My name is Denisa Kangas and I am from, and still live in Hradec Kralove, the town about 100 kilometers from Prague in the Czech Republic. I am happily married to an American singer-saxophonist and we have two lovely children, a boy and a girl.
I have always loved art and music, I play the piano and enjoy drawing and painting. And even though the Czech Republic is known for being the "bead kingdom", I was first introduced to beading in 2009, while visiting my wonderful mother-in-law Lana in the United States. Our daughter was then just eight months old and caring for her didn't leave me with much time to draw and paint.
I needed something creative to do, something that I could put aside when my daughter needed me and then pick up again later. Lana was enjoying doing beadwork herself and suggested that I might like it too. I was very excited about giving it a try! So we went shopping in the local bead store and I bought my first stash of beads, needles, fireline, mats, and books for learning the basic stitches.
I have been beading ever since and the passing of time has just made me even more excited about working with beautiful beads. I'm afraid I have become a beadaholic, I bead as often as my busy life allows, and I'm looking forward to many more beading adventures in the future.
I love shopping for beads and I have to admit that I have more beads than I could possibly use in my lifetime. But of course that doesn't stop me from buying more! My stock consists mostly of seed beads in my favorite colors; purple, teal, turquoise, copper and gray. There are only a few baggies of yellow and pink in case I want to challenge myself by working with colors I don't normally use.
Participating in the Fashion Colorworks Contest gives me the opportunity to work outside of my color comfort zone. I was unable to submit my entry last year because of difficulties in coordinating my schedule with my co-author and beading soul mate, Lea Palickova. I really love Lea's work and style and I look forward to working with her more in the future.
Though I started with beading simple spiral necklaces, I quickly found that my favorite technique was bead embroidery. For me, it's like painting, only with beads. Each piece takes many hours to complete. I bead slowly because I want to really think about exactly where to place each individual bead.
Because I am so particular about every little detail, wanting to get it just right, I will sometimes take apart what took me so long to make and start all over again. I tend to think "outside the box" and especially love to create asymmetrical designs with a more modern flare.
My design ideas usually come to me just before I fall asleep, and sometimes even in my dreams. I try to remember them, but by morning most of them are gone. The ones I do remember I sketch and store in the drawer that holds hundreds of other designs I want to make someday.
Many times I start out with one design idea and then end up making something that is completely different from that original design. And I especially love it when the beads just "take over", as if they have a mind of their own. That happened for example when I made my "On Dragon Wings" necklace for the 2013 Fashion Colorworks Contest. These works are my most treasured pieces and I keep them for myself in my "Author's Collection".
The largest works I have made are ones that I submit to challenges like Battle of the BeadSmith. I have participated in this tournament every year since it began. I am also grateful for the opportunity to be one of the twenty or so The BeadSmith designers called the Inspiration Squad.
We have become a group of beading friends who were selected to create designs with the new beads that are just coming on the market. The BeadSmith uses our designs to show customers examples of what can be made with them. It is very enjoyable working with these "newbie" beads, figuring out how to make new designs that can be an inspiration for others.
I look forward to exploring many new techniques in the future. My next goal is to start designing pieces that use a combination of kumihimo, micro-macrame and beadweaving. I wish the days had many more hours so that I could create all the things that I dream of making!
My gallery on MyLovelyBeads.com
About author:
| Denisa Kangas, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic | |
| Email: | denisa.kangas@seznam.cz |
| Website: | denisakangas.webnode.cz |
| Facebook: | facebook.com/denisa.kangas?fref=ts |
