If you have not met me or ordered from me before, you probably would want to know a bit more about me before deciding to make a purchase. I can understand that.
Let me introduce myself. My name is Patricia Hendershot. I am the artist and proprietor of my little business, Hearthstone Gallery. Actually, I'm the only employee. I've been designing jewelry professionally for over fourteen years.
My grandmother taught me beading when I was at the age of four. She also taught me sewing, embroidery, basket weaving, cooking, etc. You know, all the things a young girl should know before she gets married. Well, I never married, but I so enjoyed spending time...
See more »
If you have not met me or ordered from me before, you probably would want to know a bit more about me before deciding to make a purchase. I can understand that.
Let me introduce myself. My name is Patricia Hendershot. I am the artist and proprietor of my little business, Hearthstone Gallery. Actually, I'm the only employee. I've been designing jewelry professionally for over fourteen years.
My grandmother taught me beading when I was at the age of four. She also taught me sewing, embroidery, basket weaving, cooking, etc. You know, all the things a young girl should know before she gets married. Well, I never married, but I so enjoyed spending time with my grandmother and learning so many different things! Plus, it kept me out of mischief. Well, most of the time, anyway.
Now that I have grown up, I still love all these crafts (and I still get into a little mischief), but designing and making jewelry is my favorite. With encouragement from my grandmother and friends, I began my jewelry business in 1994, while living near Washington, D.C.
I started selling my jewelry on a street corner in Bethesda, Maryland (just across from the D.C. border). From there, I grew to spending weekends selling my wares at Art & Craft shows. My weekend jewelry business grew.
Moving to Colorado allowed me to become more open with my designs and experiment with unique shapes and textures. As you view the images of many of my pieces, you can see that I can't create one single style of jewelry. I am driven to design and create so many diverse pieces. Some of my designs came from movies (especially those from the 1940's), some come to me in my dreams (I do keep a pad and pen by my bedside), and some are pure inspiration. I really enjoy working with unusual shapes. Sometimes, these beads just tell me how they want to be used. I have been known to start making a necklace one way, and then, change my mind, and create a completely different piece. I even have two sketch books filled with designs for which I have not gotten to yet!
The bottom line is simply that I take a lot of pride in creating each piece of jewelry. I make it as though it is just for me. I don't take short cuts and use only quality materials. I take great care to make sure that the gemstone colors and shape sizes match and are consistent throughout each piece or set of jewelry.
When I'm not designing jewelry, I am doing my other favorite type of work. In the "real" world, I am a database architect. I have been "designing" databases for over sixteen years and love it as much as I love designing jewelry. I guess that makes me a bit of a "geek". My third favorite is that I also enjoy writing. I've written technical documents as well as fiction books. Unfortunately, I have yet to find anyone to publish my fiction. I just think of it as, "You get one chance at life. You have to go for it." My second favorite motto is, "If you don't try, you've already failed." And, I keep trying. I never cared for the word, "No".
I also enjoy feedback and questions. I want customers to feel free to contact me and ask questions. I usually respond within 24 hours. On the rare occasion, it may take me a little longer, so please don't be offended or think I forgot about you.
See less »
