My father was a college art professor and my mother a free-lance writer, neither of them had even a rudimentary knowledge of business. I graduated from Central Washington University with a degree in art and jewelry, without anyone ever suggesting I might sometime want to make a living at what I had studied for four years. A few years later William Richey and I joined forces and we naively started a jewelry design firm with absolutely no idea of how to run a business. And that was the beginning of a long journey on learning the do's and don'ts, ups and downs, ins and outs of becoming art entrepreneurs.

During my 30+ years career in jewelry, I have run a wholesale business and a retail gallery, done hundreds of shows – craft and trade, indoors and out, juried and not juried, dreadful and successful. I traveled for nine years to every nook and cranny of America selling our line. I have served on numerous board of directors (currently Society of North American Goldsmiths), am an award-winning consultant to emerging artists (Contemporary Design Group's 2009 Designer Advocate of the Year), teach seminars and classes, a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, participate on panels, a free-lance writer for jewelry/craft publications, contribute an on-going column for Art Jewelry magazine called "Business Savvy" and authored an award-winning book about running a small jewelry design/craft business - "Profiting by Design" through the MJSA Press.

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