How I got my start: I've always loved crafting of any kind. My mother and aunts taught me how to crochet. The lady who lived across the street from us when I was a child taught me to knit (she used to make fantastic outfits for my Barbie dolls), and I learned to sew in school (home ec., which nobody teaches anymore). I taught myself how to decorate cakes (I made and decorated my own wedding cake), ran a scrapbooking business for 6 years (4 in a true storefront), used to make outfits for 18" dolls, and taught myself how to make jewelry after taking a class to make earrings by reading every book I could get my hands on and watching zillions of hours of videos. So, it just seemed natural to make a business out of the things I love best.

My daughter, the true artist, says that I can call what I do "art". I think it's more like therapy. There is something truly soothing about pounding a piece of metal into a beautiful piece of jewelry or taking wool and making a shawl or some other lovely utilitarian piece.

Some of you may be wondering about my shop name. I've always been interested in my heritage (mostly Irish) and felt I wanted a shop name that closely represented that. The O'Dochartaigh clan (Gaelic spelling) hailed from County Donegal in Ireland. My 2x great grandfather, John O'Daugherty came from there. Of course, the name was bastardized with the removal of the O', and in my father's large family half my uncles were Daugherty (spelled with an "a") and half, including my dad, were Dougherty (spelled with an "o"). Now as great as O'Dochartaigh is -- it's not easy for anyone (including myself) to remember if you want to google it. And using O'Dougherty was appealing, but it's not my name really. Someone suggested the play on it -- Oh! Dougherty -- and thus, the name of the shop was born!!

I hope you will enjoy the pieces you buy from me as much as I enjoyed watching them evolve from my hands.