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 Welcome! My name is Kimberly Adler. I bet you are
wondering, "What's with the bowling pins?" The
pins led me to a new passion! I was
a top professional bowler, and after a win in 2000,
discovered jewelry, glass beads, and their design. Soon afterward I
purchased my first torch, kiln, and glass, and started winding my
own glass beads. Visit my bowling site HERE.
I have been intrigued with art, color, form, and its
interplay in a natural sense for a very long time. One of my
favorite classes in high school was always Art Class. I dabbled in
various other mediums over the years-fabric, clay sculpture,
painting. But, in my case, I need a more "instant gratification."
Jewelry design and beadmaking was IT.
I brought my travelling studio on the road with me, my
husband, and our 2 cats in the motorhome in 2000. It comforted me
and at times overwhelmed me while still competing. Various news
programs across the country picked up on my "hobby," and
made it a special focus in their sports highlights when we came to
town. It comforted me on September 11, 2001. It provided style to
half of the ladies of the PWBA Tour.
I then decided to shelf my artwork in 2002-I needed to
concentrate on my final years as a competitor, and there wasn't
enough time for both. I could focus on it more when I retired from
the sport. Plus, my creative energies had stalled, and I did not
want to make beads and jewelry in a production fashion.
The Summer 2003 found the PWBA Tour closing down permanently.
I was without my career of fifteen years. I took a few months off,
but my first few weeks as a "forcibly-retired professional bowler"
found me in my second Jim Smircich beadmaking class in Asheville, NC
at my friend Gary Newlin's store "A Touch of Glass."
From 2004 to present I have become a fulltime college
student. Emergency medicine of all things! First EMT-B, then onto
Paramedic, which I completed in June 2005. I am currently taking
prerequisite courses for Nursing and possible Physician's
Assistant-I will see where the road takes me as I go. I currently
work full time in the emergency department of a local hospital. I
figure I might have more job security in medicine...
And, glass beads and jewelry? They are back in my life-slowly
and surely. I have been reestablishing the backyard studio from FL
hurricane 2004 storage pod back into a "me" space, filled with
energizing and soothing spaces for which to create, meditate and
reflect. The torch is set up and ready to roll. I am ready to
fire it up and make some beautiful things.
You might have remembered me in the past as "KIMBO" from
Kimbo Creations, Inc. The name change is important to me for a sense
of balance in my life and to represent me in a better fashion. Four
elements represent all that is life: air, earth, fire, and water.
Simple. They are my mantra-my roots, toward right understanding,
right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right
effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration...all in an
effort to do my simple small part to help others heal both
physically,emotionally, and spiritually.
My
Training:
2000: Initially I read and reread various lampworking
bead texts. I visualized the process
for about 4 months before ever having made my first solo bead. I
have also taken various
classes with Kristina Logan and Jim Smircich. Most of my training
has been hands-on,
trial and error.
The
Process:
Wonder what goes into making a glass bead? First it is about the
glass itself, I melt all
types of glass-Italian Effetre, Pyrex-type boroscillicate (which is
a much harder glass,
more
time-consuming to melt because of its hardness,) and sometimes even
a variety of
stained glass manufacturers. The glass is heated on my Lynx torch
until it reaches a taffy
consistency. It is then wound onto stainless steel mandrels (thick
wire.) Decorations are
added, more glass mixed, etc, until a special bead is made. The
glass is slightly cooled
in the flame, then gently placed into a pre-heated kiln for a
slow-cooling process of
annealment, which is usually done overnight in my studio. Here to
the right is the studio,
if you were interested. It was a shed, which was dropped
over the house, then finished
into my peaceful workspace and meditation area. It sites in
our small backyard in
beautiful Cocoa, Florida. It is not difficult to
be creatively-inspired in the area we live!
What gets Sold, What
doesn't:
I have been making beads since 2000. I decided that
"production work" is not the
direction which I want to go with my art. It needs to be inspired,
and there seems to
be
a missing amount of "soul" in my past production work. So, please do
not ask me
"I
love that style, can you make it in_______" in _______size?"
because it will
rarely happen! I have galleries which sell and display my
work, and I also sell on my
favorite auction website: Ebay, which I have been a part of since
1999 under the
Ebay handle: "kimbocreationsstore," and "pwbapro." My current
handle for my
name change is ""4elementsdesign", but you are welcome to view my
stellar feedbacks
with my other handles.
Sometimes I tend to reach out a just give away special beads: kind
of a bead-"pay it
forward" type of situation. I have been known to leave special gifts
in public places and
to mail out a little gift to previous customers or those on my
mailing list. It's just what I
like
to do.
I sometimes feel certain beads belong in certain
jewelry, which I then finish with various
other beads, stones, metals, fabrics, etc. I most recently expanded
into house decoration
as
well-knobs, candlesticks, fan pulls,
etc.
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