Meet our Artists and Instructors

About Our February Visiting Artist
Leslee Frumin

Leslee Frumin is a bead and metal artist from San Juan Capistrano, CA who teaches off-loom bead weaving as well as metal/jewelry techniques. She has been teaching for a number of years and truly enjoys it.

Leslee's passion for all of the colors and textures made possible by the marriage between beads, metals, and stones keep her excited. She fabricates clasps and connectors and often sets semi-precious stones to enhance the design. Her art jewelry pieces are one of a kind. Leslee has won awards for some of her combination bead and metal projects.

"Teaching is a wonderful event for me. I love the fact that the students are there because they want to learn a new technique or a project I have created. I am thrilled to see the new directions students take a piece. I am delighted to hear about their successes in receiving awards for their work or becoming designing artists themselves. I can't think of a better job than this."

Leslee teaches at shows, bead societies, and stores across the country including the Bead & Button and BeadFest.


About Sarah C. Chapman

Sarah C. Chapman is a studio metalsmith whose jewelry is inspired by architecture and by nature as architect. She shows her work at juried art fairs, galleries and stores throughout the United States. More of her work can be viewed at: www.chapmanmetals.com

 

About Kate Crofford

Kate Crofford started beading properly while working at our sister store, Caravan, in 2000. She abandoned the use of unwaxed dental floss and carpet thread as stringing media after learning how to correctly attach clasps to necklaces, no longer having to string until it was long enough to go over someone’s head. Her magpie-like lust for shiny things and her obsession with stones has led to a hard-to-break habit and the need to spread the bead sickness. She has still not developed the focus (read: patience) to become a serious seed-beader, but loves to warp wire to do her bidding. Kate likes teaching because enthusiasm is contagious, she loves the “eureka!” moments most students have when they understand a technique and begin playing with new ideas, and she was always taught to share. She likes wire, copper, stones of all types, comic books, hardware, music, and steampunkery. You can find erratic and eclectic postings of her work at www.dontpanicproductions.etsy.com

 

 

About Kate Kane

Kate Kane loves the beads. And the beaders. Where else can you find color, shape, texture, and sparkle? She works in the store on Saturdays and teaches courses like Boot Camp, Resin Pendants, Knotting, and an assortment of needle techniques like Star of India and Tutti Frutti. Kate likes to design jewelry for the store and for the classes. She especially enjoys naming her creations. In her personal collections, she likes to use vintage chain. She loves turning people on to the joys of beading. Her motto is "easier than you think, and so much fun it should be illegal."

 

 

About Aimee Leang

Aimee Leang started making jewelry at her first summer job working for Gallery 37's summer arts program. After that Aimee's Mom gave her a set of tools purchased from Caravan beads and her passion was found. Aimee is well versed in the skills of wire-wrapping, metalsmithing and lapidary. A former teacher for the Gallery 37 after school program, she spent several years teaching jewelry making to high school students at Kelvyn Park and Al Raby high schools. More recently she has been teaching beginning to advanced wire work classes for several years at Caravan and Briolette.

 

 

About Hannah Rosner

Hannah was a semifinalist in the lampwork category for Bead Dreams 2009 and won second place for her bead embroidered collarpiece in the Treasures of Toho 2009 Contest. The Treasures of Toho necklace can be seen in the February 2010 issue of Bead & Button. She has been lampworking since 1992 and beadweaving since 1986. She has had the opportunity to meet and learn from some of the best beadmakers and flameworkers in the US.

She began teaching both lampworking and beadweaving in 2000 and has taught at bead stores and bead societies across the US.

 

 

About Kat Wisniewski

At 10, Kat made friendship bracelets for her friends from embroidery floss and she has only progressed in her jewelry making techniques from there. Maturing from her seed beads loom bracelets, rock tumbling, polymer clay bead making and more, she now is a nationally known instructor in the chainmaille jewelry field. Kat has been teaching chainmaille & wirework professionally since 2005 throughout the Chicagoland area, and also at the internationally recognized Bead & Button Show "I create while sitting on my bed, all my materials spread out across the bed, dog & cats nearby, listening to inspiring music and I just go at it. This is how I invent weaves & projects by just trying different combinations of elements together until I get a result that I fall in love with". Kat has invented about 9 weaves, many of which have become the highest quality tutorials sold internationally. Currently, she keeps herself busy displaying her pieces at art shows throughout the year, teaching about 4-8 classes per month, inventing new weaves that will eventually become tutorials, and designing fashionable chainmaille & wirework items.

Kat Wisniewski, www.elementalartjewelry.com