Beautiful example of Kanzashi by
Vivien Hoffpauir
These hair ornaments are fascinating! Visit Viven’s site to see all the different styles that she’s made. If you’d like to try giving it a go, there is a wonderful Kanzashi tutorial written by Kurokami-Kanzashi on deviantArt.
Artist: Karen Paust
Business name: Take me to your Beader
Location: Wellsville Pennsylvania
Website:
Karen Paust
Karen, how do you describe your work?
I create botanical jewelry and sculpture.
What is your creative process like?
I usually am inspired by something very complicated, something that challenges me. I do a lot of sketches and watercolors as studies for pieces. I collect material, dead insects even pull moths and butterflies off the grill of the car to use as samples. I would never kill an insect, so my bug collection is a little rough. I used to bead all the time, (sometimes 8-12 hours a day, sometimes 5 or 6 or 7 days a week), now I try to balance my life with other things I love to do.
What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
I am completely self taught as a beader, but I did study painting, and also botany before I went to art school. I have always been trying to merge my love of nature and art together. I have been creating with my hands most of my life. I have crocheted and sewed at a very early age, and knitted soon after. The beauty of beading is that it reflects how the world is made up of little pieces of energy. Then in addition the light interacts so spectacularly with glass beads.
Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
My eyes, I am such a color junky, it would be very hard for me to not be able to see the endless combinations of colors.
What inspires you to create?
I can be inspired by dreams, day dreams, I’m always waiting for the next vision to flood my life. In between those I usually am inspired by nature. I am constantly amazed by the color combinations and shape of very common creatures. Many people have asked me to bead orchids, just look at a thistle that grows along the railroad tracks, it is every bit as beautiful as an orchid. I like putting a spotlight on the ordinary.
What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
I have a strong ability to finish projects, although I have some unfinished knitting projects sitting around. If I don’t like the direction the piece is going, I usually start over or try to figure out why the momentum is waning.
What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
Experiment as much as possible, figure out what you are passionate about.
What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
Wild mushroom hunting, camping, canoeing. I also make my own knitting needles, I recyle chopsticks and turn those into needles and I make circular needles from tubing, bullets and wood. I put beads inside the tubing, and my label is Fearlessknitting. If I need a button I make it from a piece of wood. I knitted a shoulder bag with different colored mountains and a blue sky and clouds so I carved a bird button to go on the bag as its closure.
What’s your favorite comfort food and other favorite things?
Pesto, I could eat it every day, I make big patches of it and freeze it for the winter, not in little ice-cube trays, in good size containers. I also invent new recipes, we grow these little tart oranges so I have been putting them in the pesto, best pesto ever. I also love watermellon.
My current favorite color is carmen. I’m not sure if that’s the right name, it is orange and pink mixed together, with some salmon.
There are so many good books, one I really enjoyed was Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem.
Other artists who work with seedbeads:
Tina Koyama
Diana Neamtu
Melissa Earley
handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media, beaded-objects, artist-profile
Denise Perreault makes a lot of really neat stuff, and I love the way her website is arranged…it’s really easy to navigate. That way, you can concentrate on all the gorgeous beadwork instead of trying to figure out how to get “the-ah from he-ah”, as we say in New England. The thing that Denise makes that I’ve never seen done before is glass curtains. They are simply beautiful.
Visit Denise and take a look at her beautiful vessels and sculptures too!
There’s a lot to love on Betsy Youngquist’s gallery site! I really love her older beaded paintings, but it’s her beaded objects like the ones below that totally blow me away! Not surprisingly, Betsy’s work has been featured in many books and beadwork magazines.
Make Art Monday!
Would you like to see some beadwork by an artist who is equally proficient in vessels and sculptural pieces as she is in jewelry? Then visit Melanie Doerman’s website, The Magpie.
Melanie has created a loomed self-portrait which I find fascinating:
And her vessels, which she has made to illustrate the Tarot, are astounding:
handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media
I smile when I see Ingrid’s beadwork. It’s fun, cute, mostly happy, and the colors are great! She makes a lot of non-wearables, but I’ll encourage you to go visit her to see them rather than show them all here!
handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, assemblage
C.A. Therien, an online friend of mine, makes beautiful polymer clay beads. But that’s not all! She recently shared on her blog that she had turned her hand to making tea caddies from altoid tins! Check this out:
Go visit C.A.! She’s got a wonderful polymer tutorials on her blog, and she’s just delightful to read 
Global Crafts is a site that belongs to the Fair Trade Federation. Members are committed to providing fair wages and good employment opportunities to economically disadvantaged artisans and farmers worldwide. So you can feel good about purchasing artisan-made pieces from this site. These beaded animals are found in the Metal and Tin Art section.
handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media
Come on a journey through a bead and jewelry wonderland, where no item is considered too strange to use in making something...especially if that item has a hole in it! All types of beads are welcomed and cherished here, and no techniques are off-limits. You'll be amazed and inspired by the beadwork that is being done today!
Bead Arts Author(s)
» Cyndi-Lavin
