November 10, 2017 : Hello! An Inside Look at Me
My name is Monica, the
designer/assembler of my jewelry; and I have to give credit to my wonderful
husband for assisting me in various ways, esp emotional support! I've
always loved jewelry for as long as I can remember, the very first piece being
a tiny brooch of my Mom's that was a painter's palette. She worked in a
private owned jewelry store when she was younger; and so the tradition
continued, as I became of age as a young teenager, with me
working for the same jeweler during the holidays. My love affair
with sparkly bling only intensified as I continued my job there as their
Holiday employee, plus there's something extra special about Christmas that
makes the bling more intense & exciting! As I entered college, I decided
on a career in Dentistry
as a Registered Dental Hygienist; and I began spending
my college breaks working for a dentist's in my hometown, one
of two special mentors, while in Hygiene School. After graduating, I
spent 23 yrs as a Dental Hygienist; and loved my career. To my HUGE
dismay, I was often plagued with one illness after another, eventually
forcing me to retire my Hygienist license in 2010. Life rarely turns out as we
plan for it to work, when we're young and THINK we've got the World at our
feet, our dreams lined up like ducklings in a row. "Oh, if I'd ONLY
known ... " , I probably wouldn't be the person I am today or BE with who
I am today. Lessons learned, NOT mistakes. AND, some of my
regretted decisions led me to my last employer, a female Dentist, who had a
love for making jewelry and shared that love with her employees. I will always
be thankful for her introducing to the passion of designing jewelry. I
was more than eager to learn what I could from her; and being in dentistry, it
really helped with being able to easily pick up on techniques that required
working with similar tools, esp in tight spaces, doing intricate things. It
helped to make beading feel like a natural skill. I was addicted. I was ALREADY
fascinated long ago with precious and semi precious gemstones; and had always
loved playing with color, mixing and matching to combine different color
combinations; now, I was in heaven! (or some might say, the Monster was
born! LOL) Soon I discovered the love of working with wire and began
making some of my own components. It was around this time, in 2008/2009, my
illness became very serious again, pushing me to put my jewelry designing on
hold; making me look at my life as I knew it in a while new way. I had to find
a new normal and am still struggling to search for this many days. During
2008 - 2009, I felt as if I lived in the hospital, finally getting diagnosed
with many chronic illness, many autoimmune, in the first six months of 2009,
some rare diseases. I'm doing better, taking things one day at a time,
and struggling constantly to get back to my jewelry designing. Having a
chronic illness, especially multiple ones, is like dancing the cha-cha; but I
have such a great support system of family & friends, many great mentors in
the business I've yet to meet who have become very special to me as
personal friend's! I'm so thankful for their encouragement, advice, pep talks,
and, most importantly, their friendship. Tis the season to be Thankful; and I
couldn't not express my thankfulness for them!! I just sold a set I called
Tiger Honey, which is so exciting, not to mention one of my favorite
sets. That's for my next entry. 😊 I do have a featured album of work
I've done thus far on my Facebook page, though some are missing because
of failing to do their photographs. ALWAYS, ALWAYS photograph your work;
something I always do with my pieces now! On my list of things to work on,
Improving My Skills for Photography! The link to my page, listing work
I've designed, featuring some pieces I've refurbished, or matched with existing
pieces I already had in my collection. I've a few pieces I'd be willing to
sell, as well ... you can contact me here for details if you see something that
interests you, or PM me on Facebook:
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