I began beading during a day of working with my daughter-in-law in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at the Gemini Project where she was working with teens to develop some marketable skills. I hated it! I couldn’t get the beads onto the needles without great difficulty and my patience was worn very thin but the things made by the students stayed in my mind. A few years later, I saw a workshop in Portland, OR which involved making a very clever, odd charm bracelet with larger beads and I decided to try it again. Well, the whole world of beading and jewelry opened up for me and I fell in love with it. I call my business Whidbeads.

I live near Langley on Whidbey Island with my husband who is a carver in the northwest coast style.