My grandfather was Dean of Architecture at the University of Florida. 

He gave his students extra credit for helping build his family home in 1951. What you can't see from the picture below is what made it the coolest home in Florida before the popularity of air conditioning.

Each morning my grandfather took out a long pole and cranked open the front windows above the main room (you can see them in the picture). Then he would push the sliding glass doors that spanned the length of the back of the house into a pocket in the wall, opening up the main room to the screened-in porch creating a perfect cross breeze - and a much larger house. The three bed rooms also had pocket glass doors that opened up the same way. 

The interior of the home included plenty of built-in storage and mid-century furniture and accessories. So many great colors, lines, and textures... very different from most people’s homes I saw in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

I guess it made an impression on me. Mid-century design makes my heart beat just little faster. It is now how I decorate my home and the aesthetic that I strive for in my designs:

Simple, but not minimal

Saturated colors that look great all by themselves or paired together

Complex textures

Modern style

Why Czech glass? Of all the materials I’ve worked with Czech glass beads are my favorite!
Glass beads were first made in the Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia, formerly North Bohemia) over 800 years ago. In 1928 the area became the largest exporter of beads in the world. Despite communist occupation and two world wars the industry survived and thrives today due to the high quality and unique color and shape of the beads.

Many of the beads are created using the same techniques that have been around for over 100 years. That’s why the beads often have a vintage/old world look to them.
The vendors I purchase beads from work directly with the bead makers in Czech Republic - so there is just one person between me and the bead makers.

COME VISIT ME! I have significantly more inventory at shows than I do in my Etsy shop. And if you go to shows there are food trucks. FOOD TRUCKS. 

**SHOWS: Roswell Fall Art Festival 9/21 & 22

Marietta Chalktoberfest 10/12 & 13

Sandy Spring Elegant Elf 11/2 & 3

Indie Craft Experience 11/9 & 10

Avalon 12/7

My grandmother’s name was Anna Marguerite Baker. As the story goes she started school as Anna Marguerite but it was quickly shortened to just Ann. I wish I knew why a name that sounds so international was given to a little girl from Missouri.

Maybe having a unique middle name made her feel somehow different - and led her to value anything she considered exotic. She and my grandfather traveled the world and everywhere she went, she brought a little piece of that place home with her. She collected horse brasses from the United Kingdom, purses from Greece, and prints from Asia. I have a lantern in my backyard from her trip to Japan. She did not get it from Pier One. She was a true world shopper! 

When my family would visit my brother and I stayed in the room my aunt grew up in. It was decorated with Mexican masks that would stare down at us as we slept! When we were really brave we would go from room to room and open up cabinets hoping to find secret treasure. We only ever found one thing - over and over. Dark, golden-yellow spines of a certain magazine that was never thrown away. 

Thanks to the internet and globetrotting bead vendors I get the thrill of world shopping, too. I love to design with beads from the other side of the world - the more exotic the better.

Jewelry (unless it is plastic, textile or on elastic) has metal in it. We are all familiar with platinum, sterling silver and gold - but what about the others - those not-so-precious metals we wear everyday?

Mysteries make great novels - but no one wants the metal on your skin all day to be a mystery. When I was a new designer I just about went crazy. What was this stuff from China labeled "metal"?

I now design with natural brass. I know exactly what the metal is (85% copper and 15% zinc) and it's made in the USA!  I buy directly from the manufacturer - the brass is lead-free, nickel-free and aged by an eco-friendly process.

Mystery solved!

I have a great love for illustration - old and new. For my upcycled art pendants I cut out pictures from vintage books and postcards. The images are then sealed in jewelers-grade resin. Each necklace also comes with a scanned copy of the original book page or postcard so you can see where your little flower or bumble bee or historic building came from.

Sometimes less is more.

Sometimes MORE is more.
That’s the idea behind my newest designs… what if I took all this Czech bead greatness and put them on one necklace - 45 inches long. Well - I love the results!

I make these with all sizes of beads… wear long or double over.

I never met my grandmother. She passed away before I was born, but I know her through her creations. She sewed clothing, as many people did, but I can't imagine they all made dresses with such detail - rows and rows of ruffles in pale pink with blue velvet bows. She even went all out for Halloween - see the picture of my mother in her Spanish dancer dress.  

Many people sew for necessity or for fun... but I think for her it was something more. It makes you feel special to have a dress no one else has. I recently made myself a necklace with 97 rare vintage Swarovski pagoda beads. It turned out amazing, but what I secretly love about it is that I have the only one. The designs I create for you are also one of a kind - I think you'll feel the same way about owning something no one else has. 

My mother is a creator as well. For my birthday she invented a way to bling out the candles on my cake with wired crystals. She also made a wreath featuring the silhouettes of Washington, Lincoln and me for my President's Day birthday.

A portion of my profits go to fund micro-loans for small businesses around the world through Kiva. I have currently helped fund 80 loans. For more information on how you can end the cycle of poverty go to: www.KIVA.org.

There is an endless array of beads and bead sellers around the world. But vendor don’t often know the people who make the beads or the process behind it.

I worked for years to find vendors who pay fair trade and care about the people and places in the world where their beads are made. 

For my wood beads I found a wonderful supplier who works with a family in the Philippines. They have been creating wood beads for 30 years - cutting, turning and polishing the beads by hand. When you see these beads in person you can really see the difference from what you might get in a craft store. 

When you support me, you support my great vendors and the wonderful artists who make my beads as well.

Wherein a WWII vet maybe unknowingly helps his granddaughter cheat on her chemistry exam.

My grandfather taught chemistry at the University of Florida. I remember seeing pieces of lab materials on his bookcase long after he retired. 

I, on the other hand, do not really love chemistry. Maybe it's because I had such a bad teacher in high school. He was, in fact, so terrible that no matter how we all cheated in class we could not get the answers correct. For the midterm exam we were allowed to use open notes and have a second day to complete the test. I wrote down the questions in my notebook and got the answers from my grandfather over the phone that night - not telling him it was for a test. (This was the first time I cheated. I asked my mom for permission. I am a rules person - this is what we do - trust me). I think I got a B.

When I started making jewelry I was quickly disappointed with the metals I found available at craft stores. I had no idea what they were and the Made in China label did not put my mind at ease. Eventually I found a company right here in the good ole U S of A that manufactures natural brass - just when you thought we didn't make anything in this country anymore! It is nickel-free, lead-free compliant and made by an eco-friendly process. Cu + Zn (85% copper and 15% zinc) - my grandfather would be thrilled.

Back to chemistry class in 1988... on the last day of school one of our classmates stole a cake from the grocery store where he worked and gave it to our teacher. He wrote on it E=MC2. (Which is a physics equation - that's how much we learned that year). Nevertheless our teacher was thrilled! We all got A's on our final exam. Sometimes having cake is better than having all the right answers. 

When I was little I loved jewelry. I would take it apart, play with the beads, then put it back together. When I didn't have any beads, I made them out of palm frond strands from my back yard.  

I was blessed to go to high school before budgets were slashed and I took a class in jewelry fabrication. That's where I learned to use wire working tools and that I have no desire to make a bezel ever again. 

After my children were old enough to be alone in a room without killing themselves, I picked up beading and jewelry design as a hobby and it quickly became a business to fund my bead obsession. 

That's my curriculum: the challenges and joys of designing and sharing what I make with the world. 

You can find CURRICULUM jewelry at Wild Oats & Billy Goats in Decatur, GA and New Smyrna Beach, FL