Meet our Fab Instructors

Andrea Mazzenga, RN, is a wife, mother, grandmother, and lampwork artist. She owns and operates Buttercup Beads, her beautiful little bead shop of 13 years, along with her daughter Carlie in Audubon, Pennsylvania. Art has always played a large role in her life, and she enjoys many other artistic avenues such as painting, photography, and poetry. 

She was pulled to her love of everything beads with her first glass flameworking class over 17 years ago. In 2007, she decided to leave medicine for sparkly things, and hasn’t looked back. She has taught her designs at BeadFest and has been published multiple times in both Bead & Button, and BeadWork magazines. 

In 2017, her projects were also featured in Creative Beading, Vol. 12 – The best projects from a year of Bead & Button Magazine. Andrea believes that everyone should take the time to explore their creative passions because it makes for a happy and satisfying life.  Her students thinks she's an extremely patient teacher and only smacks their fingers with a ruler when it's absolutely necessary and they don't pay attention. (eh, 12 yrs of catholic schooling....)

Carlie is Andrea's youngest daughter and main job now is to keep little Billy and her new set of twins from pulling at all the beads in the store. 

Since having the twins - she mostly works behind the scenes with bookkeeping, buying, sorting, creating. But she is also quick to help customers with tip and tricks as needed. 

She is our resident independent artist and often helps create new patterns and samples when time allows. 

She is considered the "Mixmastercolorcoordinator" at Buttercup Beads. Her innate sense of color palettes are somewhat of a mystery to all who know her, and we don't care.  When you are looking for that certain blue mystery bead, Carlie will surely help find it for you, or you risk her smacking your hands for sticking with the colors that you had already picked...

Gina Struebel is a juried member of the Reading/Berks chapter of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen. She specializes in one of-a-kind sculpted and woven wire art jewelry. Her pieces are inspired by nature and created to highlight the beauty of natural gemstones. She uses many different gauges of wire and cold fusion techniques such as coiling, weaving, wrapping and sculpting wire into beautiful one of kind wearable art jewelry. Her jewelry is handmade using natural gemstone and bead components, artisan custom cut cabochons, and copper, bronze, silver or gold wire along with handmade charms and findings. Her pieces have an elegant blend of traditional and contemporary designs, some delicate, some big and bold.

She has been passionate about the arts all her life. We are thrilled to have Gina on our team.

Ellen Krawiec began beading fifteen years ago after seeing a crochet beaded rope at a knit and crochet show. She added chain maille and fused glass soon after. She enjoys combining different techniques in her pieces, for example, bead crochet and chain maille. She also enjoys sewing, machine embroidery, quilting, knitting, crocheting and weaving. She recently discovered European bead crochet and is hooked. Welcome Ellen to the Buttercup team! You will love taking a class with Ellen!

Patricia Parker is an award winning bead artist that has exhibited internationally. She is a member of the Beadsmith Inspiration Squad. She has taught at Beadfest and Bead and Button, and is the author Colorful Components, Stitch Dazzling Designs with Multi-hole Beads. A former bead store owner, Patti has been beading for over 35 years. Her beautiful beadwork and patterns have been published in multiple beading books and magazines throughout the years. Her passion is three dimensional beaded flowers using all types beads and techniques. You can see some of Patti's fabulous projects at https://roseblubeads.blogspot.com/

Beth is known for her beautiful brick stitch patterns featuring everything from Mother Nature to Mona Lisa. Her realistic designs are a great accessory for any wardrobe! We welcome Beth to the Buttercup creative team! Beth says: "I don't remember when I first started beading. But I was a member of a the local Bead Society for a number of years. I have tried lampworking, stringing, bead embroidery, etc. My favorite techniques include bead weaving and Kumihimo. I design my own bead weaving patterns with a computer program. Most days I can be found working on gourds or with polymer clay. But I am always looking for new bead patterns and beads."

Val usually visits the store one a month with a fabulous sparkly workshop. "It all started about 13 years ago when I broke up with a boyfriend and needed to find something to fill the void. A new bead shop opened in my neighborhood and I decided to take a class. Since then... I was hooked and a new passion was born. Beading has become an outlet for me in expressing my creativity and ideas. I like to make pieces that people can wear, as well as some that can just be a 'work of art'. I come from the Tri-State area... Born in NY... Grew up in NJ. I love the Jersey Shore in the summer and NYC during Christmas. I have a little chihuahua named Paris who is my love. She loves to sit next to me as I bead. I hope you enjoy my designs as much as I enjoy creating them."

I discovered the joy of beading in 2006, after retiring from a 35-year teaching career. I was immediately hooked and began teaching basic beading classes in 2007. I started my own design company, Raindancer Studio, in 2009 and began taking my designs and kits on the road with an east coast bead show. Four years later I opened an online shop on Etsy. Now in 2018 I have semi-retired again and am having fun designing, beading with friends, and taking classes from other designers – what can I say, I’m a born educator. I've retired from the bead show circuit in 2018 and am delighted to have Buttercup Beads continue my love of beading by hosting my projects for me with classes, tutorials, and kits of many of my most beloved bead projects. You can contact me and see more of my designs through my Etsy store, Raindancer Studio. Enjoy!

Sue Quinque taught Crafts at Quakertown High School for 34 years. Her passion for beads began many years ago with a summer workshop and continued to grow since then expanding to wire, chainmaille, metal clay and fused glass. Sue’s work is on display in boutiques in Pennsylvania and New York. She and her husband Harry live in Green Lane along with their son Geoff who is Biochemistry major at Elizabethtown College. When she isn't teaching she is an avid student herself flying all over the country to take classes from the masters and hone her techniques in jewelry making and design. Sue is known for her excellent teaching techniques and her kind and giving nature. Sue teaches more advanced metal techniques such as silver fusing, enameling, copper folding, wire work, chainmaille, and cold connections.