The most recent product I know of which employed a beader to make the packaging art is Celestial Seasonings. Heidi Kummli did the beadwork for Tropical Grapefruit Tea. I also have read that Jo Wood was commissioned by Kimberly-Clark to do artwork for a Kleenex box in 2000. I have yet to find any image of this beadwork; I just went through the Kleenex products available, and my guess is that it was one of the Expressions line? It is also possible that the art was never used, OR that it’s not Kleenex but another product line (I’m remembering Kleenex, but Jo Wood’s bio merely names the company — the other consumer brands don’t make sense for beaded artwork).

Karen Dismukes is a beader who has done the artwork for several children’s books, and also did the cover art for the May 2006 Highlights for Children magazine. Here’s one of her more recent books illustrated:

I hope we get to see beadwork used more as art for commercial products — (I hope) a good gig for the artist, and beadwork further introduced to the public.