Carolyn Cave
.jpg "Amethyst Twilight")
Meet the Designer-Artist
Where do you live?
I live in Lacombe, Alberta, a town of about 12,000 people about 1-1/2 hours north of Calgary.
What inspires you as a designer-artist?
I've always been creative and "crafty," even as a child when my mom taught me how to sew, knit and crochet. I've explored other artistic endeavors, such as spinning, weaving, dyeing, quilting and silk ribbon embroidery, and earned a degree in Music, playing the piano, pipe organ, clarinet and cello. I started bead stringing when my children were young since beads took up less space and set-up energy than sewing.
When we moved to Lacombe from Australia in 2006, I sent a few of my bead weaving designs to magazines and they were accepted for publication. Things moved on from there and now I'm designing for a couple of bead manufacturers and the Beadsmith on their Inspiration Squad, running my own website, offering a monthly bead subscription box and about to launch some classes on Zoom in September of 2021.
The beads themselves inspire me, with their shiny surfaces, interconnecting shapes and endless creative possibilities, but I am also inspired by nature and vintage clothing and jewelry.
What medium do you work with mostly?
I do both bead stitching and bead embroidery and the piece for the competition is a combination of the two techniques. I love stones and cabochons so the starting point for this piece was the rhodochrosite cabochon that my husband cut, shaped and polished. I wanted to add flowers around the edge, and because the stone is large, there was scope for adding a large flower and some smaller ones. That was my main plan but the actual working it out happened while I was stitching the project.
Where and how do you sell your jewelry?
I don't sell my stitched pieces (although I'm happy to sell a duplicate or custom piece) but I sell tutorials, kits and the two books I've written on my website.
What is the name of the piece you submitted with your success story?
August Glory