My name is Kris Empting-Obenland, I'm a fashion designer and a proud mom of four grown-up kids, living in Singen, South Germany. I believe being an artist doesn't come out of the blue, it's somewhere down inside of you from the very beginning... I've been creative my whole life long. As a kid, I've strung wooden beads and drawn, later I learned to crochet and knit; I usually got addicted to every new skill properly executing any crafts.
When you have four kids there is no chance to build any kind of professional career, so I used my little free time to explore different ways to express my creativity in several textile techniques, painting, wood working, and interior design, in order to find something that would fill my time and make me happy when the kids would leave the house...
There have always been some beads in my life as well. When I was in high school in the 70s simple multi-strand strung necklaces were a must. In 80s I've made peyote stitch bangles from seed beads and even taught my kids' classmates and their moms how to design them! Today I don't understand why I didn't proceed from that point... I simply had no clue of the vast potential laid in beading!
Years later I got my first book about beading, "Perlenzauber" by Katharina Dietrich (galerie-neue-perlen.de). Today I consider Katharina being my muse and think there was the turning point in my beading "career". Her very free approach and successful color combinations were extremely inspirational and attractive to me!
When Internet finally arrived to my living room I discovered the fantastic creations of the Etsy Beadweavers! Their beadworks were absolute jaw droppers for me! Never before I had seen anything alike and my desire became to know how to do such beauties! And I could never imagine to be part of that team...
Whatever I made I always make it just for myself. Until that day when I finally opened my own Etsy Shop - because I had so many pieces of beaded jewelry on stock that I thought I might sell some pieces... That was in 2010. Next year I joined the Etsy Beadweavers Team and immediately won my first challenge with the theme "Totally Twisted"! The necklace I made went viral and it was instantly sold, it was also published in Bead&Button magazine as well as in their 2012 Year Book. All that took me totally by surprise and completely overwhelmed me! What wonderful feedbacks and encouragement to go on! That's how it really began.
I'm self-taught in most everything I do. Occasionally I learn a new technique or a new stitch in knitting or beading, from a Youtube video or a friend, but I never take classes. All I need is to get an idea about how a basic technique works and all the rest is experimenting. I try to avoid much influence of other artists or even getting in danger of copying... I feel the most authentic when I don't look for inspiration by browsing through Pinterest and Flickr or the like.
However I can't really say where my inspiration comes from. I only know the more I look the more I'm confused; when I close my eyes imagination comes to me and I see what I want to translate into beads. I love all sorts of textures and geometric shapes which I try to integrate into my pieces. Often I construct my designs making very strong geometric elements and combining them in a more organic manner breaking up the strictness and achieving something that appears like naturally grown. As an example I'd like to mention my Ripply Necklace that I submitted to 2014 Fashion Colorworks beading contest.
Generally, I don't "design" in the sense of sketching or drawing. I start with thread and needle right away. While making the first element or a few rows of something undefined I get fifty more ideas about what to do next. Consequently my pieces are always in development during weaving and finally they never look like what I first imagined. Some people say about this effect, "Let the beads talk to you!" and that's exactly what beads do, showing me a variety of options on the way helping make decisions on thing to do.
My favorite colors are all shades of red, yellow and purple, all metallics, and of course black and gray because they are the greatest supporters for all other colors. Greens, turquoise and blues are totally outside of my comfort zone. Really, I feel extremely uncomfortable when I try to use them... it's amazing! Colors like brown or beige aren't even worth to be mentioned in my world! Also I'm completely addicted to seed beads, especially I like frosted finishes. For me, there's no need to have any other bead shape. Ok, Indian glass beads are nice for embellishment here and there...
It took me some time to find out which category of artists I would fit in best. I make pieces of jewelry or wearable art. Often they are rather large and complex so people wonder at how much patience I have. But it's not about patience, it's passion! Patience means some suffering, but I don't suffer at all! While passion allows you not to notice your back pain and your tired eyes because you just want to go forward and get your piece finished!
When I work I don't listen to music, I need absolute silence and concentration. That's why you will never see me beading in public. The complexity of my works also is the reason why I don't teach or write tutorials. Not only would those classes need weeks to complete a piece but I'm not interested in having my art copied anyway.
Although I sometimes feel a little lonely with this definition of myself as an artist I still love being part of the vast worldwide community of beaders! I also love Facebook where we all can meet so easily and show off what we make getting lots of wonderful feedbacks! That's exactly what I've been missing so much before Internet became a usual part of our everyday's life!
I couldn't be happier without what I do! Beads have so much potential and as for my ideas there is no end in sight... I love participating in competitions since they make me stretch my boundaries. Right now I'm looking forward to this year's Battle of the BeadSmith which starts on April 1st. So many super talented artists will be participating - and me... Be sure to stop by if you are on Facebook, and enjoy the great show!
My gallery on MyLovelyBeads.com
About author:
| Kris Empting-Obenland, Singen, Germany | |
| Email: | KrisDesignFSP@googlemail.com |
| Website: | kris-design.de |
| Etsy Shop: | etsy.com/shop/KrisDesignFSP |
| Facebook: | facebook.com/kris.emptingobenland |
