Our store owner, Melanie Bentley Shockley,
began making mud pies as a child and eventually used up all the mud
in Iowa so she had to move to Virginia and began playing with clay.
Fast forward 35 years--hang with us here--we ARE getting to the bead
part of this story. She began making functional stoneware vessels
and clay sculptures, made the rounds at art shows, set up a website
(www.Aruruclayworks .com), rented gallery space, taught some classes...you
get the picture. One day the winter blues set in. Always on the look
out for magical pursuits with a creative edge, Melanie heard about
precious metal clay (PMC). Just like ancient alchemists, she too
could turn an everyday substance, i.e., clay, into precious metal.
Amazing, but true. Anyway, she got so hooked on PMC that she received
her instructor's certification from the National PMC Guild, began
teaching PMC classes at the Hand Workshop, The Virginia Museum of
Fine Arts, The Bay School of Art and in her home studio.
One night, while all this teaching was going on, the Bead Fairy waved
her magical bead wand over Melanie's head and miraculously, she began
dreaming of beads --every size, shape, texture imaginable! As it
turned out, this was a good thing because she had a gazillion PMC
pendants that she needed to string but no beads. Eventually, Melanie's
students were "wanded" as well and they began buying beads
from her home inventory (which by this time had consumed every nook
and cranny of her home).
All good things come to an end, but not this bead story! While going
into a local yarn store one afternoon, Melanie noticed a vacant store
next door and voila`-- that darned bead fairy got her again! Next
thing you knew, she had opened a bead boutique. The happy ending
to this story (which is really just beginning) is the people that
Melanie has met on this fairytale journey. It is--and never will
be--about just making money. It's about meeting people who are seeking
community and self-expression, people who want balance and beauty
in their everyday lives and have chosen beads as the medium.
Sooooo, welcome dear friends and bead
enthusiasts--and watch out for that darned fairy!
