Gretchen Amberg – has always been a creative person but really got started in 2002 when she was introduced to glass fusing. Since then she has worked with and taught classes in Precious Metal Clay (PMC) and polymer clay. She finds great joy in teaching since she believes that she learns as much from her students as they do from her. Her goal is to get others as excited as she is about working with all of these materials. Gretchen sees art as therapeutic, a way for people to experiment, and an outlet for self expression. Gretchen is also a firm believer that work which is more complex isn’t necessarily better. The most simple of techniques, when executed with attention to detail, can yield the most stunning work. For more about Gretchen, go to Gretchen Amberg.
Patricia Capotosto - has always been involved in the arts in one form or another. Patricia has found working with wire to be a fascinating and rewarding journey. Twenty years ago when she first saw jewelry made exclusively out of wire there was no formal education available. Determined to learn, she found some videos and books on the subject, which gave her a start. She began to perfect her skills, and applied for and was accepted into the Illinois Artisans program. Several years later her projects were featured in Wire Artist magazine. Wire art has grown considerably since Patricia’s humble beginnings, when it was called wire wrapping. Having a foundation in wire wrapping has helped her become a much more skilled wire artist. For more about Patricia, go to Patricia Capotosto.
Carol Hamlin Faure - is delighted to have found a creative outlet that provides relaxation and meditation in the midst of a busy life.
Kim Humphrey - not only enjoys creating fun and whimsical designs with beads, she also uses traditional patterns and techniques for all types of bead jewelry. A bead artist since the mid ’90s and a true believer that “you can never have too many beads,” Kim lives in Oak Park, Illinois, where she also works almost full time at Bead In Hand. For more about Kim, go to The Dancing Bead.
Susan Jackson and Wendy Hubick - sisters who co-own their business, Hummingbeads, they teach across the country as well as internationally, and their beadwork has been featured in numerous books and magazines.
Phyllis Kaplan - As a child Phyllis remembers being fascinated by colors and movement. She saw rainbows of color float along the walls all around her from the stained glass window above. In college Phyllis pursued art and design, which led to a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in graphic design, industrial design and photography. Phyllis has been a graphic designer for over 30 years, working to express a client’s wants and needs in a 2 dimensional printed form. She has always felt that her design work was like a treasure hunt—the pieces were hiding and she had to find them and put them together in a way that worked to create the collateral material that would do the job for the client. Phyllis has continued with activities related to creating and making things — but always with visual things and never with the written word – only images, visuals, color, and shapes using many different materials.
Kate Linne – a ceramic artist and an employee of the Oak Park Park District, Kate came on board as an employee with Bead in Hand in 2008 and quickly took to the art of beading. She has been leading the Third Friday Reinvent Your Jewelry classes, the birthday parties and the kids’ art classes for quite some time and now she is our Basic Beading instructor.
Carol Metzger – is committed to discovering and expressing her own truth in her life and in her art, and in so doing making a difference in the lives of others. Carol has been an artist her whole life, and tries to make art out of just about anything. One of her recent favorites is knitting with beads, which led to bead weaving, both on- and off-loom. Carol loves combining colors, textures, and materials in unexpected ways. Textiles offer a rich variety of media and method for such exploration. Carol has taught beaded knitting at My Sister’s Knits, the Hyde Park Art Center and the Hyde Park Knitting Guild. Three of her patterns are included in the One-Skein Wonders series edited by Judith Durant (Storey Publishing).
Kimberly Stathis – A beader since 2005, Kimberly has been focusing on using off loom beading techniques and incorporating Crystallized Elements into her designs for the past two years. She loves the sparkle and intensity of color that the crystal beads bring to her work. In 2008 Kimberly taught at the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee, WI for the first time. Her stand-out design “Razzle Dazzle Bracelet” was a sell-out and a featured show piece at the Bead and Button show. Her “Honeycomb Bracelet” design has been sponsored by Swarovski’s CREATE YOUR STYLE – Crystallized ™. Kimberly teaches her designs nationally and continue to do demonstrations for Swarovski. For more about Kimberly, go to The Beads and I.
Debra Stephens - a creative person with a passion for buttons and beads. With a full time job at the Art Institute, she also works weekends at Bead in Hand.
Sherry Viktora - a Senior Instructor for PMC Connection, Sherry began working with stained glass in 1987, while practicing full-time as a Critical Care Nurse. She started teaching stained glass classes prior to becoming certified in PMC, and began teaching PMC workshops in Wisconsin and northern Illinois. Her enthusiasm for teaching and working with PMC, along with glass, allowed her to decide to leave nursing to pursue teaching and creating original art work. She specializes in creating nature-inspired art from PMC, glass and copper. Her artwork has been nationally published, and is currently displayed in several area art galleries. Sherry can be contacted through her web site, www.out-ona-limb.com or at her home-based studio, Out On A Limb, in Rockton, IL.
Doris Weinbaum – owner of Bead in Hand who is fortunate to be surrounded by creative teachers and customers who are a never ending source of information and inspiration. Now residing in San Clemente, California, Doris teaches classes at Bead in Hand during her regular visits.