Crystal Cairns

Crystal Cairns

Fire Mountain Gems and Beads' Jewelry-Making Contest 2010 featuring Pearls, Organic Beads or Kato Polyclay™

Finalist

Meet the Designer-Artist


Where do you live?
Catskill Mountains, New York

Describe your artistic style.
Changes with mood, always elegant, sometimes earth or retro, even whimsical.

What inspires you as a designer-artist?
The components and the seasons. Summer is a favorite!

What materials do you most enjoy working with?
Crystals and pearls.

What is the name of the piece you submitted with your success story?
Beachcomber

What inspired this design?
The shells and pearls and the gold chain, as wells as the vision of long summer days at the beach.

How did it come together? For example, did you plan it out or did it define itself once you began working?
I could see it in my mind's eye when I found the components.

Share Your Background


When and how did you begin making jewelry/beading?
My grandmother taught me to work with beads when I was nine years old. She passed away shortly after I turned eleven but not before teaching me to work with wire, stones and cabochons.

Who introduced you to beading?
My grandmother.

Do you have an artistic background?
I have been drawing with oil pastels and charcoal for many years. It has taken a back seat to jewelry-making now.

How did you discover Fire Mountain Gems and Beads®?
From the supplies inherited, my grandmother left all the labels on.

What other hobbies do you have?
Playing piano and photography.

Beading Success


What role does jewelry-making play in your life?
Jewelry-making has become a part-time career. I started my small business when I was sixteen.

If you used jewelry-making as a way to bring in income, how are you selling yourself and your jewelry?
My work can be purchased at local consignment shops, at craft fairs, home jewelry shows and soon to be on the web.

Any advice for aspiring jewelry-artists?
Don't be intimidated by the vastness of the industry. Dive in. Have fun. Be creative.

View all of Crystal's designs in the Gallery of Designs.