My Handmade Jewelry Story

I started making jewelry when a family friend got diagnosed with cancer for the second time. I was maybe 10-12 at the time. I got a book of friendship bracelet designs and tutorials and I would make her a bunch of friendship bracelets to bring with her for the other patients and the nurses when she went to chemo. I wanted them to know that someone who hadn't even met them cared about them and what they were going through. I started making charm bracelets for my friends for their birthdays a few years later, and then I learned how to make necklaces.

After I took a hardship withdrawal from college I got a job making jewelry for a business that unfortunately went bankrupt after three years, but I've been making and selling my own jewelry ever since I got sick when I was in college in 2011 and learned a lot of new techniques at that job, so I always just try to keep learning and expanding what I can make. These days I make the jewelry as reminders to people that they're not alone in whatever they're going through, so it kind of came full circle from when I sent friendship bracelets to the people getting chemo.