Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathy King.
Hi Kathy, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I have loved crafting since I was little, making Barbie clothes and furniture, drawing, coloring. But I also had ian interest in numbers, math and shapes. All of these interests collided when I discovered beading. I create things with needle and thread, while getting to play with color and structure. I took a beading class in 1999 from the amazing Carol Wilcox Wells and it just clicked for me. From there I taught myself and developed my own special beading technique to create the structural 3D beaded pieces I am known for. During Covid I discovered mixed media and have since added that in with my beadwork to create non-wearable art.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There have definitely been challenges, especially when it comes to selling my work and making a living. There is constant doubt in myself and questioning if I am making the right designs. When I first started, I was also raising two kids and everything involved in that. My art was never really treated as a full time endeavor and that is my own fault. It was a struggle to look at what I did as my work, and that caused my business to suffer.
For the last few years I have been working full time doing something else and now know that when I do art I need to make what excites me and not try to second guess what I think people want to buy. I do not have as much time to make art now so when I do I create what I want. I believe this actually leads me to making better art.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I have been a beader for 27 years. Bead weaving means I weave thousands of tiny glass beads together using a needle and thread. Some of my necklaces have over 25,000 beads easily. The unique aspect of my work is the beading technique I developed called bead quilling. The name comes from the craft of paper quilling. This technique is different because you can see all the thread, which allows the thread color to become another design element of the piece. The technique creates sturdy but flexible beaded pieces that enables me to create large structural 3D designs with the beads.
Really pushing this technique to create things not done before in beads is what I am most proud of. I love to create new and unique designs, things people don’t realize are beaded when first seen.
Now I really enjoy creating larger mixed media pieces incorporating my beadwork. Sometimes it is a finished jewelry piece that I work into a mixed media sculpture, other times all the beadwork is non-wearable and just part of the finished piece.
How do you think about luck?
Luck always has an impact. If you live in the right area that supports the art, can afford to travel and do the right shows. But true success has more to do with your own efforts.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kathykingjewelry.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathykingjewelry/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathykingjewelry
