Kate Richbourg was raised on a small farm in Gilroy, California. As a child, she would spend hours stringing beads and creating her own jewelry. It was a phase she never quite outgrew. After completing college, while trying to get excited about the transition to a corporate career, Kate saw a want ad for a bead store and lost no time in applying. Soon she was teaching classes and writing articles that were published regularly in magazines. During this time she took a basic metalworking class at a local community college that opened her eyes to the possibilities of what metalworking had to offer the jewelry designer. She began teaching metalworking to the masses and never looked back.

Teaching and designing jewelry since 1992, Kate teaches at national shows, bead societies and bead shops and is published in a variety of jewelry magazines and is the author of the popular blog “We Can Make That at Home”. She is also the Creative Guru at www.beadshop.com and hosts a popular online Wednesday and Friday broadcast watched worldwide on the beadshop.com YouTube channel.

She has appeared on several episodes of the DIY, HGTV and PBS network shows “DIY Jewelry”, “Craft Lab” and “Beads, Baubles and Jewels.” Kate is the author of two bestselling books Simple Soldering: A Beginner’s Guide to Jewelry Making and Metalsmithing Made Easy, from Interweave Press.

You can learn more about Kate and see some of her work on her website, Instagram page, and Youtube channel.