Kristal Wick - Living In Color

Each project is an adventure for mixed-media artisan Kristal Wick, since there’s a delightful element of surprise in everything she creates. Kristal uses Rit Dye for her earrings, bracelets and necklaces, which are hand-crafted with dyed fabric that she turns into fabric beads and accessories. She also uses Rit for her pillows, baubles, journal covers, scrapbooks, lampshades, wall hangings, quilts and other embellishments as well, because the non-toxic dye provides an array of gorgeous base colors.

“Silk is my favorite fabric,” she explains, “since it dyes evenly and provides a beautiful surface. Then I’ll use stamps, stencils, foils, an eye-dropper, and even modeling clay to create texture on the fabric. And silk is very forgiving – you can’t mess it up. The result is different every single time, but the dyed silk scarves are often reminiscent of Monet’s garden watercolors.”

How did she develop a love of crafts? Growing up in Minnesota, the winters were long and cold. “I definitely needed to find indoor pursuits,” Kristal says, “so I learned to knit and sew and enjoy craft projects.”

The Sky’s The Limit

Now based in the Denver area, Kristal finds her work to be highly addictive. “Once you start, you can’t stop. I warn my students that they may end up with an irate spouse as a result. Sometimes I don’t sleep at night because I have so many ideas that I can’t wait to get to.” There are no mistakes or iron-clad formulas in Kristal’s estimation, simply interesting results and experimentation. Her only guidelines for students are to play with colors, layers and shadows.

Kristal teaches her multi-media design methods to eager students at a variety of shows, book signings and on various cruise ships -- and the number of students she instructs per class can range from 10 to 500. She travels frequently, at least once a month, and her future includes a Swarovski-sponsored workshop in the Tuscany region of Italy, as well as a trip to the Bahamas and another to the Yucatan. She also teaches in the quilting realm, and will make an appearance at Houston’s International Quilt Festival.

Fortuitous Friendships

Before turning to design, Kristal was a technical writer, which also required an eye for detail. She would hold trunk shows in her cubicle around holiday times, and sold pieces that featured glass fusion or stained glass. But the seed of success began in Nashville more than a decade ago, with a friendship – specifically her friendship with the bass player for the Jimmy Buffett Band.  When he visited her years later, they met for dinner and she showed him her jewelry. He immediately knew the Buffett Band’s backup singers and dancers would love it, so he asked her to pack up a trunk full of jewelry and take it to the hotel where they were staying. Needless to say, the women were bowled over by the tropical, vibrant-colored jewelry, and wore it all onstage – sometimes as many as 5 bracelets on an arm. Nowadays, if Kristal and the Jimmy Buffett Band are touring the same city at the same time, they make sure to get together.

When she was just starting out, another friend invited her to a large bead-themed trade show in the Milwaukee area, so she packed up half of a shoebox with her jewelry and took it to the booth. Within 45 minutes, she was sold out and had $10,000 worth of orders to fill. Then within six months of that fateful show, her unique, dyed silk jewelry and other designs were featured on HGTV and PBS, and in 29 different magazines. Her book Fabulous Fabric Beads (Interweave Press) is an Amazon bestseller, and before that she published Sassy Silky Savvy.

Forging Her Own Future

Kristal’s artwork has been shown in art galleries across the globe. Her website is www.kristalwick.com, and her blog can be found at kristalwick.blogspot.com. 

She’s especially looking forward to traveling to Tuscany for Jewelry Through Art week. “Wine, friends, crystals and Italy,” she says contentedly, “What could be better?” And of course, the prospect of finding new materials for her art keeps her perpetually engaged.