Katie Hacker is an artist and writer who started designing her own jewelry as a teenager when she couldn’t find fashionable clip earrings for her un-pierced ears. She turned her pastime into a business and now makes a living doing what she loves best – making stuff and sharing her ideas.

A prolific author whose books have sold more than half a million copies, Katie provides beading advice as the presenter of Beading Lessons on the PBS series "Beads, Baubles & Jewels" and in her Ask Katie column for Simply Beads magazine. She freelances beading and craft projects to a variety of national publications and is the editor of Creativity, one of the world’s largest free crafting e-mail newsletters. She has been commissioned to create original designs for Beadalon, Pure Allure and other companies.

Katie is passionate about demystifying jewelry making and specializes in projects that are fashionable and fun. Her approachable style helps new beaders feel less intimidated and more empowered. “I love helping people find their source of creativity through beads,” she says. Her workshops at national venues like the Bead & Button Show and Bead Fest feature techniques for creating boutique-style jewelry.

Katie discovered her creativity at an early age. She grew up in a unique crafty environment working for her parents’ miniatures and dollhouse distributorship, Dee’s Delights, Inc., where she spent her summers making dollhouse samples and working on the company’s communications materials. After graduating from college she worked as an editor, and eventually in-house designer, for Hot Off The Press, an instructional craft book publisher and scrapbooking paper manufacturer in Oregon. She also worked for several years at Ten Thousand Villages, a nonprofit organization that provides fair wages for artisans in developing countries by selling their goods in North America.

In 2001, Katie and her husband, Craig Brown, moved back to their home state of Indiana to turn their hobbies into businesses. Craig raises organic vegetables and meat on their 100-year-old Brown Family Farm and sells them at area farmers markets. They live in the country with their beautiful daughter, enthusiastic dog, opinionated cat and an assortment of farm critters.

Interviews & Press
Beading Help Web Interview
Beading with Katie Hacker by Sara Naumann
Creativity E-letter Interview
Hot Off The Press Interview
Amazon Connect Author Profile