Melissa from Strands of Beads wins my inspiration award this week (not that I don't love everyone's posts this week--they are all gems after all). First, her clever headline made me smile. Second, her story got me thinking and it suddenly occurred to me that it's been a decade (can it be?) since I really got interested in beading. So after I share the gems this week, I'll share my "how I got started making jewelry" story. But first, the gems:

About.com Jewelry Making
For those in the jewelry biz, Tammy has a collection of jewelry business topics up for discussion in the Jewelry Making Forum.

Art Bead Scene
Fall Foliage as Seen Through The Trendy Bead

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts
Barbe talks about Personal Imagery-what says YOU in your work?

Crocheted Pillow Pendant
Carmi saves a pillowcase's trim by turning it into wearable art.

Jennifer Jangles Blog
Halloween Project 

Jewelry & Beading
Repurposing autumn-colored beads gives you a stylish new necklace!

Katie's Beading Blog
Hear all about Katie's experience on The Big Idea. Check it out!

Linda from BeadStyleMag.com
An Oktoberfest-inspired bracelet complete with step-by-step photos and instructions

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean's got some earring designs in this elegant looking book, due out soon! 

Strands of Beads
Melissa reminisces about her first time.

And since Melissa ends the list with her first beading project post, her story is a nice bridge for me to tell you about my first jewelry project. Let me see--it was 1998. (Imagine hearing the TV backflash music here.) I was living in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, managing a quilt shop three blocks from the ocean. (I know, sweet gig, but my personal life was in turmoil, so paradise isn't always what it seems.) The building that housed the quilt shop adjoinened another shop--an antique store. Somewhere down the beach, a bead shop owner decided to leave the business about the same time the antique store owner decided to close her shop. Enter Susan Hawkins, a plucky gal who likes making jewelry and was ready for a career change. Next thing I know, antique china cabinets exit and glass display shelves filled with glassware in all shapes and sizes filled with sparkly, shiny, matte, and exotic beads fill the space. And then the Bead Hawk officially opened its doors in the late summer or early fall 1998! We had kept the door between the two shops open to encourage traffic, and the next thing I knew, Susan overheard the quilters in class talking about needing coconuts for their palm trees and she popped in with the perfect beads. The quilters purchased the strand, split it up, and everyone was thrilled including Susan, who wasn't sure how she's ever sell those beads!

When things were slow at the shops, we'd chat about retailing, and about customer and their shopping habits. And while we chatted, I'd poke through her orphan bead cup. Since I often made Christmas ornaments that needed a little something, I was drawn to large drop beads to dangle from the bottom, so I'd purchase the strays as they turned up. And one day, I spotted a copy of Bead&Button magazine. It was the October 1998 issue with the leaf candlestick on the cover (see right) and I was intrigued. So I bought it. I never did make the candlestick, but I did buy beads at Bead Hawk to make my mother a necklace for her birthday, which was that fall. But I kept that issue, and after I moved to Illinois and considered looking in Wisconsin for a publishing job, I remembered that the magazine was published in the Midwest, so I sent them a resume. That resume led to a different opportunity at the company, but I improved my jewelry-making skills thanks to a small group of us that met after hours to learn more about beading. I went to another company for a while, but I ended up returning to Kalmbach Publishing Co. to work on the jewelry magazines we have here.

I think my mom still has that first necklace. I made a necklace for myself around that same time, so I'm not sure which was first, but I think of hers as the first attempt. If I turn hers up when I visit this weekend, I'll try to take a picture and post it in a future blog post. The necklace I made fell apart. Several times. But I've gotten better. They hardly ever fall apart now.