Never Give Up!

At a time when my personal life was starting to fall apart, making jewelry became my passion. At first, it was a hobby. My mind overflowed with ideas and techniques I just couldn't wait to try. After a few months, people would stop me in the mall, wanting to know where I got my earrings, so I started to do small craft shows. Within a year, I was selling to several boutiques in my area, creating styles geared to that particular shop's clients. I did trunk shows at Nordstrom and in beautiful galleries on the grounds of world-famous resorts.

Creating even simple designs still brings me joy.

For several years I produced collections that included more than one hundred items. Seven sales reps carried storyboards of product and a framed color board with examples of the colors the products available. The line was shown in major apparel markets and sold in more than two hundred boutiques and galleries, but success came at a price. 

There were times I drove three hundred miles to do a presentation to a boutique owner, who didn't even show up for the appointment. I've sold thousands of dollars worth of inventory to boutiques only for their check to bounce. It wasn't an easy path to keep trying to follow.



My health and creativity suffered from the grueling schedule and the mundane act of repeatedly recreating the same products, so I switched gears.

Ten years into my career, I hired a well-known sales rep who specialized in the high end one of a kind fashion items in her beautifully appointed showrooms. I was thrilled to be making wearable works of one of a kind art once again. A significant market date was approaching, so I worked day and night to ensure the showroom was well stocked with a vast selection of products for my potential clients. Past show history suggested this would be a very successful show. Days after the show, no payment had arrived. Phone calls were not answered in the showroom or the home of my sales rep. Other artists who exhibited with her also started to call me. We discovered that this woman had taken all of our remaining products and all of our revenue from the show and left the country. The showroom was cleared out overnight. The devastation from this loss was a massive blow to my business and my spirit.

Time passed, and I continued to create. I slowly rebuilt my business, but my faith in humankind was forever changed.

I share these stories from my past with you in hopes that you will be inspired to keep following your dreams, even when the path you've chosen threatens to swallow you up into a black hole. Each of the negative things you experience along your journey will teach you to prepare for the next event in your life. Perhaps someday you will share your story, and it will, in turn, help others.

A few years ago, my hands became so weak from all those years of overuse; I can barely hold a bead cap to thread it onto a headpin. That's just part of the reason I'm so grateful for a chance to share what I've learned with others.  


Never give up!

The Fantastic Czech Jewelry

In 1922 Howard Carter, a British archaeologist, and his team were the first to open King Tut's Tomb. They searched for it for more than seven long years in the blazing heat of the desert. The final resting place of the "boy king" was unknown for more than 3,000 years. The Valley of the Kings has many tombs where kings of ancient Egypt were buried. Almost all of these were discovered and plundered, but King Tutankhamen's tomb continued to elude the treasure-seekers.

King Tut was embalmed in a coffin of pure gold, with one of the world's most famous images on top. The coffin was in the fourth chamber hidden by a sealed door, and Carter's crew took months to break through it. Eventually, all of the treasures in King Tut's tomb would be removed. Many are in the hands of the Egyptian government. Many have been part of traveling exhibits that make their way to museums around the world. Many are in the hands of private collectors. I was privileged to see the display while in Cairo in the 1980s.

The influence of this discovery changed fashion, architecture, and the morals of all civilization. The prim and proper Victorian age had come to an end. The layers of clothes and painted lady mansions suddenly seemed so out of style as women bobbed their hair and bound their chests to fit the style of the roaring '20s.

Czechoslovakian artisans became very popular during this time. They were using techniques developed in the 13th century for glass-making. Gem cutters adapted the practice of gem engraving with copper and bronze wheels to their glass technique.

Bohemia was a part of former Czechoslovakia, now part of the Czech Republic, and was famous for its beautiful and colorful glass. The history of Bohemian glass started with the abundant natural resources found in the countryside.

Bohemian glass-workers discovered potash combined with chalk created a clear, colorless glass that was more stable than glass from Italy. At that time, the term Bohemian crystal emerged for the first time in history to distinguish its qualities from the glass coming from other places. As opposed to the usual perception, this was non-lead. This Czech glass could be cut with a wheel. Also, resources such as wood for firing the kilns and burning down to ashes were used to create potash. There were also copious amounts of limestone and silica.

During World War II, the production of fabulous works of art ceased. We may never experience this freedom of design and quality of old-world workmanship again in human history.

More information about this jewelry can be found in the book "Baubles, Buttons, and Beads The Heritage of Bohemia." It is my hope that seeing these beautiful pieces will inspire you and make you smile.