This is the Story of a Girl -

I can never remember a time when I wasn’t creating something. When I was young I took up the art of quilling after my father’s aunt showed me one of her creations. At an early age I discovered I had the ability to sketch. When I was about ten my mother sent my twin sister and me to a couple of spinsters to learn how to sew. While my sister excelled at the art, I was a complete failure. So the women taught me the art of calligraphy instead, and I was smitten. In my teens I covered flower pots with colorful patchwork fabrics, dipped wire in some goo to make flower petals, braided a rug using fabric scraps, and made string art on little nails. In high school I took four years of art, falling in love with the potter’s wheel, learning macramé, leather tooling, watercolor, batik and so much more.



So you might be wondering what got me interested in making jewelry. In 2006 my mom was invited to the home of a lady that went to our church to see her handmade jewelry. Since the woman lived quite a way down a gravel road I offered to drive mom there. I was instantly intrigued by all the wonderful stones and beads, but thought nothing of it until the woman suggested I could actually make jewelry myself. From there I took a short beading class where we learned how to crimp and make simple and wrapped loops. At the end of the class we were invited to make our own necklace. That’s it in the photo above. Yes, I’ve kept it all these years as a reminder of how far I’ve come. In 2007 I sold my first few pieces at a church show and was thrilled!

Here are photos some of my earlier pieces. You can see my photography skills were not so hot, and I’m not sure about some of those beads I purchased. At that time I had barely discovered lampwork beads, but polymer, Czech beads, resin and enamel did not come into play until a few years later. I was using cheap beads from Hobby Lobby, and a lot of gemstones.





And here are a few of my recent pieces. You can see I’m a bit better at photography, and I’ve gone just a bit beyond stringing.

Sometimes it’s good to look back, as that might be the only way we can measure how far we’ve come.