Jeannine is a very special addition to our Artisan Collections, we are so happy to be adding her beautiful designs to the Fringe, Flowers and Frills family!

They say that necessity is the mother of invention...How true those words are.

Forty years ago my husband Fred took ill and could no longer work to support us. He was a gold and diamond jeweler and that was not something I could learn quickly and easily.

Luckily in stepped our good friend Donald, who taught me and our three children how to mass produce necklaces a gross at a time. If I remember correctly, we got paid about sixteen dollars per gross. Every little bit helped. It was not easy. None of us even knew how to hold the tools required, much less how to finish a piece. We all learned. Each of us did a step. It was a well oiled assembly line.

With the leftover beads, I started to design pieces of my own, and offer them for sale to family and friends. The designs were so different then, with a lot of acrylic and wood beads, many of which I still have. They are now considered Vintage…..