My love of jewelry comes from my mother. As a child I was always playing with and admiring my mother's jewelry that she kept stashed away in her dresser. I used to sneak into her room while she was in the kitchen and try on all her earrings, bracelets and necklaces. I’d pile them on then dance around in front of the mirror, loving the way some pieces jingled and jangled, and dangly earrings were (and still are) my favorite.
Growing up, my parents and my grandmother would occasionally gift me with small pieces of gold jewelry, so that's pretty much all I knew - costume jewelry was never really worn in my family, we favored precious metals and natural gemstones.
Back in 2007, I decided I wanted to expand my small jewelry collection, for the simple reason that I wanted to have more interesting pieces to wear than just the plain gold cross and hoop earrings that I wore every day. Well, buying gold can get pretty expensive (especially the last few years!), but I had no desire to purchase costume jewelry. I did have a few silver pieces but selections in stores seemed pretty limited and everything looked the same. One day I ran into a co-worker in the ladies' room - she was wearing this exquisite silver necklace. I'd never seen anything like it and asked her where she got it from - she said she made it herself. And that's really where it started for me - within a few days of that random encounter in the ladies' room, I had purchased my first set of hand tools, some wire and beads and a beginner's book and started learning some simple techniques to make jewelry, just sitting at the end of the dining room table.
Although my original intent was just to make a few pieces for myself to wear, this quickly snowballed into an all-out obsession and next thing you know I've made more jewelry than I know what to do with.
In 2008, I discovered etsy and opened my first shop, TaBouTreasures. As I grew my technical skills, my designs evolved as well. After a while I found that the pieces I was selling on etsy were pretty varied, from simple bead-strung and wire-wrapped pieces to more technically challenging metalsmithed designs. I enjoyed dabbling in everything, so within a couple years I opened my second etsy shop, SweetTaBou. My intent was to sell the metalsmithed pieces under TaBouTreasures, where there’s more focus on the metal, and the simpler beaded jewelry designs under SweetTaBou, where the focus is on the beads.
Since that time I first started out making jewelry on the end of the dining room table, I’ve acquired more skills and the tools to go with them. Now I have a small studio in my home where I can go “play” and create whatever tickles my fancy. Everything is 100% done by me – design, execution, photography, making the listings, packaging orders and running to the post office, sourcing materials, etc. My shops are all just me :)
My design inspiration usually comes from the materials themselves. I tend to hoard gems and beads, then design around a particular gemstone. I also draw a lot of my inspiration from middle and far eastern designs or motifs.
I enjoy making little pieces of wearable art, mostly from precious metals and gemstones, and offering them to others here on etsy and at the occasional craft show. In addition to the materials and the workmanship, a little bit of that little girl who used to love playing with her mother’s jewelry goes into each piece I make, and I truly hope that whoever ends up owning one of my pieces feels that same pleasure when they wear it.
Thank you for your time :)