WMA Designs, Hudson, FL
I have had the privilege of working with wire for the past 8 years. Like most people, it started as a hobby then I became a "collector". At least that is what my darling husband always says. Three and a half years ago, we moved to Leesburg, Florida from Orlando. I had retired and decided that I couldn't stand being home all of the time. I was working a part time job at our local Publix grocery store. I was doing small events with my jewelry and was doing fairly well with it. Then on a Saturday, I was doing an event at the Harley Davidson dealer and our event was hit by a Micro-burst. It is sort of like a sudden tornado in one spot. It took 5 customers and my husband to hold the tent down and all of my displays were destroyed. I got off lucky. The other 11 vendors lost their tents and merchandise. I was so shakey from this, I decided to take some time off from doing shows. I went to work full time at Publix. After a year, I had to take medical leave because of a torn rotator cuff and torn labarahm. The recover has been long since the surgery. I found that I can easily make jewelry with not being able to move my arm, and started working at Webster Farmers Market and the Market of Marion. It has been wonderful to get back to my jewelry and I am actually able to work again with selling the jewelry. Now I am no longer a "collector"!
I try to meet my customers needs. I have had a couple of interesting customers also. One was in a fire 11 years ago and lost her right ear except for the lower cartlidge. After a few tries, I was able to make an ear cuff that fit on the cartlidge with an extra loop on the bottom front. After 11 years, she can now wear dangle earrings again! The ear cuffs make both ears look the same and she is able to attach any dangles that she wants to! Another customer that I had was 91 years old. She has RA in her hands. Her knuckle is a size 15 and her actual ring finger size is a 6. I was able to design a ring that opens so that she can put it over her knuckle and it latches shut on her finger so that it fits and doesn't spin on her finger.
The beauty of being a wire artist is having customers like this, being able to do something to help them and the BIG reward is seeing them happy! It totally makes my day each time that I can bring a big smile to a person's face.
