Margarita Zaldivar

A textile designer with a feel for just the right mix of kaolin and clay, and an eye that never allows the flame in her kiln--which she fires once-a-week--to rise above 1,300 degrees centigrade, Margarita Zalvidar makes delicate ceramic beads that could easily pass for candy or buttons. Once the beads have been fired in the kiln on her back porch, Zalvidar weaves them into a necklace that looks as though it was found hanging from a tree in Chile's magical Valdivian Rainforest.