. . . like watch chains, broken brooches, sovereign holders, TootsieToys, antique house numbers from Europe, sometimes unidentifiable artifacts, and objects with odd names like treen, jeton, and scruple. I use cut steel, love tokens, burnished bronze and brass and silver. I love pieces and parts from the end of the 19th century/ beginning of the 20th (like the large gold-leaf-decorated mug and saucer I drink my coffee from that I bought in an antique store in Cleveland, Tennessee, whose owner is Laura with Fabulous Taste). I'm delving into tin, finding ways to incorporate it into my work, using pieces of deconstructed containers on their own or to complete broken antique and vintage jewelry bits.

For 12 years, my day job was copyediting, then my husband built me a studio and gave me the gift of time to pursue making just about anything to my heart's content. Before the awesomeness of designing and creating pieces for my own business, the most rewarding job I had was tutoring in the language-arts center at a university.

I like making just about anything—written, drawn, composed, painted, constructed, molded, cast, strung, thrown.

I drop more than my fair share of things, then drop another thing trying to pick up the first dropped thing. One day, I made a hatch mark on a piece of paper every time I dropped something. If those hatch marks had been sticks, they would have fueled an enormous bonfire...or a small fire for quite a while.

I love that I can create at my own pace, make one-of-a kind pieces, use the coolest parts, mix watch chains and clasps and components in the best ways possible without stopping to think "I have to save that piece for something better." I like working on my own schedule, posting items in my own time, figuring out ways to optimize my photos, and having fun with the names, descriptions and associations.

I'm constantly inspired by the amazing wealth of talent, approachability, civility and coolness of my fellow Etsians.

Pssst: It's Millennium GENERAL Assembly; there's a limit to the number of characters you can use for Etsy shop names.