I first encountered jewelry making upon my retirement from my professional life as a psychologist, formerly a social worker. Passing by a bead store I saw a few beads of gorgeous color and said to myself, I would like a necklace with those beads. I entered the store and spoke to the salesperson and made my first necklace with her help. From there and many classes later, I started designing and selling my hand crafted jewelry. As my skills grew I began to study with Hadar Jacobson, one of the gurus in precious metal clay. Under her tutelage and abundant creativity I became an apprentice of working with various metal clays such as bronze, steel and copper, that are fired to fuse the metal particles and burn off the binder. It has been a path of wonder, delight, meditation and skill building. Now after 15 years and becoming an elder, I am getting ready to retire from my second career.