I love jewelry, color, pattern, and design. It is thrilling to create something new that others love too. And I truly enjoy breaking down something complex into an easy-to-learn sequence that I can share with others, both in print and in the classroom. During the past 13 years I have developed my beading and chain mail skills with energy and enthusiasm and created beadwork and chain mail kits with step-by-step instructions that really work.

I know that the kits have quality instructions because of positive feedback from my students and from customers who buy my kits in classes, at shows and from my online store. I regularly teach classes in bead stores in Toronto, Ontario, and at bead shows and retreats across Canada, in Texas, Tucson AZ and at Bead&Button in Milwaukee WI. In 2007 I was “Folk Artist in Residence – Beadwork” at the Joseph Schneider Haus in Kitchener. I set up a series of lectures, seminars, and demonstrations throughout the year. There was also a gallery exhibit of beadwork that featured my work and included the contemporary and historical work of several other artists. The residency resulted in several articles in the local media.

I later completed a beadwork commission for the museum, and some of my work is sold in the museum gift shop. I have published projects available online at Beading Times, Bead Bugle, All Free Jewelry, and The Beading Gem’s Journal. Some of my kits are sold online through The Jewelry Professor and Beadfx. The Fall 2012 issue of A Needle Pulling Thread published a multi-page Artist Profile of my work. Most of my time at present is directed to the creation of new chain mail projects.

I am currently working on several new designs that will be ready as kits and for teaching at the fall and winter shows. I have well over a hundred active chain mail kits available.

Meredith Arnold, Comedian Artist/Designer/instructor/ (aka Slash Artist), is a professional artist specializing in mixed media and jewelry arts. Her metal, metal clay, and polymer clay work has been published in books and magazines, presented on television and included in exhibitions around the world.

Combining different materials is an intriguing challenge and presents a wider range of possibilities for the expression that Meredith is seeking to produce. She finds that bringing metal, paint, metal clay, polymer clay, fiber, paper and textiles together provides an adventure into the uncomfortable unknown and expands awareness in every direction.

Currently Meredith teaches at a variety of colleges and art centers in the Seattle area, around the U.S. and Europe and has various appearances on the PBS show ‘Beads, Baubles and Jewels’ and the Edmonds Community College cable channels. As the Director of ArtWorks in Edmonds, a community art center, she has the privilege of mentoring other artists as her “day job”.