While a student at the Art Institute of Chicago, Katie Stuart had the opportunity to work in a variety of art mediums. For more than 25 years she has been creating art glass. Initially, Katie made very large, custom-designed, stained glass windows on commission for clients throughout the United States. In 1997, she began working with fused glass, creating signature pieces of unrivaled artistic quality. She soon migrated into lampwork, making glass beads in a torch, which she uses in her unique jewelry designs and to embellish clothing. Most recently, she has expanded her artistic endeavors into copper electroforming, creating beautiful mixed media art pieces to add texture to her jewelry designs. She has a teaching studio in Santa Barbara, CA where she teaches glass bead making, fusing and copper electroforming.
MemberSHIPS
On the Advisory Board of Beads of Courage
Member of International Society of Beadmakers
From the Artist:
My first experience with molten glass was at Disneyland when I was 7 years old. I saw a man melting glass and designing ships and flowers. I was mesmerized. How could glass melt? Glass is hard and brittle, not flowing and pliable. This was my first experience with my love of glass.
I was published in Bead and Button, January 2010, Jewelry Designs with Art Glass Beads. I collaborated with a seed bead artist and we were one of 20 artists to get published in the magazine. The necklace was donated to International Society of Beads and was auctioned off as a fund raiser for several hundred dollars.
My introduction to Beads of Courage in 2004, was after my niece passed away from a childhood cancer. About six months later I met Jean Baruch and I was one of the early bead donators. We have stayed in touch and over the years and my students have donated many thousands of lampworked glass beads. I am very proud to have been Inducted into The Hall of Fame for Beads of Courage in 2013.