A few years ago I was heavily involved in the rubber stamp rage. I went to a rubber stamp store and it had not opened yet, but right next door was a beading store, called D3Q, and it was open. I went inside and looked around and felt that familiar tingly feeling all over I get when I get involved with a new craft. I’d never seen so many beautiful beads, so much color and dazzle. I discovered they let you make jewelry right there, instructing you as you went around picking up ear findings of silver and head pins and beads. I made my first pair of hand made bead earrings that day and I have been hooked ever since.

One problem when you create things, you collect so many items you don’t know what to do with them, so they end up being gifts for all of your friends and family. I was given a book on polymer clay and my friend said I might like to make my own beads. I began making beads turning them into bracelets and earrings, pins and buttons. I bought a pasta roller and rolled out the clay and went wild with that, making little bowls and nicknacks.

I decided I didn’t really like the look of the base metal wire used for findings and the cost of sterling silver and gold was outrageous. I wanted to learn how to make my own findings. The bead store I originally went to offered a wire bending class and I signed up. That class was the real beginning of becoming a true artist in the field of jewelry making. The sterling silver and gold filled findings I made were far above what I had been making and I was very pleased with myself.

I wanted to learn more, so I checked out the state’s art college and signed up for some metal smithing classes. I will never forget the first time I lit an acetylene torch. My family has always been very supportive of my art endeavors, always looking for good gift ideas. Eventually I had all the equipment a true silversmith needed, and I was in business. I had a studio and a real torch, just like a plumber would use, all the marvelous tools that go along with it. Believing I should have a bona fide mark for my business I applied with my state and obtained a name for my business.

I started out by browsing around a bead store and ended up fabricating my own sterling silver jewelry. The first craft fair I sold at I made over $500.00. That afternoon after the craft fair had ended, I went to that bead store and bought $600.00 of fresh water beads.

The moral to this story is, if you have enough initiative and interest, you can achieve whatever you wish. Some of the greatest artist started out with a little bit of this and a little bit of that, turning it into something wonderful.