Who I Am
Dogwood Handcrafted Jewelry started with an ending. I’d found an hour a day to take care of Charger, one of my dogs afflicted with cancer, with special food, special walks, and vet visits. When I lost him 3 months later, there was emptiness even though I had my son, his hockey, worked full time and had 5 other dogs. I just happened to stop in a beading store, picked up one of their old $1 magazines, opened it, saw a design I liked, bought the beads, and made a necklace in memory of Charger. People liked it and other items I’d made and wore, so thought it would be fun to keep creating jewelry and maybe make a bit of money for my son’s hockey habit. Original name I chose was “All 4 Hockey” since that’s where profits went. Created necklaces, bracelets, earrings in the ‘free’ hour I’d reserved for Charger and sold them at the local Farmer’s Market and bazaars.
I had started with semi-precious gemstones as that is what I liked, but learned one had to create what one’s customer’s liked, so went into glass and crystal beads, sterling silver, and chainmaille. I bought some kits to get detailed instructions, but mostly I looked at designs and understood how they had been made. It’s been fun taking other’s ideas and changing them to suit what I want to do. I usually only make one or two of a certain color / material as it is boring for me to make the same design over and over.
After my son was finished with hockey, I chose “Dogwood Handcrafted Jewelry” as a more fitting name; besides, dogwoods are one of my favorite flowers and we had dwarf dogwood / bunchberry all around the house.
Customers buy my jewelry as it is unique, especially the chainmaille jewelry. Chainmaille is created one ring at a time and one can do almost anything one can dream up, mixing standard designs, ring sizes, ring colors and materials. Customers have been 5 year old girls who wanted dangly earrings with their mother’s approval (earrings made of aluminum rings are very light weight) to visitors who have never seen chainmaille jewelry, to elderly women wanting something different. I’ve had much fun talking with customers about what I do and can do. Creating custom pieces for customers who want something a bit different from what I have available is one of the most fun and rewarding aspects of this business. I often make two versions of what I think they want, and am sometimes pleasantly surprised when the customer buys both.
I hope to keep creating and selling jewelry as long as customers are willing to purchase it. I have no desire to own a shop and spend all my time with jewelry, but, as long as it keeps being fun, and pays for itself, I’ll keep on creating.