1992

Our Friends, Ourselves

Central Ohio

Bead Society

The Bead Society created this deeply symbolic triptych, certainly the most elaborate entry to the book, in honor of the Society’s founder, Libby Gregory.

Several members of the Bead Society had expressed interest in making pages but when, in February 1990, Libby and an employee of her internationally celebrated Columbus bead store, Byzantium, were killed

in a freakish airplane crash in Los Angeles, Society members gathered for mutual support for almost two years, pouring their personal grief and love into these spectacular pages.

Another member memorialized Michelle (Shelly) Stambaugh as well as Libby in his page, “Like Fossils in Stone,” a vivid tribute to memories of their friendship and his own sense of profound loss. “The eye,” he wrote, “represents focus--on the here and now, on the past and what

These generous hands are by Columbus artist Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson.

and what we can learn from it, [on] foresight into the future.” The hand at upper right sports the tatoo on Shelly’s own hand.

On a visit in the late fall of 1989 to Byzantium, Columbus’ world-class bead emporium where artists of all kinds congregate, a sudden impulse prompted me to leave a copy of my still-crude prototype of the project flyer with the owner, Libby Gregory, casually asking if she might look it over and share her thoughts as her time allowed. I returned a week later and, as I opened the door, Libby looked up, swept the flyer up from her desk and beamed at me from across the full length of her long, narrow, and always crowded shop, “Ann, you MUST do this project!” It would have been like her to have sensed my need, but her response to the project was full and genuine because that was Libby--generous, yet absolutely honest. And lucky the one on whom her radiant smile fell. It was just the re-inspiration I needed. Weeks later, on the way to Los Angeles for a trade show, Libby and one of her employees died in a freakish airplane accident. Everyone who knew her remains to this day devastated--she had inspired so many and was the force behind so many efforts to serve the Columbus community, among them Comfest, Byzantium, The Bead Society of Central Ohio, and raising awareness and appreciation of

Native American beading traditions. I had to go on.

Ann Alaia Woods

Remembering Libby