It just started as a way to spend time and make a little money...

I have the memory of a small rodent-on a good day. On a bad one, it's more like that of a goldfish. Seriously. I live my life through my iPhone. So when people ask me how I got the idea for our business, I start telling our story a year after it began. It actually started Winter 2009. My mother had given me a gorgeous domino necklace with a fairy on it. I still love that necklace. But I have to admit, I thought: I can make that. With that idea and one involving Scrabble tiles and glass tile, I thought this would a no-brainer, easy money process. So I tried to reproduce my beautiful domino necklace and failed. I printed the directions off the Internet and followed them, still to no avail.

The Scrabble tiles were easier to figure out, but were time consuming and fiddly. Still made them, but didn't find as much satisfaction. I had more luck and enjoyment with the glass tile and they would turn out so cute! Easily marketable, but I wanted to do something that hadn't been done before.

Glass tile necklace

When a friend mentioned that she wanted to create jewelry made with nuts, a light bulb went on. So I did a quick design and showed her, asking if it was anything like what she had been thinking. Her answer was no and I had the green light to run with our new designs!

Flat & lock washer necklace

This washer design was one of our first. We have since designed many more and this is just the first of our happy discoveries at the hardware store. At this point, we had no name and no point. We were producing for the sake of keeping our hands busy during a long, cold winter. But it wasn't over yet.