I have loved beads since I first got my hands on plastic pony beads as a child in the 80's. One of my favorite early childhood memories is when my mom drove me, just the two of us, an hour away to a HUGE bead show at an event center in Columbus, OH. I remember booths with tables piled high with strands of beads and my mom gave me probably $20 at the time, to buy whatever I wanted. Thirty-ish years later I still remember that I bought hematite and goldstone beads and I still love those materials and use them to this day. I also remember getting home and gluing one of each style of bead to paper and making a "catalog" for my mom and sister to "order" bracelets from.

Beading is my creative outlet, my stress relief and my passion. I love putting different textures, shapes and colors together and getting that "this is it" feeling. Like works of art, I prefer making one of a kind pieces rather than producing the same thing over and over but you'll find a mix of that in my shop. The "over and over" helps pay for my "one of a kind" indulgences.

My favorite materials are gemstones, crystal and glass. I will use acrylic or plastics on occasion if I feel they are nice quality and really contribute to the design. As you can probably tell, I am currently very into stretch bracelets as they are so fun to mix, match and stack. I love interesting textures, bold colors and fun color combinations but my FAVORITE things are sparkle, iridescence and metallic shine. Think...Princess, Mermaid, Unicorn...that's me in a nutshell. ;)

~ Courtney