Making jewelry is my passion, and a hugely rewarding outlet for my creativity. I studied two dimensional arts in high school, and into my first years in college. I loved to paint and draw, but had trouble finding materials and textures that inspired real creativity. I struggled to find a medium that allowed me to show everyone what was in my mind’s eye. No matter how many drawings or paintings I completed, I never really felt satisfied with the end result.
My mother Sue began making beaded jewelry while I was a teenager. I remember examining my mother’s jewelry pieces, wondering at how she 
had been able to create something so beautiful and interesting out of a few simple components.
I decided to try my hand at beading, and I knew I had found the creative outlet I had been looking for all along. The materials finally made sense to me. All of the theories and ideas I had absorbed finally came to fruition. Colors and textures now have endless possibility. I have studied beading jewelry through literature, but have found that the best ideas result from trial and error. I enjoy learning as many of the traditional methods of jewelry making as possible, then making them my own through use of color, texture, size, shape, and technical variation.
In the summer of 2003 I was accepted to the City of Atlanta's Bureau of Cultutal Affairs' ARTSCool program. I studied African bead painting with Chief Jimoh Buraimoh, the Nigerian artist credited with pioneering the art. This effectively bridged the gap, in my mind, between my two dimensional design education and the freedom of 3D media, such as beads.
My first ideas for a project come in the form of color: I look for inspiration in fashion, films, fine art, and my own personal tastes. I love to imagine the colors for a project based on how I picture someone would wear it: where they would go, what they would do, and how they’d like to feel while wearing the piece.
I select my materials from a huge stockpile of every sort of jewelry making medium: I have amassed thousands and thousands of the beads I think look best, and are of high enough quality to endure. I use Japanese and Czech glass seed beads, in every size available. I use gemstones, metal beads, crystals, and beads of bone, wood, and shell. I select findings and clasps to that will make the jewelry pieces comfortable to wear and care for, and last through all of the normal rigors of everyday life.
After I have selected my materials for a project, I feel a surge of energy and 
excitement over what I might be able to accomplish. I am happiest sitting at the table with all the media spread before me, planning how I want the piece to look and feel. I stop frequently while working to analyze and critique my progress, and to get the opinions of friends and family.
I love making jewelry, and I hope you have enjoyed viewing some of my work.
Thanks for visiting Pug Beads!
Contact Melissa
My mother has a wonderful sense of color, design and balance. She created some amazing treasures over the years and still does many beautiful crafts.
She made all of our wreaths and centerpieces, sewed clothing (whether for us or for our dolls), wove rugs from strips of fabric- One year she created a tiny Christmas scene under a dome that spun on a music box with a tree, miniature ornaments and presents. It was auctioned at our church; I know somewhere that family still enjoys that beautiful creation every year. When my sister owned and operated her own floral shop, my mother did a lot of wedding decorations and party preparations- always crafting!
When I was growing up, my father would take us all to flea markets and yard sales and we would often times look for vintage items to either appreciate as they were or to make new and useable again. I learned to love and appreciate antiques and collectibles. My father collects stamps, coins and baseball cards. He also instilled in me a very serious and lifelong love of animals. We always had a dog and every dog's heart belonged to my dad. He has an incredible way with animals and currently calls his Jack Russell Terrier "Casey" his "son", carrying pictures of him in his wallet and spoiling him to no end!
As my children grew up, I saw their developing a love of crafts, just as I had. When I reflect back on it now, they were very diverse (and still are) in the crafts and arts that they did; Melissa played the violin, made beaded pictures (one of which I was lucky enough to have received and will treasure always) cross-stitched, painted, drew, did fantastic photography, and made her own greeting cards; Jennifer played the clarinet, did amazing drawings and made some incredible things from clay that I still treasure. They both are very creative and talented, each in their own right. I am very proud of them both.
I started out doing cross stitching, crewel and embroidery. I did a lot of decorative crafts and sewing around our home. After a number of years I found I needed a more creative outlet- without patterns. I began quilting (still working on that blue jean quilt!) but found it was not immediately gratifying. I painted ceramic light up houses and made a Christmas Village with some 25 houses, a pond for skating and a town square. What I really enjoyed painting was old world Santa Clauses and angels made from ceramic. I sold some and gave many away as presents. But painting was messy- I needed a craft that allowed the freedom of creativity but one that enabled me to put it away quickly if the need arose. I read an article on beading and, my, that was it- I was gone!
Eight years ago I started beading; simple necklaces, bracelets and earrings. As I read more and bought more beads and saw more jewelry in movies and magazines and on television, I wanted to learn more. I started teaching myself beading stitches. Melissa and I still laugh at some of the "early projects", but, just like everything else in life, you learn by trial and error. I had plenty of errors to learn from!
Through the many years of beading, the thing I have most enjoyed is when someone would admire a piece I was wearing. Now, when I see a new bead, I immediately have a vision of what it will look like in a piece. I am now working with a lot of gemstones and am enjoying finding out the history of the mine where they came from and the metaphysical properties of each stone. I feel that gemstones add an element to a piece that cannot be achieved with glass alone. If you get right down to it, each stone is a tiny piece of history, with some of them taking decades to form. My distaste for following patterns has yielded many a "free-form" piece of jewelry; even if I start out with a pattern, I find myself veering off of it, finding my own niche and placing each bead where it wants to go in that particular piece!
I hope that everyone who makes a purchase from Pug Beads realizes how much thought, care and time and we put into our designs and the quality of our work. We hope that wearing a piece of original jewelry we created will give you many years of joy!
Also, if you know a craft of any kind, please teach it to someone in the next generation. It is so easy nowadays to go and buy something cheap- something "crafted" (made in a factory) - with no "soul" behind it. We must not lose touch with the artistry and the care for which we craft in the first place! If every generation teaches the next, crocheting, knitting, sewing, beading - all of these wonderful crafts will continue on for generations to come and will impart upon those who undertake them the satisfaction and knowledge that they created something with their own two hands!
p.s. We also teach beading...
Bead on!
My sisters and I got our love for crafts from our mother, who still crafts today! We were taught to sew, darn, knit, crochet and "read patterns" at an early age. We made our own things- we made our own Christmas garland, Valentine's Cards, pressed flowers and leaves, we cut, glued and stapled our way through our childhood. We spilled and stained and probably ruined a lot of furniture, but my parents never said a word... When I was growing up, you didn't craft to save money, you crafted for the satisfaction of having done it yourself! There weren't any "dollar stores" - things you made were valued more than things you bought.
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