As a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and former Naval Officer, Margaret has traveled extensively and draws upon many cultural influences when creating her funky, modern designs. Having taught in Tucson during the Gem Show for the last several cycles, she is expanding her geographic reach in an effort to take the world over with wire. Currently, she is teaching textures achieved by weaving and traditional silversmith techniques, along with the creation of unique patinas.
Nikia has been beading for more years than she'd like to count! Teaching since 1989 and on a national level since 2002, Nikia travels 8 months of the year to bead shows (B&B, Bead Expo, Bead Fest, Rocky Mountain Bead Bazaar, BABE) and bead stores across the country, sharing the joy and teaching her innovative designs. She is owner of the popular kit website, BuytheKit.com. She spends her days in beautiful Albuquerque, NM, beading new designs and getting ready for the next show.
Thomas Ashman is a mixed media artist, bookbinder, composer, and teacher who lives and works in northern New Mexico. Drawing inspiration from his education in literature and experiences in the construction trades, Thomas developed his unique book binding technique to facilitate the use of unusual materials such as glass, sheet metal, and hardware for the binding and covering of quality handmade art journals. Thomas also loves making altered dolls and other weird and wacky assemblages. Thomas is currently showing at the "Sea in the Desert" gallery in Santa Fe. Find more info at Blacksheepartist.com.
Joan Reeder Babcock is an artist and teacher who has been creating one-of-a-kind jewelry and fiber art since 1988. She is known for her unique style of blending fiber, bead, wire, and metal elements together, and she specializes in the techniques of micro-macramé and Cavandoli knotting. She is the author of "Micro-Macrame Jewelry: Tips and Techniques for Knotting with Beads" and "Wired Micro-Macrame Jewelry." She offers kits, cords, and online classes through her website, www.micro-macramejewelry.com. Joan lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with her husband and business partner, Jeff Babcock.
Jodi is an international instructor and self-taught jewelry designer, wire wrapping since 2005 and wire weaving since 2008. She is a freelance writer for Step By Step Wire Jewelry magazine and a contributing author to the books "Wire Style" and "Wire Style 2." She is the author of "Weave, Wrap, Coil: Creating Artisan Wire Jewelry." Her second wire book will be available in the spring of 2013. Jodi's teaching experience includes classes at Weekend with the Wire Masters, Bead Fest, To Bead True Blue, Beaders in Paradise, various bead stores, and in her home studio in Tucson.
Melissa Cable returns to Beadfest for another round of Faux Bone and metal flower classes after a busy year of introducing hundreds of students to projects using these two mediums. This year, she incorporates her newest love - leather -- into her classes. She teaches throughout the country, and her work has been featured in numerous publications, books, and exhibits. She is the author of "Spotlight on Wire," and her second book, "Metal Jewelry in Bloom," releases in summer 2013. She resides in the Seattle, WA area where she regularly teaches at Fusion Beads and serves as a consultant for www.fauxbone.com.
Sue Charette-Hood is a Canadian jewelry artist and instructor living in San Antonio who has been designing and teaching since 2000. Sue works with many different media but loves kumihimo and bead stitching. Beadwork Magazine has published many of her designs in the 2012 issues. Her work was also published in Interweave's E-magazine "Fabulous Peyote Jewelry" in 2011. Sue is a member of the San Antonio and Dallas Bead Societies, the Great Lakes Bead Guild, and the Etsy Bead Weavers Team. Sue teaches weekly at Originals Bead shop in San Antonio and often at the Texas and Shreveport Bead Retreats.
Gail Crosman Moore is at home entertaining new processes to expand her visual encyclopedia. Teaching, exhibiting, and making one-of-a-kind pieces are at the core of her 21 years of experience. Her career has covered many grand opportunities including invitations to teach in Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and all corners of our glorious United States. Recent highlights include exhibiting at the Smithsonian Craft Show, an invitation to design for Trollbeads, and a spot in the Glassline Magazines' international competition, Small but Beautiful.
Robert Dancik has been an artist/teacher for more than 30 years. He is the originator of Faux Bone -- a new, wonderful material for artists involved in jewelry. He is also the author of the book "Amulets and Talismans: Techniques for Creating Meaningful Jewelry." He teaches workshops around the world and has work on display in numerous museum, public, and private collections here and abroad. He has artwork published in many books including, "PMC Decade," "The Art of Resin Jewelry," "Creative Metal Clay, and in the Lark series, "500 Pendants," "500 Handmade Books" and "1000 Rings."
Lexi is a Contributing Editor to Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artists and Jewelry Making Daily. She has a Master's Degree in Jewelry Design and Fabrication and has taught jewelry on the high school to university level, along with giving workshops around the world for the last 28 years. She loves teaching at eadfest because all the students are so enthusiastic and eager to learn.
Leslee Frumin, a bead and metal artist from San Juan Capistrano, California, teaches off-loom bead weaving and metal/jewelry techniques. Leslee has published and won awards in both areas, and her work has been featured in trade magazines. She loves to teach. Her goal as a teacher is to create a fun and successful learning experience. Her passion for all the colors and textures made possible by beads, metals, and stones keeps her excited. If Leslee could add another 24 hours to a day to work on designs, she would be thrilled. Drawn to sparkly things, Leslee includes crystals in many of her designs. She is a Create Your Style with Swarovski Elements Ambassador.
Diane began beading about twenty years ago; she has created her own designs and developed her own techniques which have appeared in a number of publications. She is a regular instructor in several bead studios and venues from PA to ME, and she has taught at several national shows including Create Your Style with Swarovski Elements in Tucson as well as Bead Fest in Santa Fe and Philadelphia. Diane became a Create Your Style with Swarovski Elements Ambassador in 2012. Diane and her husband Bob live in Mount Gretna, PA with their dog Apache but spend time traveling from Maine to Oregon.
Joe Korth is a jewelry artist from Denver, Colorado. Joe has been teaching metalsmithing and related techniques for 9 years. He recently concluded a 9-month period as an Artist-In-Residence at the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. Prior to that he was on the Board of Directors for the Colorado Metalsmithing Association from 2008-2011.
Beth Kraft is the owner of Nordic Gypsy Beads & Jewelry, a bead store located in Rochester, Minnesota. In addition to teaching bead-weaving and wirework at her store, she teaches at several national bead shows and the Create Your Style Tucson show. Her designs have been published in several national bead magazines and she has appeared on Beads, Baubles, and Jewels and Bead.tv. Visit her website at www.nordicgypsy.com.
As a metal worker, Linda Larsen has been designing jewelry for many years. She finds the whole construction process fascinating and challenging. The owner of Objects and Elements.com, she spends her time looking for treasures and developing new products for the jewelry supply website. Her experience in product development and a jewelry line have influenced her work and allowed her to share many tips and techniques with others.
Donna is an award-winning metal clay artist who loves to share and feels teaching is the perfect tool. She has taught at Bead & Button, ART Unraveled, Adorn Me, Sonoma Art and Glass Festival, and To Bead True Blue in addition to travelling to individual guilds to offer group workshops and teaching groups and privately in the Phoenix area. Donna is the inventor of the LiL BeLLA metal clay workspace humidifier. She is a two-time Saul Bell Design Award Finalist, and her pieces have been included in several publications and shows. Donna is also the owner of MetalclayArts.
After many decades of exploring all types of handcrafting venues, Debora found her true calling and passion when she stumbled into the jewelry world. Her first love was wire, but currently, she is working mainly in metals and enamels. Debora's classes are fun, stress-free, and packed with useful knowledge.
Kieu Pham Gray has been creating jewelry for over 20 years. She started from the need to "look the part" while working in retail management. Through making jewelry for herself and her friends, her jewelry line was born. Since then, she has sold to over 30 stores and participated in numerous juried art shows. Today, Kieu owns and operates Bead Q!, a boutique bead store in the Cleveland area. She and her husband Andy run TheUrbanBeader.com, where they work to provide specialty goods and tools to the industry. Detailed instruction and personal attention have been the keys to success with her students.
Cristie has had a love of beads for almost her entire life. As children, she and her friends would string opaque seed beads onto elastic threaded chokers and wear as many as they could fit on their necks. Cristie returned to beadwork in the late 1990s as a way to stay busy at her boys' sports practices and has been designing jewelry with beads and her lampwork since 2002. She has had numerous designs published and sells instructions and kits on line. Cristie enjoys sharing her beading passion both through teaching locally in the Atlanta area and also nationally.
Simply put, Kate Richbourg loves jewelry. She loves to teach it. She loves to make it. She loves to wear it. Teaching and designing jewelry since 1992, she teaches at national shows, bead societies, and bead shops and is published in a variety of jewelry magazines and is the author of the popular blog "We Can Make That at Home." She has also appeared on several episodes of the PBS show "Beads, Baubles & Jewels, and DIY and HGTV network shows "DIY Jewelry" and "Craft Lab." Kate is the author of "Simple Soldering: A Beginner's Guide to Jewelry Making" from Interweave Press.
Kate Richbourg's Materials List
Sue is a chain maille artist, designer, and author who teaches chain maille classes around the country. She has many weaves that marry the art and beauty of chain maille with fine jewelry. Sue has taught at many Bead Fest Shows and at Bead and Button shows. She has written clear and wonderfully illustrated instructions for over 150 chain maille weaves. Sue likes to teach students at all levels of chain maille experience. Please join Sue in a class or two.
Kim St. Jean is an award-winning instructor, author, and jewelry designer. She has been teaching jewelry classes for 14 years. Kim has been published in numerous magazines and books. She has appeared on several beading/craft television programs and has published two books - "Mixed Metal Mania" (released in February 2011) and "Metal Magic" (released in June 2012). Kim's home base is in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where she and her husband Norm own Studio St. Jean. She and Norm spend much of the year traveling across the country teaching classes at bead shows, jewelry schools, guilds, clubs, and stores.
Lisa Van Herik is a metalsmith who focuses on creating her own unique wire jewelry-making techniques. She is the author of "Make Wire Beads" and "Fiber Wire Beads and Jewelry" and maintains a wire jewelry tutorial site at www.beadifferent.com, where she presents tutorials on a wide variety of original wire jewelry-making techniques. Lisa has taught nationally as well as at the University of California San Diego Craft Center.
Jill works out of her home studio in Austin, Texas. When she discovered beading in 2001, a love affair was born. By 2005, Jill was working full-time as a national beading teacher at bead shows, bead societies, and bead stores coast-to-coast. She is the author of "Jill Wiseman's Beautiful Beaded Ropes," a Lark book published in 2012. Jill is known by her students as a patient teacher with a great sense of humor. She is known for writing clear and detailed instructions, and her designs encompass projects for all experience levels, from absolute beginners to experienced beaders.
Margo obtained a BA in Fine Arts from the University of New Mexico. Trained as a gold/silversmith, she opened The Silver Fox, in Fox Chapel Pennsylvania in the late 1970's. Author of A Beginner's Guide to Jewelry Margo managed jewelry stores and later worked at H Stern Jewellers in St. Thomas, US VI for several years. After a 30 year hiatus from jewelry making, Margo joined the Bead Society of NM (BSNM) in 2010. Since then she taught a BSNM Winter Workshop, and won prizes for BSNM contests, and ribbons at the Fiber Arts Fiesta, and NM State Fair. Her work is sold on Canyon Rd in Santa Fe.
As a jewelry designer for many years, Gwen explored a variety of media until she discovered wire, metal, and fire. They inspire her creativity and fuel her passion for teaching. As an instructor, she loves the interaction and camaraderie of the classroom. Her mission is to make metalworking techniques accessible to everyone so that students learn more than they expected and have fun doing it. Students can expect her to share her knowledge and creativity freely with a dash of humor and lots of caring patience. Please visit www.gwendolyndesigns.com.
Sign up for our
Bead Fest Newsletter
to be the first to know
when new details are ready!
Expo & Workshops
Santa Fe Community Convention Center
201 W. Marcy St.
Santa Fe, NM 87501
santafe.org
Workshops & Hotel
Hilton Santa Fe Historic Plaza
100 Sandoval Street
Santa Fe, NM 87501
www.historicplazahotelsantafe.com
Workshops Only
The First Presbyterian Church
208 Grant Avenue
Santa Fe, NM 87501
fpcsantafe.org
