I’d like to tell you a bit about me. I’ve enjoyed making beaded necklaces for many years, primarily using natural stone. Lately, I have also found and loved marvelous beads made from Roman-era glass, which often have beautiful iridescence from lying in the soil waiting to be discovered. I also love working with trade beads, especially millefiori beads. These were made in Europe, traded in Africa, and kept often for generations before appearing for sale. There are even granite beads from Mali that go back more than a thousand years. Who made them? Who wore them? I love the sense of contact with people who lived before me.

I work slowly, getting into a single piece and falling in love with it. The materials I work with, as well as my own work style, mean that every piece is different and can never be  copied.  This makes it way more fun for me. Also, I also enjoy seeing a person’s eyes light up when a particular, never-to-be-duplicated piece seems to speak directly to that individual.

When I retired (or mostly retired) from actual paid work, I thought I’d like to learn stone setting so I could make my own pendants. Alas, I wasn’t very good at stone setting. But at the Baltimore Jewelry Center, I took a wonderful class from Kristal Romano that taught me a new technique I loved instantly: torch-fired enamel, using two “magic” enamels that change color when torched. Now THAT was a Susannah-esque process. It wasn’t about control or making a set of materials do what I wanted. It was much more about partnership, discovery, and surprises (admittedly, both the good and not-so-good kind). Since then, I’ve enjoyed mixing the magic white with other colors and being surprised at what happens!

Sales Benefit a Wonderful Nonprofits

Lastly, you will want to know that half of everything I make on sales benefits nonprofit organizations. One of them is Prisoner Visitation and Support, which has a dazzlingly simple – and vital – mission: to visit prisoners in federal and military prisons. Their national network of over 400 volunteers visits people who are often too far away from home to receive visits from anyone else. Their visits offer an encouraging glimpse of life outside the walls and friendly support. Studies suggest they may also reduce recidivism.