Jan Huling was born in Chicago and raised in St. Louis. After attending the Kansas City Art Institute she started her career in greeting card design. She now works in New York City as a product designer, children’s book author and beadist. Neither sketched nor planned, Huling‘s three-dimensional works draw inspiration from her travels to India and Mexico, as well as imagined, playful scenes reminiscent of childhood fairy tales and fantasies. Her work is approachable yet evocative, incorporating spiritual iconography alongside humorous artifacts of contemporary popular culture. The armatures for Huling’s sculptures are an unpredictable mix of forms ranging from Kewpie and Munny dolls to birds and tiny life-sized insects. In addition to seed beads, Huling’s colorful sculptures incorporate a variety of found objects, such as buttons, coins, tokens and costume jewelry. Huling’s slow and meticulous beading process, the intricacy of her swirling, hypnotic patterns, and the spontaneous manner with which Huling approaches each new project results in sculpture that is both delicate and alluring to touch – simply put, she transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.