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Best Buddies
Jes Joan
This is where it all started. Jes was about four years old and already accessorizing me with bracelets and necklaces of plastic tube beads and lanyard.
We homeschooled right through high school which gave Jes ample opportunity to indulge her creative drive. She was always inventing and constructing when not beading or collecting rocks . Toothpicks and tape were her preferred materials. By age 10 or 11 her world was expanded by eBay where she began collecting gemstone beads instead of rocks. Sterling Silver findings replaced toothpicks and she began making earrings, LOTS of earrings, for herself and as gifts for friends and family.
When Jes was 12 we moved high school from home to the local community college which had a history of being homeschool friendly. Together we attended classes in computer graphics (a real passion of Jes'), photography and Art History among others. I had a blast! Having had a conventional nursing education , I felt this rounded me out a bit.
Jes took a year off at age 15 and became a certified yoga teacher.
When Jes was 12 we moved high school from home to the local community college which had a history of being homeschool friendly. Together we attended classes in computer graphics (a real passion of Jes'), photography and Art History among others. I had a blast! Having had a conventional nursing education , I felt this rounded me out a bit.
Jes took a year off at age 15 and became a certified yoga teacher.
Everything led very naturally to Jes' next step in life. She is now a Product Design and Mechanical Engineering major at RPI where she competes on the ballroom dance team. Note at right that Jes sports some of Infinity Jewelry's Swarovski dance bling: drop earrings of crystal AB bi cones and helix and matching necklace with helix pendant. She continues to design for Infinity whenever she can and is the one who got this site off to a good start.
I have always loved jewelry and, like Jes, loved to create things. When I was 9 or 10 I fried glass marbles and then put them into ice water causing them to crack internally in beautiful reflective patterns. (A similar technique is used today to simulate crab agate). The fried marbles were made into bracelets as my first wire wrapping effort. This was followed some years later by learning to make prayer bead bracelets using a handmade chain technique.
As a Holistic RN in my other life, I have been a yearly presenter at a wonderful event, the Frost Valley YMCA and Conference Center's Women's Wellness Weekend. I noticed that the presenters and staff had tables set up in the dining hall to advertise and/or sell various products and services. I asked Jes if she wanted me to try to sell the multitude of earrings she had made. Well, those earrings sold out on the first day. Having always been entrepreneurial, I offered to help create an expanded collection for the following year and the rest is, as they say, history.
Our table at Frost Valley WWW 2010
Our table at Frost Valley WWW 2010