Creativity and the arts were part of my life from early childhood: building things out of cardboard and lots of masking tape; dancing around the family room in a lacy slip to Sound of Brass’s Tijuana Christmas speeded up from 33 to 78 on the turntable; writing and illustrating a book of the animals of the world; sewing pieces of foil onto a pair of jeans to make a disco outfit; along with the usual suspects like piano and flute lessons, dance classes, and theater experiences. When I was about seven, I apparently announced I was going to be a writer when I grew up. When I was a few years older, I decided I was going to be a rock hound, because I was captivated by the colors and shapes of stones I collected on our vacations. As an adult, my husband gave me the gift of a weekend workshop to learn to make torch-fired glass beads. I came away with a handful of beads, and suddenly wanted to learn how to work with metal to be able to turn the beads into jewelry. I signed up for a beginning metalsmithing course, and a new direction in my life was opened up. That very first evening, when I held a jeweler’s saw in my hand for the first time, I felt like this was what I was born to do, or this was what I had done in a former life. I found a joy and a sense of comfort in the silversmithing tools, the gemstones, the feel of shaping metal, that I hadn’t experienced in any of my other creative endeavors except perhaps learning to belly dance, (which has been my beloved hobby for fifteen years now). I leaped with abandon into metalsmithing and lapidary classes at Clear Creek Academy and elsewhere in the Denver area. As I developed my jewelry skills, I also returned to another childhood love: entrepreneurship. My earliest experience of taking custom orders and selling my artwork happened in about fifth grade, gluing tufts of long craft fur to the ends of new pencils and adding googly eyes to create little characters. My younger brother was my sales person, with a sample of each available color of fur glued to a card. He took orders from our friends, I fulfilled them, and the dream of having my own business was born. (Especially popular were the team colors of our local university). I still get immense satisfaction out of seeing a piece of jewelry I made bring happiness to someone else. I love teaching, and there’s nothing I’d enjoy more than teaching you the skills that could open doors to new areas of artistic expression for you! To get to know me better, check out my blog [https://mymagiccarpet.wordpress.com/]. Looking forward to meeting you in one of my classes!