Bead Chat Magazine Winter 2014 | Page 47

Rococo Riche... It all started with yard sales and Christmas presents. I really got started with making jewelry because I am hard to shop for — unless you know how much I love art and thrifty finds. My family would give me craft store gift cards for my birthday and Christmas (joint, usually, since they are only a couple weeks apart), which I would then spend on paints, brushes, canvas, and other art supplies. I did this for years, supporting my creativity addiction with these gift cards.One year in my early twenties, my husband and I were tight on spending money for gifts at Christmas — and I have six brothers and sisters, plus spouses, who we would visit every year at our big get together around the holidays. I really wanted to give everyone something special, but there was no way we could afford to buy much of anything.I decided to take the craft store gift cards still hanging around in my dresser drawer and buy jewelry-making supplies — beads, wire, tools, whatever I might need. I spent hours looking through beads, considering colors, and generally imagining what my mom, sisters, and sisters-in-law would wear. I picked out everything I needed and made each woman in my immediate family a set of earrings and a necklace, wrapped the sets nicely in gift boxes and fluff, and hoped they would like them.Well, none of them really liked them — they LOVED them! With all my siblings encouraging me to make and sell jewelry, I started looking for supplies. I had grown up going to, and mostly hating, yard sales. My mom would scour through junk to find some valuable piece I cared nothing about. Of course, as I grew out of the “everything-is-about-me” teenager stage, I realized how cool looking through other’s “junk” was! I started going to yard sales on Saturdays here in town, looking through the piles of costume jewelry to find good quality beads and unique pins that had been passed by for heavy furniture and expensive glassware. Since then I have had two children, moved twice in the same town, and all while working a regular full-time job as a graphic designer and web developer. Now, I do all kinds of creative, fun projects at work, but it’s never enough! I can come home and still want to make more, do more — it never really stops. Our youngest son is independent enough (and will be more so as soon as I blink!) now that I have decided to work on my custom jewelry, hand engraving, and art again. The house we bought last year has a great space for ALL of my crafting and creating. When I look around at my studio space, I see all the possibilities for new things that are tucked away in the corners of my imagination — and in drawers and drawers full of supplies! I hope you enjoy looking at my work as much as I had fun making it! Thanks for reading my story. Website Etsy Blog creativebeadchat.com