My Story

I have been creating since I can remember, whether its in crafting, sewing, singing, writing, painting, or dance... I have probably tried to dabble in it.  And if I haven't dabbled it in it yet, likely I'll at least try once at some point in the future.

But Jewelry... Jewelry making has always held a special place in my heart.  I still remember the pivotal moments that made me realize I could make beautiful things to wear, and I wouldn't have to spend a fortune to do so.  (Before we go further, I should mention that the idea that I wouldn't eventually spend a small fortune in jewelry making supplies is laughable; once the bug bit, I was all to happy to spend my pennies on everything I would eventually need to learn and grow in the medium.)

The first pivotal moment happened at the age of 13.  "Yes," I often remind myself, "I was indeed that young once!"  

Mother's Day was coming up and my brother and I were outside playing.  We both wanted to make our mom something special, but we'd already done everything we could think of in the past... we'd made a multitude of little "shelves" out of scrap wood lying around.  We'd dug up clay from the ground (actual clay... my grandpa was  a farmer and didn't want us ruining his top soil, so he showed us how to dig under it to get at the clay underneath...) and made sun-baked and painted pots and "jewelry holders" for her (she still has some of them).  We'd painted pictures and written songs and poetry...

What else could we do?

While playing, my brother found some pieces of broken glass in the cornfield that were a lovely shade of light blue.  We didn't know what the glass had come from, but it was pretty, so we gathered it up and tried to think of what to do with it.  My brother decided it would be nice to make into jewelry and I agreed, so we washed the pieces off at the water pump and rummaged around through some old junk that was lying around in the garage. We found some old electrical wire and were able to strip it with some of my dad's old tools (My dad allowed us use most of his tools -- though not the truly dangerous ones -- so long as we put them back when we were done.)  We used a dremal to grind down the sharp edges on the glass so they wouldn't cut skin; then we used a pliers to wrap the old wire around the glass to make very basic pendants.  We used some old bailing twine as a type of cord to hang the pendants on.  And BOY were we proud of ourselves!  What pretty necklaces we had made out of just recycled material we'd found lying around!  

When we gave the necklaces to mom, she seemed so happy!  

Of course, looking back now, I remember how rough and basic that jewelry was.  I was 13 and didn't know the first thing about wire-wrapping.  My brother didn't either.  And back then, it didn't matter, But that was the point in time that the idea of using wire to make jewelry first came to me.