Terri Atwell is an Alaskan artist who handcrafts intricate beaded sculptures and jewelry. She has been creating beautiful work out of small seed beads since 1993, and her art is marketed under the names Beadwitched and Atwell Designs.

Raised as a military dependent, Terri grew up living across the U.S.   As a young adult , she settled in Anchorage, Alaska , and has been living between the mountains and the sea since 1982. Terri is inspired by nature, color and using art to express emotion.  She  loves the creativity and endless opportunity that beadwork allows for artistic exploration.

Artist Statement:

Creating beaded works of art connects me to the work of thousands before me. My hands follow a familiar rhythm, the creation of something new developing, one bead at a time, from a collective history of beadwork.

By the small nature of the medium, art made from beads will draw you nearer to look, inspect and reflect. Listen to my work and it will sometimes whisper, sometimes shout…”look closer…I have a story to tell…”

People ask-how do you come up with so many ideas? My internal response is-how do I not? Ideas inspired by nature, by an expression, by a shape or a thought-they all strive to be the next one to be created. “Me, me, me,” the ideas say- “create me with beads and thread, with time and intention.”

I make art because the need to free the idea and see it represented in concrete form is too enticing; it is a loose tooth to be wiggled, an itch to be scratched, a chocolate to be tasted. I create art with beads because I can not resist.