MaineStringBead

Ever since elementary school I was always interested in manipulating string. It started out with odd pieces of rawhide leather laces that used to come from broken laces of L.L. Bean boots the family had. Those laces were made into rugged key chains and worked quite well.
In my junior high years I started to explore with knotting colorful embroidery floss into friendship bracelets. Then the process continued into high school, learning to weave different styles of knotted patterns into hemp necklaces and making them for various friends around the school.
My first couple of sales were made at the college campus I attended in the late nineties. The hemp jewelry I wore was noticed by a couple college buddies and I was asked if I could custom make them a necklace, which I did. One of the things that intrigued my friends was my use of a button and hemp loop to function as the clasp for the jewelry instead of the average metal clasp that was usually used by makers. I discovered the button and loop clasp method as a money saver and I also liked the recycling factor of using old cast off buttons. Needless to say, I've always been way better at giving away the jewelry I make rather than selling it, based on the basic principle of the mere enjoyment it brought to others, so I didn't really make much monetary profit from my jewelry. In my latter years at college, I ended up needing to focus more on my college studies so my knotting past time took a hiatus and the back seat of my attentions for a long while.
I eventually picked it back up after a long dry spell, while at the same time focused on sewing projects and my sewing machine running wild for days on end. While juggling both sewing and knotting jewelry, I finally decided that the jewelry won out over the sewing projects.
I didn't experiment with beading jewelry until just in the past 3 years or so, probably around 2011 if I had to guess. I acquired a small portion of smaller, more refined loose beads and worked on arranging them into a pattern for a necklace that I thought was pleasing to the eye. I had so much fun working on the piece that I just decided to keep going. I picked out more beads and continued making different works of art with them.
I eventually got interested in metal wire thus making earrings and most recently taught myself how to make beads out of paper. I truly love making those! It is sort of a Zen-like zone I get into while making those interesting beads. You never fully know what color hue the beads will be until they are completed. It just amazes me that a fine looking bead can even be made out of just paper to begin with!! And surprisingly enough, most people would never know those beads are made out of paper until they are told! They can blend right in with other elements or look quite charming all on their own! And they are wonderfully sturdy and waterproof too!
In 2012, I finally broke down and bought myself a nice, good quality camera that I have been using to take fabulous photos of the jewelry I currently make. While listing those pictures and advertising my jewelry to close friends through Facebook, I was told by many that I should open up an Etsy shop and sell my creations. So I finally got the gumption to give it a try and see how I do, thus having my new shop on Etsy today!
As far as coming up with the name for my shop, well, I am a fan of all things nature and I've lived my whole life in the beautiful natural state of Maine so that is why I chose MaineStringBead as my play on words for my shop title. It evokes the state, being Maine; a thought of a string bean which is an element of nature; and the words string and bead are both involved with jewelry making.
I hope to see a lot of you as friends and customers getting to enjoy my jewelry and/or assemblage art creations that I focus on keeping fairly priced and I hope you all enjoyed my story, thank you!