I am and will always be, primarily, a knitter. I love fiber arts and making fabric from thousands of little loops. So when friends started having children, I began making lots of cute little outfits for babies but soon learned that almost ever "notions" section of my local hobby or sewing store seemed to carry only very common and ordinary buttons. After spending hours making lovely outfits for new babies, it seemed a shame to "crown" them with buttons that did not seem just as cute or interesting as the outfits themselves. So when I happened to pass a store called "Three Beads and a Button," my search for new and interesting buttons led me inside to my very first experience with beads and jewelry. The materials and colors were so overwhelming that I had to spend a second visit at this great store, and was given instruction in how to make my very first, albeit, stupidly simple necklace...but how I loved to wear that necklace!
Soon, stringing a few beads on a bit of Soft-Flex or a piece of prestretched cord was not enough. I bought my first set of pliers (still have them too), and taught myself how to make jump rings. From there, I began making chain maille--lots and lots of chain maille. Then one day, my friend, Joanne at the bead store said, "why don't you learn how to do something more with wire than simply to bend it into a circle, hmmm?" And so she taught me a few fancy new moves with wire and pliers, which opened up an entirely new area of jewelry crafting for me.
As with all things in my life, curiosity led to investigation which grew to an obsession and culminated in an expensive hobby that started to consume much of my free hours. I visited bead and jewelry supply stores from Monterey to Berkeley, California, had subscriptions to ever beading magazine available, and even traveled to bead shows to take lessons from some of the people whose names covered the reference books I coveted (like Mark Lareau, whose book "All Wired Up" was and is my "bible" for wire working).
Finally, "real life" crept in--I married, had a son, and thought I had put all of this behind me, but I was wrong. In November 2011, I began teaching (for the first time) a class that I began calling "Jewelry 1" here in San Jose, California with a group called Handmade Enthusiasts at www.meetup.com/handmade. The first few "students" were very nice, waded through my muddled explanations with me, and have all (one year later) become extremely talented jewelry makers and metal smiths.
Since then, I've taught some 200 people how to make jewelry, and it's been a great time! There's nothing like seeing someone's face when they make the perfect wrapped loop or begin to realize that the necklace they're wearing is not that hard to replicate. Because Jewelry 1 and 2 continue to be the prerequisite courses for other jewelry classes, I am often the first person that most of our new members meet, and it has put me the enviable position of being the group's organizer and "good will ambassador" of sorts in each individual's new journey toward jewelry making. Hopefully, I don't scare too many people away from a great art!
So that's how I started making jewelry the first time and revitalized the craft for a second time almost a decade later. How did you find your passion in this craft or another? Share your story!
