By Susan Alexander
Scripps Howard News Service
Kathy Seely makes a huge impact with teeny tiny beads. In a remote holler in Anderson County, Tennessee, where mayflies drift above blackberry brambles, Seely weaves her own personal magic into beaded creations. Working with colored glass beads barely bigger than periods, Seely painstakingly sews intricate pieces that become necklaces, pins, earrings, masks and little glass baskets. A beaded leaf that measures about an inch in length takes about 90 minutes and more than 100 beads to make.
"Colored glass does such interesting things with light," she says. "It's amazing the number of ways you can use the same color." One wall of the workroom in her home is dedicated to bead storage. Some are stashed in narrow glass test tubes. Others are stored in dozens of TicTac boxes. "I buy them for the boxes, not the TicTacs," she says.
A lifelong seamstress, Seely, 47, has been beading since 1992. She learned the craft through classes at Arrowmont and Split Rock Summer Arts Program run by the University of Minnesota and at bead conventions. "I've taken things I've learned and developed my own techniques," she says. One such technique she calls the radial weave. She used it to form a large necklace that features amber beads, jet fringe and large fossilized horse teeth. That particular piece has been exhibited from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon and was published in a book called Myths and Folktales, published by Caravan Beads Inc. Though she sells most of her creations, that necklace still resides with Seely. She likes to wear it with the simple black clothing she favors. "When I buy clothes, I'm usually looking for things that go with my beads," she says. "I like flowing, artsy dresses and comfortable clothes. I like wearing small pieces of beadwork. They've got a nice feel and texture, nice sensuality."
She is currently working on a series of seasonal necklaces that are built around a soda straw and then stuffed and that feature beaded colored leaves, nuts and berries. She has completed the spring, summer and fall necklaces and is currently working on a white wintry one she will adorn with dark green holly leaves and garnet berries.
A member of Foothills Craft Guild and the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen, Seely exhibits her work at shows. The smaller pieces sell for between 30 and several hundred dollars; her large and intricate necklaces sell for between $400 and $2,000. Seely shares her home with eight cats and travels often to teach beadwork classes. She also has a 40-hour-a-week job in magazine distribution. And whenever she can, she beads.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.)
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