Welcome to michelekathleen design online store through ETSY. I am michele, the owner, designer, artist and craftsman who puts together this beautiful and unique jewelry. Michelekathleen was started in late Summer, 2007, Austin Texas, when my Mom came for a visit. I had left the medical field after a very severe bends injury. My Mother suggested I start making jewelry because she thought I would love the sparkle of the stones and crystals. I had always loved and been obsessed with stones since I was really little;my Uncles used to take me quartz rock hunting in the woods behind my Grandmother’s house in CT~I have these very fond memories of rock hunting and stone skipping on the pond behind the house when we would come back to The States. when I was in pre-school, I gave our neighbor in Germany a pink quartz rock I found and wrapped in clover leaves as a Birthday Gift...I have always been into rocks, stones, fossils. After her urging me for a week, off to the local bead shops we went and I can say, that was the day my life as a jewelry designer began. I was completely hooked! Michelekathleen design was born on my living room floor that evening, in Travis Heights Austin Texas, when I made several pairs of genuine pearl, garnet, peridot and sterling earrings. We started talking about how I could make enough to cover the cost of making jewelry but then after I came home from work, selling all of my little earrings, we talked about how to start a business plan to pay my rent. Then I got sick...really sick. I put jewelry making on hold for several years now years, while I worked another 'real' job and took 2 years off to get healthy. I have decided it is, again, time to get back into the groove of what really makes me happy-being creative, working with great materials and getting back to my clients I have had from the very beginning of conception of michelekathleen, so here I am-FINALLY Re-opening my shop on ETSY! I use all natural, high quality materials. Every single piece is handcrafted by me and me alone. I feel like I put a great deal of love and zen into my work because I am so grateful to finally be here. I hope you enjoy my work and feel the love in each piece! Thank you for supporting a girl, who was a step away from losing everything but then jumped-it is much appreciated!