Tamlyn McDonald is a Southern California gal who grew up in the San Fernando Valley, Granada Hills. Her passion for beads and jewelry design started after she moved to Humboldt County in the late 80’s and ran into a bunch of hippies and started to follow the Grateful Dead.
“From 1990 until Jerry’s death I rarely missed a show,” said Tamlyn.
“Back then I created elaborate amulet purses, anklets, bracelets, necklaces. I sold them at the shows. Interestingly enough… I didn’t really do earrings. Nowadays the earrings are my main focus.”
Today Tamlyn is a juried artisan at the Lithia Artisans Market of Ashland (LAMA). Whatever she puts her mind to she creates. Whether she is writing a song or weaving tiny colorful beads into a butterfly or bee, she creates. She creates the patterns, does the math, and combines the colors to make beautiful wearable art pieces. She weaves beads, that is what she does and that is also the name of her micro-business — She Weaves Beads.
“It was only about 4 years ago when I was about to give my stash of beads away. I thought I was done. But, I had made a few pairs of earrings for my daughters and they really dug them and they told me, “Mom, you need to make more.”
“One day I was in Three Penny Mercantile in Downtown Ashland. I was looking at a pair of boots and something else. I mentioned my earrings and the gal there asked to look at them. She loved them and told me I should be selling them and that people would love them. We traded what I was looking at for some of my earrings.”
With encouragement from her daughters Tamlyn took the next steps and became a member of the Lithia Artisans Market.
“My daughter Madalynn was already in the market with her pottery, Mad Ceramics. We thought it would be cool to share a booth. I juried in my line of beaded jewelry in 2022 and shared a booth with her. The market has been a community connecting point for me. Today I mostly run my own booth, but we occasionally still share space, like at the holiday shows in November and December.”
Tamlyn has been on the road for the last month visiting family and friends, but she will be back with us starting in September. Find her and dozens more local artists every weekend from 10am-5pm at the Lithia Artisans Market along Calle Guanajuato and in front of Lithia Park.
