Twilight's Fancy has come along way since 2003.
I've been making jewelry since my first pipe-cleaner-and-plastic-beads creation somewhere around 1979. From there, I raided my mom's stash of broken jewelry and started upcycling bits and pieces into works of art that I wore to school during the week and took apart on the weekend and remade for the following week. Somewhere at the end of high school and into college, I started making beaded chain.
In 2003, I began selling my work and Twilight's Fancy was born. In 2009, I wanted to make a ribbon choker. Little did I know that over the next few years, Twilight's Fancy would become the world's largest online retailer of ribbon clamps. What started as a wild goose chase for my own project became something that has helped many artisans worldwide build their own creations. Every order I receive makes me smile because I know someone, somewhere is making something. And that is awesome.
But beneath the ribbon clamps, Twilight's Fancy has been my lifeline. I make every aspect of Twilight's Fancy happen. If I'm sick for a day, there's no one to cover for me. So I can't be sick. I just can't. People can't stop making pretty things.
But I was sick. Very sick for much of my life and didn't know it. I'd been unknowingly poisoning myself for 28 years. I have sensitivities to 35 foods...some of which I ate every day and in 2011, it was catching up to me. Most doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. Tests all came back normal, but clearly I was sick and growing weaker. I'd even lost some feeling and motor control in my right side.
In 2012, I began to look into alternative medicine and started chipping away at my woes. Through it all, I kept growing Twilight's Fancy. I had to. There was no one else who could take it on while I recovered. I'll never be free of the food sensitivities, but they're manageable now.
And oh, how I look forward to Twilight's Fancy every day. For every order I receive, I send out a silent "Thank you". Without my wonderful customers making pretty things, I don't know what I would do, how I would push through each day. Sure, I make things, too, but there's just a certain special feeling in knowing that I've been a part of so many other people's projects too.
If I'd died, would those projects have been made? I don't know.
Every day is a gift. Every order is a chance to help someone make something. I know what making things has helped me survive. And thanks to my customers, I know I'm not the only one. Thank you very much.
In my spare time, I'm a special effects costumer. Most notably, I installed the eyes in the costume for The Amazing Spider-Man movies. Both 1 and 2.
I also write and produce a web series called Necrolectric and am half of the Ashleigh Raine writing team.
For eight years, I was an extra in over 150 movies and TV shows. Most notably, I was an inmate in the asylum in the Changeling and a dead nun in the 100th episode of Angel.
Every day is an opportunity and I cherish each one.
