As I enter a driveway in rural Pennsylvania, I’m uncertain whether I’ve found the right place, since I can’t see a house. As I proceed, a rabbit scuttles in front of my car <strong>and</strong> hops down the center of the driveway, over a rise, <strong>and</strong> into a wooded hollow, where I find <strong>Karen</strong> <strong>Paust</strong>’s house. Before <strong>Paust</strong>’s two-year hiatus from beading, she was working on moths. This year she picked up where she left off, completing two tiger moths.
Creative childhood Painting, drawing, knitting, papermaking, sewing, ceramics, gardening, cooking: You’d be hardpressed to find a creative pursuit that isn’t part of <strong>Paust</strong>’s repertoire. Our conversation w<strong>and</strong>ers over granola recipes, hunting for morels, <strong>and</strong> starting plants from seed before we settle down to the topic at h<strong>and</strong>: how she became a beader. “I’ve always been a creative person,” says <strong>Paust</strong>. “I made doll clothes when I was six. All I wanted <strong>Paust</strong>’s mobile titled Pond features five distinctly different goldfish suspended from actual roots <strong>and</strong> vines. Five insects, including two dragonflies, hover above the fish. Photo by T.E. Crowley to do as a child was make things.” <strong>Paust</strong>’s urge to create was nurtured by her mother <strong>and</strong> gr<strong>and</strong>mother. Their ability to sew, knit, <strong>and</strong> spin was vital to their survival in a destitute East German town during <strong>and</strong> after World War II. Such austerity wasn’t part of <strong>Paust</strong>’s childhood, but it’s evident she takes great pride in <strong>and</strong> even inspiration from the self-reliance <strong>and</strong> resourcefulness that sustained her relatives through hard times. Discovering her artistry “When I left for college, I had never had any art classes,” she says. “I was studying botany at Purdue University, <strong>and</strong> I enrolled in a basic design class for fun. That class changed everything. I just loved it. I realized that every time I looked through the microscope at cells, I was more interested in the colors <strong>and</strong> shapes <strong>and</strong> doing the drawings than in the scientific aspects.” <strong>Paust</strong> went home <strong>and</strong> told her parents that she had to go to art school. She enrolled in summer art classes so she could assemble a portfolio <strong>and</strong> was accepted at the Maryl<strong>and</strong> Institute College of Art. “When I got there, I had all my academic requirements finished, so all I had to do was draw <strong>and</strong> paint for three-<strong>and</strong>-a-half years,” she says. <strong>Bead</strong>s become her medium After graduation, <strong>Paust</strong> got a job in a gallery in York, Pennsylvania. Making a living as an artist was a struggle, but her frugal lifestyle led her to beads. “I couldn’t afford to buy jewelry, so I bought beads to make myself simple earrings,” she recalls. “I played around with the beads <strong>and</strong> realized they fit together like cells. I saw that I could make anything I wanted. Without knowing what I was doing, I taught myself peyote stitch.” At that point in the early 1980s, there were no books to consult or beading classes to take, so <strong>Paust</strong> improvised through trial <strong>and</strong> error, intuiting the stitches. She says, “It’s worked to my advantage that I wasn’t exposed to conventional jewelry making <strong>and</strong> beading. I just jumped in with what I knew about cellular <strong>and</strong> molecular structure.” When she wore her jewelry creations, people asked her where she had bought them, so she started to sell her work in stores <strong>and</strong> galleries. But she really wanted to make beaded paintings. “I was interested in making large pieces that light could shine through,” she says. This desire also inspired her to make mobiles. 116 <strong>Bead</strong>&<strong>Button</strong> | bead<strong>and</strong>button.com