The Bead Collector

KC Gray Siebert started collecting beads in 1966 as a high school student in New Delhi, India. The jewelry artist and her husband now travel all over the world, finding unique beads along the way. "I buy beads everywhere we go," Siebert said. "I've collected over time, for all these years. Beads never go out of style."

The local artist said she only makes one-of-a-kind pieces. "I don't want to sell the same beads that other people are selling in the area because I don't want my stuff to look the same as everybody else's," she said. "I still have beads from different time periods and I can tell people when they buy something of mine, 'Oh, I got that bead here, I got this bead there.' There's a story behind the pieces I make."

Large, chunky pieces are the artist's forte. Her jewelry is eclectic and colorful, with a lot of personality. "I don't do little bitty sea beads," she said. "I like big and chunky. I like fun stuff. I'm not a little girl. I don't make things as a rule for little people although I could. It just doesn't zing me."

Jane Lipp, the principal of South County Secondary School in Lorton and a regular purchaser of Siebert's jewelry, said she just loves her work. "She has a very creative eye for putting different things together," Lipp said. "Whenever I wear something of hers, I always get compliments on it. Her work is very versatile. She has such a good eye for seeing what goes well together. She's a very talented artisan."

Siebert designs unique pieces, but she also tweaks well-known styles. She recently took a bracelet similar to the Tiffany's dog collar bracelet with a silver heart attached to it and wire-wrapped little blue hearts she found in Venice a few years ago. "I just updated the Tiffany's bracelet even more and I sold the whole set," she said. "Just give something a new style and bingo, you've got a new piece to sell. I want to do one-of-a-kind pieces so you don't see yourself coming down the street."

She also enjoys redesigning pieces to fit the current style. She does antique silverwork with beads from India and takes apart, redesigns and updates pieces of her mother's and sells them. "I have lots and lots of beads but I mix them in such a fashion that my stuff stands out," she said. "Styles come in and out but you can just unweave and reweave and make it hip again."

The Springfield resident sells some of her work at the Artisans United gallery in Annandale. She is a member of the gallery through the Northern Virginia Handcrafters Guild. The gallery is selling one of her newest items: Not Your Granny's "Eye Catchers." 

"The older we get, it's amazing the number of people that have five and six pairs of magnifiers of some sort and put them down and can't remember where they are or can't find them because they can't see them. So I make the strings that hold them on your face. I call them that because they are made out of these really fun shapes I make out of aluminum wire and I get to put my beads on them."

She recently started designing Badge Holders. "They are equally as hot off the press as the Eye Catchers," she said. Her signature pieces are Pizazz and Jacks. Pizazz pieces are made of bugle and sea beads and originated when two of Siebert's friends went on a safari to Africa and brought back pale pink bugle beads for her. "I thought, 'What can I do with these that will make the different?'" Her Jacks pieces are glass jacks strung on a necklace. "Those are my 'off the cuff' pieces that I have designed," she said. "Otherwise, I'm just stringing beads."

Siebert also has two baskets at Artisans United. Before she was a jewelry artist, she was a basket maker. Before that, she was a yardage weaver. After graduating from college, she taught physical education for 12 years. "At that time, I was weaving and I had a big floor loom and I taught my husband how to weave and he wouldn't let me have my loom back so I got into making baskets," she said.

She wove baskets for years and then decided to work for the Military Officers Association. She started out as a receptionist, was promoted three weeks later and became the head of one particular section and then later become the secretary to the president. After 12 years, she decided it was time to retire and began making jewelry full-time. "I beaded off and on when I was younger but then I just realized this is what I love to do," Siebert said.

Looking forward, the jewelry artist would like to incorporate silver-fused pieces into her repertoire. "My goal is not only to get into silversmithing but also to do collaborative work with other artists," she said. "I'm at a point now where I want to push myself. I can't say I've exhausted stringing because I haven't but I'm ready to add something to it and I'd like to envision some of my stringing with silverwork. They say you're never too old to learn."

Learn more about Siebert's one-of-a-kind pieces at her website.