Cath received the gift of beading from her mother's friend and multi-talented art therapist Berthy Bijlard at age 14. However, she immersed herself in beadweaving only in 2004 after seeing beadwork made by artists for that year's Bead Dreams Contest. She started dreaming of making her own "dream necklace" and hasn't stopped beading ever since. Being creative helps her coping with the challenges life throws at her.
Her favorite techniques are off-loom stitches such as Peyote, Herringbone, Diamond Weave and variations and combinations of techniques to create 3-Dimensional beadwork. She also likes to do a bit of bead embroidery for it lends itself well to incorporate mixed media.
If you ask her about her style, she'll answer "I don't know if I do a style, but I want my work to have style, which can somehow be understood as elegance. Some persons who's opinion counts for me say that they recognize my work without beying told that it is mine. This could mean that I have my own style, and that is absolutely wonderful."
Cath's main inspiration comes from Mother Nature and geometrics. She says that her left brain is a control freak attracted by geometrics and that her right brain is a poet in love with nature's splendor and all living beings. She likes to push the boundaries of the geometric lines to morph them into more organic shapes, and sometimes uses game tactiques to create her pieces.
To challenge herself and think outside the box, Cath participates in contests from time to time. In Fire Mountain Gems & Beads beading contests, she won six times a gold medal - two in 2006 of which one Grand Prize Gold Medal, one in 2016, two in 2018 and one in 2019 which became a Grand Prize Bronze Medal. She scored a third place in 2007, a second place in 2009 and another second place in 2018. She won the 2019 Beadworkers Guild Challenge in the "Expert" category and the Founder's Award of the Beadworkers Guild in 2023.
Cath also likes to participate in special projects, collaborations and explorations and sometimes creates designs to raise funds for health and nature-related goals.
She has contributed and still contributes to beading books and magazines. She also wrote a book herself in collaboration with Gerlinde Lenz who invented a new beading stitch, Diamond Weave, a labor of love.
When she doesn't bead, Cath is either busy with her birds or fish, or playing with essential oils and aromatherapy, to make her own perfumes, creams and remedies.
See the portfolio for special pieces, and find details and more information about her working process and other beady adventures on her blog.
