I am Crystal Carlton, a wife, and a mother of 1 lovely little daughter named Taya. I am 38 years old, and I live in Akron, Ohio.
Crystal can be found at:
http://www.charmandjewels.com
http://www.charmandjewels.etsy.com
Crystal, thanks for sharing your story and creations with us! Cheers
Let's meet Crystal From CharmAndJewels
Let's meet Crystal Carlton from www.charmandjewels.com. She was very kiind and agreed to answer our invitation to be featured in the club here. Read her story here:
I have been a hairstylist for 19 years, and I have been an Independent Artist/Designer since January 2004.
Charm & Jewels offers a wide variety of beautiful handmade jewelry. The designs in my collection are unique, eyecatching, and elegant. Designed with the finest components including handmade lampwork beads, charm beads, gemstones, sterling silver, bali silver, gold-filled, jangles, ceramic, Swarovski Crystals and much more. My designs include earrings, rings, bracelets, necklaces, beaded ink pens, children's jewelry and much more. I love to design wedding jewelry and designs for special occasions.
I create all of my jewelry designs in a extra room in my home, I have designated as "My Studio"! Sometimes when I want to relax a bit more and spend some time watching television with my family, I take a small table into the family room and do some beading there as well.
I have always been artistic, but I get my inspiration from just about anything I see, I love to watch the seasons change, with all the beautiful colors we see they sometimes inspire me to design pieces made up of those colors. Designing jewelry really began with "My Little Inspiration", Taya. I was working 4 days a week 16 hours a day in the salon, and when I had her I decided I wanted to be home more to be with her, and that's when I decided to make jewelry and sell it.
Because I have always been creative, I purchased a bead kit, put it together and that was it! I began to go to local Bead Shows, and began to frequent Bead Shops. For the most part I taught myself, and when there was something I couldn't do I would not hesitate to take a class!
I promote my wares any way I can. I sell it in several shops here in the Akron area. I always donate to charities and auctions for even more exposure. I've also been in several malls, selling my jewelry for short periods of time, and of course my website,and my Etsy shop.
The most important lesson I've learned is to budget my time and my money!!! You have to, this business can be time consuming and can consume you financially!!!
