Kathy King is an award-winning jewelry artist, beading instructor and author of Bead Quilled Jewelry: New Beadwork Designs with Square Stitch. She uses needle and thread to hand weave thousands of tiny glass beads together to form wearable beaded sculptures. In 2008, Kathy developed an innovative bead weaving technique called “Bead Quilling” in which the holes of the glass beads and thread are exposed, allowing the thread color to become an integral part of the final design.
Another signature component of Kathy’s jewelry is the “Beaded Bead” in which she creates intricate beads by weaving hundreds of smaller glass beads together. Kathy’s innovative techniques have landed her sculptural designs on the cover of Bead & Button Magazine and in articles featured in Beadwork, Niche and Giftware News magazines.
Kathy’s work is strongly influenced by her engineering background. Her bead quilling technique allows her to weave together sturdy but flexible structures, which she can further embellish and build on.
For color inspiration and shape combinations, Kathy enjoys looking to historical architecture and cultural patterns from around the world. Bead color and texture combinations inform Kathy’s artistic direction and inspire new pieces.
Kathy enjoys trying new things in her work and continues to push the boundaries of bead weaving. She likes to see what new shapes and structures can be built with the beads.
Kathy is working on creating new 3D pieces, wearable and non-wearable pieces, working with the construction ability the bead quilling technique allows her. Kathy plans to continue sharing her love of beads with others, teaching classes nationally. You can see more of her work on her website www.kathykingjewelry.com.
