If there is one word that can sum up Patricia Huddleston’s life, it is ‘eclectic’. An artist, scientist, writer, teacher and musician, she brings knowledge and experiences from this variety of disciplines to bear on each and every project she tackles. A deep reverence and knowledge of the natural world are reflected in her sense of design, use of materials and abiding curiosity. A desire to explore historical and ethnic methods of producing both functional and art pieces has also directed much of Patricia’s exploration.

She has always felt a need to ‘make things’. Learning to knit as a child was the first outlet for this urge to create and also gave Patricia a love of fiber and color. Beginning as a fiber artist in 1983, she quickly expanded her skills to include not only knitting and crocheting, but also tatting, weaving and spinning yarn. Her fiber art includes wearables, as well as wall hangings, 3-dimensional weaving, home décor items and baskets, both functional and art.

Patricia’s interest in how light and fiber interact then turned to stained glass. Intrigued by the way glass becomes ‘alive’ when light passes through it, she explored various colors and textures of glass in both traditional leaded and Tiffany’s foil techniques. Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie aesthetic, many of her stained glass pieces reflect the long lines and strong features of the Midwestern landscape.

Always a lover of jewelry, twenty-five years living the desert southwest honed Patricia’s love of Native American jewelry, turquoise and the various other stones and ores indigenous to the area. Beginning in the late 1970’s, her creative impulses led her to begin making jewelry, beginning with beadstringing; many years later, this led to an interest in wire wrapping, wire weaving and metalsmithing. The techniques she primarily concentrates on include Russian filigree, wire weaving and fold forming. All three of these techniques, although very different from one another, draw heavily on forms from nature; wire weaving and filigree from the organic structures of vines and flowers, foldforming from the surfaces of rocks, the mathematics of curves such as ram’s horns and the science of metal structure. She has studied with well known jewelry artists such as Victoria Lansford, Joe Korth, Joe and Anat Silvera, Dale Armstrong, Pat Evans, Kieu Pham Gray, Richard Salley, Eva Sherman and Kim St. Jean.