If you're looking for Kim Miles the beadmaker, you've found me. I don't make beads anymore, but I find it interesting to look back and see the connections between things I've done, and things I'm doing now. My best known bead design, and my personal favorite, is the Lotus. Its intricate mandala-like grace is calming and centering to look at, and it was a joy to make. There was a time, after beads, when I was taken with hand drawing mandalas. Pen and paper became my favorite tools, and the elaborate circular images poured out of me, eventually becoming a coloring book. Now the focus has turned back to fiber arts, where I started at a young age; most specifically crochet, which was the first craft I learned from my mother. Crocheting these oversized "doilies" is a peaceful, meditative process, just as glass work and drawing are. The big difference is really in the materials used. I love working in traditional techniques using unexpected materials, such as cord and rope. Am I going in circles? Quite literally, yes, from the twirling of glass in the flame, to the circular structure of mandalas, to the around-and-around process of crocheting a doily. Metaphorically too, I suppose, as life is circular in nature. Every day, every year, if we're lucky, we get to go around again.
