Cigar Box Earrings by Cigarboxearrings on Etsy

I received a gift card to a local craft shop and the rest is history

I received a gift card to a local craft shop in a Christmas exchange at work in 2007. I roamed around the shop wondering what I might be interested in trying. I finally narrowed it down to card stamping or beading. Obviously I chose beading. I began by sourcing locally and trying out different techniques. I spoke to local jewelry store owners to get their input. One of them told me that everyone was making jewelry and in a year 90% of them would be gone. I was determined not to be included in that 90%.
She also told me not to copy other peoples styles, but to try to develop my own. I believe I have done that over the years. I began selling off excess supplies when I opened wholesale accounts. This helped fund my jewelry business. Now it has become a permanent part of the business. I have since gone down to part time in my job as a nurse and plan to retire from that phase of my life in two years. I don't ever plan to retire from my own business unless circumstances beyond my control force it. It will be my joy in retirement. It tickles me that someone in Thailand is wearing a pair of my earrings, or someone in the Seychelles buys her wire from me. I guess in some ways I got lucky, but there was a lot of discipline and hard work involved to achieve the viable business I have today. Definitely worth it.