Jeanette Marie Ahlgren

Ahlgren entered the Art Center College of Design of Los Angeles (now Pasadena) intending to work in fashion design, but her first job out of school as an assistant fashion designer convinced her that fashion design was not where her heart lay. In 1977, she "started messing around with really ugly beads: and found that she loved the process of weaving. For several years, she created beaded T-necklaces, purses, and belts. Although she loved doing the pieces, and they sold very well, she became irritated by the restrictions of fashion. She found that people tended to judge the work not on its artistic qualities, but whether or not it would go with their clothing or lifestyle. A chance encounter with the engine of a Porsche Turbo-S became her defining moment. A gathering of eight steel fuel lines bound together by what appeared to be beads took her thinking on beads into the third dimension.