I'm Kathryn. I design and make BellaForm Creative's frames and keepsakes by hand, from my home in the mountains of western North Carolina. Every piece is meant to reward a closer look — something to hold a moment, or a small detail you catch the second time around.
Following a design career that took me all over the country — years as a product designer, and five years as a professor teaching industrial design at NC State and Arizona State — I spent much of that time watching ideas get made overseas and optimized for cost. It never quite sat right with me. When my daughter was born, I wanted to build something that matched my values, so I put down roots in North Carolina: first Raleigh, then Durham, and now Black Mountain, where I live with my husband, our daughter, and our two dogs — one a gentle old sweetheart who mostly naps, the other a gorgeous, lovably exasperating collie.
The name came from my daughter. "Bella" means beautiful in Italian — it's what strangers would stop to call her when she was an infant in Italy, pausing on the street to say bambina bella. It stayed with me. "Form" is the design training that shapes how I think about every object. Together they became BellaForm Creative.
I live in the Southern Appalachians — often called the salamander capital of the world, home to more salamander species than anywhere else on earth. It's a place that gets into the work. It's why I made the Appalachian Amphibians frame, and why my designs keep coming back to what's outside my door: the salamanders, the songbirds, the gardens, the shapes of the mountains. I draw every illustration myself, cut and print the proprietary parts on a laser cutter and 3D printer, then finish and assemble each piece by hand — made close to home and built to last. That same instinct shows up beyond the studio, too, in the fruit, vegetable, and pollinator gardens I keep for my family, the birds, and the bees.
Right now I make frames and bookends, with garden birdhouses and ornaments on the way. If you have a custom request, I'd love to hear from you.
Bring one home, and a little of this place comes with it.
Warmly,
Kathryn
