Coming Full Circle

I spent some time over the weekend catching up with an old, old, old friend. It was so much fun talking about our glory days at the beach and our crazy life at school. It’s interesting to me how you sometimes forget certain events until someone who shared it with you way back when brings it up and suddenly it’s as if no time has passed and you are reliving the moment, detail by detail and giggling about it all over again. I love that. Unfettered laughter is good for the soul.

Those were the years that I first started making jewelry. Working at a sailboat shop I had access to all kinds of little things that could be crafted into bigger things. I designed and made messenger and tote bags and handbags from canvas, using brass boat hardware and beautiful cotton and nylon ropes for the straps. Along with the bags, I started crafting my early pieces of jewelry, knotting many of the ropes and finishing them with smaller brass hardware. I incorporated my handcrafted ceramic beads that I made in school and in my beach neighbor’s ceramic studio. Wow, so much fun for me.

I like to think that I still carry that fun with me after all these years. Plain and simple…I love what I do. Every aspect of my jewelry biz resonates with me. Of course, I love hunting for treasures that then get worked into my designs, I love the challenge of creating each piece – believe it or not there is a lot of engineering that goes into making pieces that fit and are comfy to wear. I love the marketing and promotion aspect – the business side of jewelry making. Luckily for me, in my corporate life away from jewelry I had jobs in marketing and media, sales, design, finance and education – all leading to this whacky techno-connected world in which I do business today. If someone had told me back in 1966 that I would be doing what I am doing today – I would have thought they had stepped into my world from another planet! Today when I look at some of my pieces – like those shown here – I have to smile. Knotted cords are knotted cords – then they were made with twisted rope, today I make them from non-leather microsuede and waxed cotton cord. I mix them up with glorious Kazuri beads, made from clay, by women in Africa. I relish in the thought that I am helping to foster good lives on the other side of the world all the time fostering a local grassroots community in this part of the world as well. At the end of the day, it's a good feeling. It makes my heart happy. And, like laughter, a happy heart is very good for the soul.