I’ve been making jewelry since 1994. I started with beads, then wire, then made my own beads from polymer clay. I abandoned making for years, then suddenly came back to it. I took a weekend class for basic metalsmithing, then got a job at the big box jeweler as an apprentice, which was a total crash course in all things that go into repairing and building jewelry pieces. I quit after 3 years and began selling at shows. Now I’m back to being a hobbyist and I’m a bit out of practice.