In the Round with Kris Schaible: Finding Your Style

An earlier interview with Jen Cushman focused on the “art-to-market” spectrum where a passion grows from a hobby to becoming a published expert. Along that path are life steps that I felt needed some more exploration, such as the balance of raising a family while defining your style as an artist. I’ve known Kris Schaible for some time and have watched her art and abode grow. Her journey started when she first purchased a flameworked art bead—as some of us do (a common attribute being the love of fire) she ordered some glass rods, a torch and mostly taught herself to fire things up and make her own beads. That was eight years ago, and three children later Kris owns and manages Noodlesaurus Glass Studio where she works and trains others. She’s also the Mid-Atlantic regional director for the International Society of Glass Bead Makers. CS: Kris, we’ve know each other from our Penn Dragons days. As an artist, how did creating glass beads become your primary passion and focus? KS: Growing up I was exposed to numerous art mediums--paint, paper, fabric. I learned to sew on my grandmother’s tredle Singer and to crochet when I was six. I made quilts, did needle point, strung seed bead bracelets and painted canvas, but glass--WOW!!!---what a captivating medium. The ability to take a solid and convert it into a semi-liquid, alter its shape and color then allow it to cool back to a solid. The rich gem tone color palette is one of the biggest things that drew me into glass as well as the ability to layer it to get cast shadows and create depth. Melting glass seems to have centered my creativity as I design mini works of art inside of each bead. I love to create beads that appear to glow from within or have layers that shadow each other and create a new color. CS: You took over the part of your home that for most would house their car and turned it into a studio. How did that come together? KS: My husband and children are the center of my world, so it just seemed natural to have the studio here as well. Being a creative spirit, I have to create every day. Having converted half of our garage into my studio allows me to work and to make beads but still have my family close to me. We have chosen to home school our children, so my schedule varies with my husband’s work schedule. Having the studio here at the house and being able to go out there when he gets home or when the kids are out playing gives me a lot of flexibility. There is the safety factor as well. The kiln runs at a temperature of around 970 degrees, glass fractures and ends up on the floor and my torch mixes oxygen and propane. So it’s a place to tuck everything away. Kris Schaible’s signature round beads CS: How did your signature style evolve and in retrospect, what’s worked best towards supporting the direction you’re heading in today? KS: My goal when it comes to my style: If you found my bead on the floor at a show, you would know it was mine. So I spent a lot of time, years actually, developing my style of bead. I tried this and that, and really in hindsight was forcing a style to develop. I would say the first five years of my bead making was this way. It worked because I was able to support a wonderful organization called Beads of Courage, an art-in-medicine program for children battling serious illness. Beadmakers donate handmade beads that recognize and celebrate the courage and milestones of treatment. Starting in late 2009, I had the opportunity to take part in Bead Fest. I shared a booth with someone at this very large event and mingled with other beadmakers who’s work I admired. They gave me this advise: “Relax, it will happen one day.” Sure enough it did. I started making round beads, honestly it was an accident as I was working on an oval bead but somehow couldn’t get the shape quite right so decided to make it round. I was in love, and I now make all of my beads perfectly round with 5-9 layers of glass in them. The shape allows me to layer and create depth in a bead. This year, in my own booth at the same show, a returning customer stopped in and said, “I saw a lady at another booth buying components to create a necklace and she had your beads, I just knew it by looking at them.” CS: That’s a great complement, and having watched your style over the years, I still “see” you in your artwork. What’s driving you now, where will Kris be by 2015? KS: As my style has developed, I’ve become more comfortable with my work and the quality of it. I’m doing more shows, last year two, this year eleven. Next year I’m hoping to travel out of state to do shows and visit others studios around the country to teach my style to others. As I evolve as an artist, I’d like to publish my work. Knowing Kris and watching her talent grow, she’ll be around and heating things up for a long time. ** Photographs of Kris Schaible and Glass Beads are the exclusive intellectual property of Kris Schaible and are being reproduced for this article with her explicit written consent.