I had forgotten how far back jewelry making went in my existence until I came across a jewelry box filled with my childhood treasures.  Well, I wasn't working with pearls, gems or semiprecious stones then…but finding my strung macaroni, gimp, seed bead, macramé, and beach shell masterpieces reminded me that jewelry has been a part of who I am from the beginning.  It hasn't always been center stage, but I certainly have pieces of jewelry from every stage of my adult life...getting my B.S. in geosciences was a big macramé time.  The years I spent as a geotechnical inspector on a barge in the Kennebec River working heavy construction produced lots of glass bead pieces.  The years spent working in corporate retail, travelling malls all over the northeast was full of tediously long lariats.  Slowly I evolved from the long glass lariats into really cool chunky pearl lariats. I can probably credit the few years I lived on Beacon Hill in Boston for the switch from glass to pearls.   From there the pearls just took on a life of their own.  I couldn't resist my love for them—and here I am today with a studio full of pearls.  I feel so fortunate that my lifelong jewelry habit is now my work…that is, when I am not busy with my husband,  two children and our three dogs!