As far back as I can remember, wherever I went I would keep my eyes on the ground. I suppose I was a little shy but the truth of the matter was I didn't want to walk past a wondrous discovery. I was a collector. Rocks, shells, leaves, anything that was special and beautiful was fair game. I remember when my parents gave me a little corner in the back yard for my rock garden. With pride I'd come home from school with my new treasures I collected and place them in their new home among all my favorites.

Not only did I collect rocks, I tried to sell them. When I was about 7 I would line up stones in rows and try to sell them to anyone who happened to walk past our house. Unfortunately, I lived on a dead end street, so there was little traffic to admire my beautiful selection.

Along with my interest in stones at that time, I loved making jewelry. I would make yarn rings by tying knots on top of knots to create a 'woven' pattern that I could slip over my finger. I now understand why none of the neighbors bought these, either, they were somewhat odd looking...

Flash forward nearly 20 years and I'm still collecting beautiful stones and making jewelry. I suppose it's really not much of a surprise that I decided to become a metalsmith! After peaking my interest by taking classes in high school for jewelry making, I decided to go to college for it. I graduated from Grand Valley State University in 2008 with my degree in Art & Design with an emphasis in Metalsmithing and Jewelry Making. Not long later Bend The Fish came along.

Bend The Fish? Curious where the name came from? Well, you're not alone. I get asked this quite a bit, so here's the story...

When my husband and I were first married, we were living in a small apartment in Grand Rapids, Michigan. One evening we were cooking dinner in the kitchen. We had a nice toaster oven that had an amazing broiler on it, so we decided to broil up some salmon. I took the large piece of salmon and started to place it on the small toaster oven pan. It didn't take a rocket scientist to discover the pan was about half the length of the fish. So I took the piece of fish in my hands and curved it in half to fit on the pan nicely, stating with certainty, "Well, sometimes in life you just have to bend the fish." Sometimes in life we just have to make things work, we just do what we have to do. I liked the sound of it, telling my hubby "Hmm, "Bend The Fish", I might have to use that for something someday...