Kristin Beeler

Kristin Beeler is an educator, metalsmith, and jewelry designer. In 2023, she joined the faculty of Duncan Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee, Scotland. Prior to this, Beeler served as an art professor and coordinator of jewelry and metalwork at Long Beach City College beginning in 2003. Originally from Appalachia, Beeler received her BFA in Crafts and Applied Design at Berea College in Berea, KY. She went on to complete her MFA in Jewelry from the University of Arizona, and completed additional graduate studies as an apprentice in Florence, Italy and Bangkok,Thailand.

Beeler’s work explores notions of beauty and vulnerability, conceiving of the body as a physical locus of memory and history. Her work is formally characterized by iridescent materials such as abalone, and the juxtaposition of hard and soft elements. She often layers delicate lines and shapes on top of each other, creating an effect which is simultaneously sturdy and ethereal. Beeler’s work is collected by institutions including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Appalachian Center for Craft, and Berea College. She regularly exhibits and lectures internationally.

Kristin Beeler, Buzz (Brooch), 2013. With a nod to Classicism, Beeler sketched an image on mother of pearl for this neo-romantic piece in her Hortus Conclusus series. She examines how jewelry can contain visual memory and reposition definitions of beauty. “As an object, jewelry is radically intimate.”