelet and decided⁹ that he could make the same thing -- for much less. It took him several weeks to learn how to string the crystals, and how to separate them so they would look nice. He also had to learn how to attach a clasp for opening and closing the bracelet.

In the end, he was able to produce a very similar crystal bracelet for less than twenty dollars. Later, as his skills improved, he made earrings and a necklace in the same color and design. That was about four years ago.

Today, he makes jewelry as gifts for friends and family members. They always ask if he plans to sell any. He says no, then making jewelry would become a job. But others have turned their jewelry making hobby into a money making career.

VOICE ONE:

Jeannette Cook has been beading since the nineteen sixties. The Southern California artist started by making "love bead" necklaces. Today, she says she earns about sixty thousand dollars a year through her company called Beady Eyed Women.

Jeannette Cook says she attends four or five jewelry shows a year where she teaches workshops and sells her products. And she has produced six books about beading in a series called "The Beady Eyed Women's Guide."

She says beading not only looks good, it feels good. In times of stress she will go bead for an hour, she says, and that calms her down.

VOICE TWO:
　
Polymer clay jewelry by Klew

Another successful jewelry designer is Karen Lewis, also known as KLEW, spelled K-L-E-W. She started out more than twenty years ago working with polymer clay. She liked the way she could easily form this plastic modeling material into different shapes. And she liked how she could twist together pieces in different colors.

Today, Karen Lewis says she works seven days a week, but loves what she does. She says she earns more than one hundred thousand dollars a year as a bead designer. She owns two stores in California. She also sells her beads to other stores and online. And she sells at bead shows like the one in Santa Fe.

VOICE ONE:

Jill Wiseman of Austin, Texas, left her job at a high-tech¹⁰ company four years ago to do beading full time. She works with extremely small beads known as seed beads.

JILL WISEMAN: "Tiny, tiny, tiny. I always say the smaller the better."

VOICE ONE:

She also teaches classes on making bracelets and other jewelry. She says one reason she enjoys the jewelry making business is the people she meets. She says people who do seed beading share a great sense of community. They develop friendships just like people who get together to make quilts or do other crafts.

And she loves bringing people together. For example, she says a group of students who met in her classes now get together two times a week to talk and to bead.

VOICE TWO:
　
Ila Lewis demonstrates beading

Ila Lewis makes and sells beaded jewelry but not as a full time job. She is a retired California state employee who lives in Sacramento, the state capital.

She enjoys choosing beads in a variety of colors and shapes, then putting them together. The most difficult part, she says, is creating a good design. That takes the most time.

She decides which colors to work with, then places each bead on a board covered with cloth. She changes colors, shapes, sizes and placement of beads on the board until the design pleases her.

Ila Lewis and other jewelry makers¹¹ say combining the materials into a finished piece generally takes less time than the design process. But the design process is what she really loves.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Interweave Press did a State of Beading Survey in two thousand four. The survey found that the United States had at least five hundred fifty thousand active beaders. They spent an average of about eight hundred dollars a year on supplies. More than half of them sold their work or gave it away to family and friends.

The survey in two thousand four also found that the United States had about two thousand independent bead supply stores. That was an increase of more than forty percent from nineteen ninety-seven. And that did not include large craft store chains.

VOICE TWO:

All the jewelry makers we spoke¹² to in March at Bead Fest Santa Fe agreed that the recession had affected¹³ their businesses. They reported fewer orders and fewer offers to teach classes over the past year.

Karen Lewis -- KLEW -- said her business was down about twenty percent. That was mostly when fuel prices were so high last year that people in California were not driving to her stores.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

There are plenty of free videos on the Internet for people who want to learn how to do beading and make jewelry. Just go to a site like YouTube and type in "beading techniques" or even just "beading." We leave you now with some examples, which we have strung together like beads of sound.

NARRATOR, beadbee.com: "Welcome to Beadbee's basic beading video series. This video will demonstrate how to use wire wrapping technique to create a beaded link. The supplies you will need are sterling¹⁴ silver wire, round-nosed pliers, flat-nosed pliers, flat-nosed pliers with a tip, and flush cutters."

SONIA DAMERON, beadbar.com: "Welcome to the Bead Bar, Orlando Florida. My name is Sonia and on this segment for Expert Village we are going to show you how to do a multiple strand¹⁵ necklace. A lot of people are intimidated¹⁶ by multiple strand necklaces, but it's actually very easy to do."

LEONARDO MARTINEZ, legendarybeadsaustin.com: "Hello, my name is Leonardo Martinez from Legendary¹⁷ Beads here in Austin, Texas. Today we're going to talk about how to be a beaded jewelry designer. For me, I walked into a bead store and the girl showed me how to put bead and chain together, worked a few wire techniques. I never knew I was going to be a beaded jewelry designer until the day I was actually doing it."

SONIA DAMERON: "Now when it comes to wire there's lots of different sizes. And the sizes in the wire are by gauge¹⁸. And how that works is, as your number increases, the diameter gets smaller and smaller."

LEONARDO MARTINEZ: "I think the most important thing being a beaded jewelry designer is having patience."

TERESA METCALFE-JOHNSON, refinedwithfire.com: "All right, what we're going to do now is take this basic round bead and we're going to apply some frit. Remember, frit is crushed up pieces of glass. The glass that I have is a neon green and a bright orange. What you want to do is heat your base bead until it's that honey-like consistency¹⁹. You want to keep spinning your mandrel so that it doesn't melt off the rod and you're going to heat your bead so that it's tacky enough to roll onto the frit and pick up pieces of the glass."

LEONARDO MARTINEZ: "It's a lot of trial and error. It's a process. And that's something that you have to be willing to put up with."

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach, who we should say is married to our former colleague Paul Thompson. Our producer was Caty Weaver²⁰. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Steve Ember. Transcripts²¹, MP3s and podcasts of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/voalearenglish. We hope you join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

1 bead   

n.念珠；(pl.)珠子项链；水珠

参考例句：

• She accidentally swallowed a glass bead.她不小心吞下了一颗玻璃珠。
• She has a beautiful glass bead and a bracelet in the box.盒子里有一颗美丽的玻璃珠和手镯。

2 jewelry   

n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝

参考例句：

• The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
• Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。

3 vendors   

n.摊贩( vendor的名词复数 )；小贩；（房屋等的）卖主；卖方

参考例句：

• The vendors were gazundered at the last minute. 卖主在最后一刻被要求降低房价。
• At the same time, interface standards also benefIt'software vendors. 同时，界面标准也有利于软件开发商。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

4 bracelet   

n.手镯，臂镯

参考例句：

• The jeweler charges lots of money to set diamonds in a bracelet.珠宝匠要很多钱才肯把钻石镶在手镯上。
• She left her gold bracelet as a pledge.她留下她的金手镯作抵押品。

5 bracelets   

n.手镯，臂镯( bracelet的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The lamplight struck a gleam from her bracelets. 她的手镯在灯光的照射下闪闪发亮。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• On display are earrings, necklaces and bracelets made from jade, amber and amethyst. 展出的有用玉石、琥珀和紫水晶做的耳环、项链和手镯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 earrings   

n.耳环( earring的名词复数 )；耳坠子

参考例句：

• a pair of earrings 一对耳环
• These earrings snap on with special fastener. 这付耳环是用特制的按扣扣上去的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 beads   

n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链

参考例句：

• a necklace of wooden beads 一条木珠项链
• Beads of perspiration stood out on his forehead. 他的前额上挂着汗珠。

8 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

11 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

13 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

14 sterling   

adj.英币的(纯粹的，货真价实的)；n.英国货币(英镑)

参考例句：

• Could you tell me the current rate for sterling, please?能否请您告诉我现行英国货币的兑换率？
• Sterling has recently been strong,which will help to abate inflationary pressures.英国货币最近非常坚挺，这有助于减轻通胀压力。

15 strand   

vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地）

参考例句：

• She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ears.她把一缕散发夹到了耳后。
• The climbers had been stranded by a storm.登山者被暴风雨困住了。

16 intimidated   

v.恐吓；威胁adj.害怕的；受到威胁的

参考例句：

• We try to make sure children don't feel intimidated on their first day at school. 我们努力确保孩子们在上学的第一天不胆怯。
• The thief intimidated the boy into not telling the police. 这个贼恫吓那男孩使他不敢向警察报告。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

18 gauge   

v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器

参考例句：

• Can you gauge what her reaction is likely to be?你能揣测她的反应可能是什么吗？
• It's difficult to gauge one's character.要判断一个人的品格是很困难的。

19 consistency   

n.一贯性，前后一致，稳定性；(液体的)浓度

参考例句：

• Your behaviour lacks consistency.你的行为缺乏一贯性。
• We appreciate the consistency and stability in China and in Chinese politics.我们赞赏中国及其政策的连续性和稳定性。

20 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

21 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句