Just a little history.....

"I found this medium in the late 80's. I knew of a similar product that only came in white when I was in elementary school, and after having an idea to make a sculptural brooch series; off I went to the local craft store in search of this oven baked clay. After arriving in the store and requesting this clay I was told that they no longer carried it, but they had "FIMO". .. Well I asked what it was and to show me the product...much to my surprise it now came in colors! Although there were no publications on the product other than a leaflet, I spent my last $20 and off I went. I met Marie & Howard Segal at a show and watched with amazement how Marie manipulated this medium and I was no longer in the dark and unafraid...My life has not been the same since, the clay and I soon developed a rapport and by the end of the sixth month of discovery I thought I'd re-invented the wheel when I figured out that the design reduces within the clay roll or “cane”. Although my clay choices have changed throughout the last 18 years today I enjoy mostly Kato Polyclay, and the excitement has kept its momentum for me.

Klews Polymer Beads...Polymer Clay has been used as modelng clay for many years. A technique called "caning" is borrowed from the Venetian Glass beadmakers. A cane is a bundle of colors painstakingly pieced together to create a picture when viewed from the end or cross section. "Millefiori" means a thousand flowers in Italian and refers to the slicing off of the cross sections of the flower "cane". In polymer the colored clays are formed together like a thick puzzle, once the desired picture or design is achieved the "cane" is compressed, rolled, stretced, pulled, squezed, & smoothed resulting in reducing the diameter of the "cane". With this process the design reduces within the cane. Slicing off slices of this cane results in a repetitive pattern with each slice off it's cross section! I take these slices and venere them onto a ball of clay and roll them smooth. Little by little I layer the slices from many types of canes to create my mosaic bead. Once the shape is reached I then make the hole and either bake it or add more sculpted slices for additional interest. The finishes are achieved from many grits of wet/dry sandpaper.

Today there are 100s of books and dozens of videos on the subject for all ages and discerning tastes. Although I haven't actually written a book, I have been published in dozens and have co-authored a book called "My Favorite Things in Polymer Clay" with my poly friends>>> Donna Kato, Judy Belcher, Kim Cavender, Leslie Blackford, Sue Kelsey, Maria DelPinto, & Gail Ritchey. I have been fortunate to be published in many trade magazines. My work is shown world wide, and is part of the permanent collection of the Bead Museum in Glendale, AZ. In 1995, I was a guest artist on The Learning Channel's (TLC) program "Simply Style". In 1998 it was a great honor to be one of the Artists on the Smithsonian Arttrain, which travels the country to educate the public. Having demo-ed in many trade shows and CHA events I find it tremendously satisfying to engage the public. My husband Carl & I along with our 9lbs-of-joy Yorkie-Pooh ~ Buddie (short for Rosebud Sable Princess), two cats ~ TJ and Griffin, live in the mountains dividing the Sierra Nevadas from the coastal range called the Tehachapis in a town of the same name in California.

In 1997 God took both our Mothers and in honor of their spirit we opened our bead store “The Spirited Bead” on Mothers Day 1999. My studio has also been located here since 1994. March of 2004 we opened our second location in Ridgecrest, CA which is in the high desert in the eastern Sierra Nevada foothills on the way to the famous Death Valley. At this point we also integrated the name with “Klew Expressions” to become “The Spirited Bead & Klews Gallery”.

If you ever find yourself coming through the Tehacapi mountains on hwy 58-do plan to stop in as I look forward to meeting you and sharing some of myself with you over a cup of coffee!