Glencairn Museum reprises unique tour & beading workshop

Glencairn Museum’s Sacred Adornments Jewelry Beading Workshop returns for a third year. Choose one of two Saturdays to participate in this popular activity for ages 16 and up: February 29 or March 7, 9:00am-1:00pm. $40 per person, materials included, no experience necessary.

Registration required by February 26 and March 4, respectively. Three ways to register and pay: use the Museum’s “Buy Your Tickets” button at GlencairnMuseum.org, call 267.502.2990 or stop by the Museum’s Visitor Services desk.

Participants are free to bring along any personally meaningful beads, charms or string-able precious objects they’d like to incorporate into their pieces. A marketplace will offer items for purchase that include special beads from Africa.

Focusing on the symbolism of beads throughout history, the workshop begins with a custom tour of the exhibition Sacred Adornment: Jewelry as Belief in Ancient Egypt and additional access to jewelry of Greece and Rome in the Museum’s collection. The special tour aims to give inspiration to create a make-your-own beaded personal “sacred adornment” under the guidance of beading artist Gail Simons, who is teaching this workshop for the third year.

“Beads have been used for body décor since the first cave person put a cord through a stone with a hole in it,” says Ms. Simons. “In making my jewelry I look for the story the beads have to tell and try to bring that alive through creative design. One goal is that my inspiration as the artist is translated into jewelry that might then inspire the wearer.”

Glencairn Museum is at 1001 Cathedral Road, Bryn Athyn 19009.

GLENCAIRN MUSEUM, a National Historic Landmark and part of the Bryn Athyn Historic District (including Cairnwood, built 1892-95, and Bryn Athyn Cathedral, 1913-19), houses a collection of religious art and artifacts from around the world and serves as a museum of the history of religion. Glencairn itself, built in the Romanesque style between 1928 and 1939 by Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn for their family’s home, was given to the Academy of the New Church in 1980 after Mildred Pitcairn’s death. A treasure open to the public, Glencairn Museum now offers tours of its tower and 6 floors depicting world religious history as well as a glimpse into the family’s personal life, exhibitions, workshops, concerts, seasonal programs and its popular annual “Christmas in the Castle” tour featuring outstanding examples of Nativity art. For more on the Museum or becoming a member: 267.502.2600, info@GlencairnMuseum.org or www.GlencairnMuseum.org.