Holly Mathews

Holly Mathews

Purple and Blue Haze
Fire Mountain Gems and Beads' Jewelry-Making Contest 2013 featuring Seed Beads
Finalist

Left-Overs Bracelet

Meet the Designer-Artist


Where do you live?
Eau Claire, Wisconsin

What inspires you as a designer-artist?
I am inspired by many things. Sometimes the beads themselves inspire me; sometimes it might be a piece of fabric or a pretty picture. Sometimes ideas just pop into my head when I am sitting in a meeting at work.

What medium do you work with mostly?
Lately I've been working a lot with seed beads and bugle beads. Sometimes, for a change of pace, I work with gems and pearls, or wire.

Why did you become enchanted with this style of jewelry-making?
My first love is embroidery, and my mom loves to shop for purses. So, to combine those interests, I started beading purses. I was introduced to jewelry making in an art class in high school, so that kept me interested in beads and wire work. When I found the Fire Mountain catalog, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Finally, a great source of items for beading and jewelry making. I haven't started selling my pieces yet. I'm trying to work up the nerve to take that first step.

What is the name of the piece you submitted with your success story?
Left-Overs Bracelet

What inspired this design?
I saw a design in Bead and ButtonĀ® magazine, where an artist made a bracelet with the colors of the rainbow. I wanted to try the technique she described, but didn't have the right colors, so I decided to give it a try using leftover beads from other projects.

How did it come together?
Using leftovers, I didn't need to plan what colors would go where. I learned how to peyote when I did the base of the bracelet. The beads added on top just kind of came together as I went along.