Staff

Kristina Skillin MSc, Director / Head Curator

Kristina Skillin is the Director and Head Curator at the Museum of Beadwork. She received her first Bachelor’s degree from The Savannah College of Art and Design in 2006 for Metals and Jewelry with a minor in Costume Design. She started her own company, making historic re-creations of clothing and jewelry a few years later. With a desire to conduct research from original documents, Ms. Skillin sought a second Bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Maine in Classical Languages with a minor in Archaeology which she received in 2015. Directly after this, she attended the University of Aberdeen in Scotland where she received her Master’s degree in Archaeology. Ms. Skillin’s research interests include: Human Ornamentation, development of clothing and adornment, development of metalsmithing technologies, Arctic Archaeology, and human/animal relations in prehistory.

Heather Kahn, Founder

Heather was inspired to found the Museum of Beadwork during a visit to Seattle. As one of the family owners of Caravan Beads, Heather has spent more than 25 years building a comprehensive knowledge of beadweaving, bead-embroidery and other types of beaded artwork. Her designs have been published in Beadwork Magazine, made into kits, and sold as finished jewelry. In 2008 she founded Chrononaut Mercantile, a costume-inspired clothing company, with her partner Jeff Witkavitch. Heather is a graduate of Smith College. Her diverse interests include cooking, ninjutsu, reading and classical violin.

Molly Garson, Associate Director

Molly joined the Museum of Beadwork as the Associate Director in 2020. Molly is the sole proprietor of a small jewelry company, LUNAMOTH Creations, and is inspired by Greek, Art Deco, and Modernist jewelry traditions. She joins the Museum from a background in nonprofit management. She received her Bachelor's degree from the University of Southern Maine in Anthropology in 2015, where her primary focus was in Archaeology. She is interested in the intersection of beadwork tradition with ethnic identities. Her interests outside of the museum world are powerlifting, herbalism, social justice, and painting.