Famous People I Met in Milwaukee

This is a post that was saved in my drafts that I forgot to post! Sorry!

These are some on the wonderfully creative and world reknowned people I met at the Bead and Button Show 2009 in Milwaukee.

Here is a fun picture I took of Lilian Chen, Laura Timmons and myself.

Lilian Chen is a great wire artist and her work is often published in all the great beading magazines.
Lilian Chen is not only a jewelry instructor, but also a very creative jewelry designer. She loves to teach, create new styles and new skills. In her classes not only will you learn about skills, but also most importantly thinking outside the box. Lilian will guide you to developing a personal style of your own!

If you are in San Gabriel, CA, you can take some classes with Lilian at http://www.youandmefindings.net/lilian_chen.php

Laura Timmons is the creative force behind Vintage Moon Creations.

Laura Timmons of Vintage Moon, has designed her entire life, and created jewelry professionally for the past nine years, selling her unique designs across the nation. Her passion for color and design is obvious in each of her unusual creations.

In most recent years though, Laura has developed a new passion that feeds her soul: teaching, incorporating both her love for people and design. Over the past three years, Laura has had the privilege of teaching internationally for CrystallizedTM Swarovski Elements as well as consulting and designing for their DIY, Marketing, and Interior Design segments. She has traveled all over the US including L.A., New York, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Tucson. International travels include Toronto, Thailand, and most recently to Mexico to teach and demonstrate for CrystallizedTM Swarovski Elements.

Laura is a published designer as well, and currently working on many exciting projects - look for her new fashion 411 segment in "Bead Unique', and has just recently hosted her first cruise in November with Lisa Pavelka as the Crystal Chix. Get ready to join Laura and others on the first ever CrystallizedTM Swarovski cruise next November!


Here we are! Crafty ladies - getting - well... crafty!
Moi, Kristal Wick and Katie Hacker

From Kristal's website... http://www.kristalwick.com/index.htm

Residing in breathtaking Colorado, award winning designer and 1 of 30 worldwide official Swarovski Ambassadors teaches for CRYSTALLIZED - Swarovski Elements. Kristal's creations have been represented in galleries spanning the globe including Canyon Rd. - Santa Fe, Alaska, Cayman Islands, Italy, Germany & the Virgin Islands.

Kristal's other fashion projects include designing & creating jewelry for the Jimmy Buffet Band backup singers & dancers. Kristal also teaches worldwide and on cruise ships.

Kristal recently teamed up with JHB to manufacture and distribute her new product line and launched two finished fabric bead lines: Sassy Silkies and Batik Beauties winter 2009.

Kristal released her first self published book in 2005, Sassy Silky Savvy and her latest Interweave Press release, Fabulous Fabric Beads, fall 2008 and has been a best seller in 5 categories on Amazon.com since its release.

From Katie's website.... http://www.katiehacker.com/index.htm

Katie Hacker is an artist and writer who started designing her own jewelry as a teenager when she couldn’t find fashionable clip earrings for her un-pierced ears. She turned her pastime into a business and now makes a living doing what she loves best – making stuff and sharing her ideas.

A prolific author whose books have sold more than half-a-million copies, Katie provides beading advice as the presenter of Beading Lessons on the public television series "Beads, Baubles & Jewels." She regularly contributes how-to projects and articles to a variety of magazines and is a columnist for Beadwork. Katie is a member of the Beadalon Design Team and has been commissioned to create original designs for Beadalon, Swarovski, and other companies.

Katie is passionate about demystifying jewelry making and specializes in projects that are fashionable and fun. Her approachable style helps new beaders feel less intimidated and more empowered. “I love helping people find their source of creativity through beads,” she says. Her workshops at national venues like the Bead & Button Show and Bead Fest feature techniques for creating boutique-style jewelry.



The awesome dynamic due from Las Vegas: Haley Hertz and Lisa Pavelka

From Haley's website... http://haleyhertz.com/

Haley Hertz is a mixed-media artist who is currently living her dreams. She has an artful life where she spends time creating every day. Retired from a 25-year career in publishing where she excelled as a writer, editor and mentor, Haley has reinvented herself as an artist and bohemian, traveling the world in pursuit of artistic excellence and enjoyment. When she is not globetrotting or cruising the high seas, she is content to relax and create in her beautiful lakeside home and studio.

From Lisa's website...

Lisa Pavelka, a Colorado native who now resides in Las Vegas, is an award winning artist, designer and author. Although she is well versed in several mediums, she is best known for her polymer clay expertise. Having worked with the medium professionally since 1989, she has focused her creative energies in taking polymer clay in new directions; especially in the areas of mixed media applications.

As a polymer clay pioneer, Lisa has tackled everything from jewelry making and home décor to scrapbooking and altered arts to name a few. She has shown the crafting world there is almost nothing that can’t be done with polymer clay, whether it's coming up with new techniques or covering the back of a van.

Lisa is author of three books including the award winning best seller: Polymer Clay Extravaganza (North Light Books), and DVDs—Gifts from the Heart & Hand (Page Sage) and Claying Around with Lisa Pavelka (2007).

Recognized as one of the world's leading experts on the medium of polymer clay, Lisa is a featured columnist and contributor for magazines including Polymer Café's Q&A column from its inception, Expression, Belle Armoire, Rubber Stamper, Simply Beads and many more.

As a designer, Lisa is much in demand by companies such as Amaco, Fiskars®, Swarovski® Crystal to name a few. In addition, Lisa is a frequent guest of television programs including HGTV’s Carol Duvall show, DIY’s Jewelry Making, Fiskars TV, and PBS’s Beads, Baubles and Jewels. She has also been a featured artist on the Discovery channel.Her expertise has lead her to partner with JHB International, first as a button designer and then in collaboration to develop her Signature Series product line for the crafting market which includes her first break-out product, Craftrends Award Winning Poly Bonder™ (2004), which is the only “super glue” that is rated for high temperature use with clay. In the winter of 2006-07, Craftrends also recognized Lisa's Signature Series Texture Stamps as an ACE Award Finalist for creative excellence.

Lisa believes that everyone is an artist and is dedicated to helping others discover their canvases. She shares her love of creativity by actively instructing students of all ages and levels throughout the world. Teaching volunteer workshops to school age children or instructing nearly 200 retailers in a single sitting, teaching continues to be one of her favorite activities. She is highly sought out to teach at conventions, retreats, stores, galleries, and for creative guilds.

Lisa is committed to the polymer clay industry and the polyholics of the world. She is designing a polymer clay educational program that will inspire crafters to grab a slab of clay and with the right tools and support they will be able to create a beautiful project. So pick up Lisa's products and start claying around!



Marcia DeCoster and Rachel Nelson-Smith


This was picture of Rachel taking a picture of Marcia's fabulous ring.

From Marcia's website... http://www.marciadecoster.com/index.html

Marcia's love for beautiful jewelry and the desire to create her own designs brought Marcia to beads in the early 1990's. Marcia designs colorful and fun to wear jewelry and shares her designs through teaching and writing. Remembering her own early attempts, Marcia recognizes that everyone learns differently and so takes great care to provide clear, concise and comprehensive instructions, graphics and text.

Her work has been published Carol Wilcox Wells’s The Art and Elegance of Bead Weaving and Margie Deeb’s The Beaders Color Pallette.

In 2008 her work was featured in Masters Beadweaving and her urchin lariat graces the cover.

In 2009 her own book 'Marcia DeCoster's Beaded Opulence' will be published by Lark.

Marcia is one of the featured 'Designers of the Year' in Beadwork magazine.

From Rachel's website... http://www.msrachel.com/

Rachel Nelson-Smith, author of Seed Bead Fusion, is a master beadweaver whose work is infused with her unique combination of fabrication techniques. With a wealth of knowledge and fearless adventure, needle and tools shape bold and vibrant works alive with enormous energy and dynamism. Finding inspiration in surrounding nature, pure color, and beads themselves, Rachel creates pieces reflecting the world she sees around her.

Coloring outside the lines, an approach based in freedom allows her to extemporaneously express thoughts as they happen--with wide use of color and energy, physical manifestations are created in beads and wire.

Examples of her dynamic finished work have appeared in Masters: Beadweaving (Carol Wilcox Wells, 2008, Lark Books) where she was featured along with other modern beadweaving masters in 2008 as well as seven projects in Kate Shoup Welsh’s Not Your Mama’s Beading (2006, Wiley Publishing) and instructional jewelry-making books by Marcia DeCoster (2009) and Sharilyn Miller (2009). Rachel’s Seed Bead Fusion: 18 Projects to Stitch, Wire & String (Interweave Press) will release in September 2009.

Rachel works a dual focus of pushing the boundaries of improvisational beadweaving combinations and wire techniques and to amaze the viewer. Since 1996, Rachel has offered basic to advanced classes in the California Bay Area for the South Bay Bead Art Guild, bead stores, park & recreation programs, and privately. Since 2005, her designs have been offered at national bead shows like Bead & Button and Puget Sound Bead Festival and around the US in bead stores and for bead societies. She hopes to teach in Japan and Europe and write a series of books.

Residing in beautiful Santa Cruz, CA with husband Colin, Rachel endeavors to spread peace and inspiration through her peerless achievements.