Cindy Grayson

Cindy Grayson is an Instructor, Inventor of the Bead Runway™ and Author of Bead Runway™ Kumihimo Technique Pattern Series Volume 1. Grayson is a graphic designer by trade, but ultimately an artist of all media. Her journey began with a question. How many times and ways can a bead be strung on a wire? How can all of these stockpiled beads be used effectively? In search of a new challenge in jewelry making, she turned to a deep dive study in Kumihimo. The more she studied the more she realized there was an elevated level of sophistication to the Kumihimo pattern process that involved detailed planning and mathematics. As an artist that naturally uses both sides of her brain, she was hooked. Out of necessity, she invented The Bead Runway™, a bead layout board with eight runways to assist in visually planning and designing bead layouts. It also helps to perfectly count out the various different bead types, which is paramount in obtaining a successful design. She created www.BeadRunway.com to spread the word of this revolution in contemporary beaded kumihimo pattern layout and design. Grayson has been making jewelry, teaching and speaking publicly since 2004. It was only natural for her to share her new found knowledge by teaching. She developed a class series for her local students that covers all the basic skills and Kumihimo techniques that are necessary for students to learn, with the hope that their abilities are elevated in a way that they would no longer be a slave to the limited patterns currently available. Grayson wants her students to know that so much more was possible. Her classes focus on technique-based projects, the importance of keeping a Bead Journal for reference in future pattern making and ways to use the Bead Runway™ especially in making graduating patterns using any bead type effectively. As a result, The Bead Runway™ (Patent Pending) is now an official star and basis of her Students’ studies in the Bead Runway™ Kumihimo Technique Pattern Series©, an in-depth class series, that features Technique-focused projects, and now published in a book which can be purchased on www.MadeYouLookDesign.com. By the end of the series, empowered students use their new knowledge to make a Kumihimo pattern of their own, using their beads of choice.