About Us
I come from a family full of creative people and grew up with lots of different craft projects to do (as well as books to read). My various hobbies included cross stitch, paint-by-number, calligraphy, drawing, weaving keychains from craft lace (we called them lanyards in school), and probably several others that I've forgotten since then. Several of them lasted awhile but the one that's lasted longest has been making jewelry, mostly chainmaille. It started when I decided I wanted a handflower for myself; I didn't know what a handflower was but I wanted something silver over the back of my hand. I started with silver seed beads and fishing line and eventually upgraded to some chains I found here and there and some prisms from a broken suncatcher. Then I discovered chainmaille; I made some jump rings out of enameled copper wire and made myself another handflower. I started wearing them all the time when I was in high school, and people commented on them saying I should sell them. That was also when I found out they were called handflowers or slave bracelets and apparently they were from Medieval/ Renaissance times.
I started my business with my Etsy shop in late 2009. I've just started this website after trying a few different other venues and taking some breaks when day jobs and whatnot got in the way. I live in Texas with my husband and our cats, and I run this business by myself. I'm a lot better at weaving rings (most of the time) than making them, so I no longer make my own jump rings, I buy professionally made rings online. I also buy chains and beads to make "web" style handflowers sort of like my first personal one. I still wear those handflowers I made for myself whenever I'm not working at a day job and I've added several bracelets and rings to my personal look.
I like to add chainmaille and/or prism-like crystals to my stuff. I wear glasses because I'm nearsighted, and for awhile I wore one of those eyeglass chains for when I wanted to read without my glasses or switch to sunglasses. I added dangly crystals to the holders of my chain, and when I decided not to use the chain anymore I just detached the chain from the holders and left the dangly crystals on my glasses. People comment on them all the time (if I'm not wearing my handflowers and bracelets the glasses charms are the first thing people see), so I've decided to put some in my shop. One thing people say sometimes is that they thought at first the crystals were earrings, so if you wear glasses (even part time) and don't wear earrings but wish you could wear earrings these eyeglass charms seem like a good alternative.
I still have my Etsy shop up so check out what's there, I'll be adding a few more things there that have been sitting in my inventory for a bit while I add new items here as I make them. I might switch a few things around too, so follow my Facebook page for updates (remember to click "Follow" as well as "like" and add it to your newsfeed so it doesn't get buried). I have also just joined Instagram so follow me there and you'll eventually see some updates (hopefully, I'm so new to it).
