My name is Barbara, I live with my husband, Alan (my soul-mate and best friend) in County Durham in the North East of the UK. We have two sons and 4 grandchildren who we love dearly. We also have two dogs who we spoil rotten, as our children have left home (do they ever really leave?). I have over the years tried many kinds of hobbies. The earliest I can remember was making pin pictures when I was about 12 years old. I did quite well, I used to sell them at my Dad’s Scout Group fairs. Then I tried Knitting, crochet, painting, cycling, camping, caravanning (which I still do), fabric painting, glass painting, aromatherapy, the list goes on. But about 2 years ago I was introduced by a friend to jewellery making and after one night I was hooked (line and sinker), as they say. Since then I have gone from strength to strength. After that first night I went out and scoured car boot sales, table top sales, charity shops and most of all asked my friends and family for old junk jewellery they did not use any more. I then first of all looked at how the pieces were put together, then cleaned and stripped the pieces, taking great care to save as many parts as I could, then went on to re-work the beads, strings and findings to make new pieces which I then sold back to my friends and family. The money I made from this funded my new hobby of jewellery making, and the rest is history as they say.

I now sell at craft fairs, home parties, on Ebay and now my first ever website. .
I have recently had two of my pieces of  recycled jewellery published in  Bead magazine Feb/Mar 08, which is a great confidence-booster, to say the least. I am a member of the Bead Buddies forum where I have made friends from all over the UK and Ireland and a few in France and the USA  if I have forgotten anyone they will surely give me a nudge.
Well, enough about me. I hope I can say this with confidence; Go And Enjoy. AmethystDaze.