My name is Paula Hamilton and I am The Venerable Bead. I am a recently remarried mother of two beautiful and smart children ages 22 and 19. I am a clinical social worker and I am also a breast cancer survivor. I’ve had a love affair with bead and jewelry designing since 1994. It has changed forms many times but never waned. The glass bug hit in early 2005 while I was reading a Bead and Button magazine article about a borosilicate bead artist who started glassing in her 40's. I had never seen borosilicate glass before but I felt drawn to it. After that, I started buying boro beads from self representing artists to incorporate into my jewelry. Then it occurred to me that I could probably learn how to make them myself. In the Spring of 2005 I took a wonderful nine week lampworking class at the Worcester Center for Crafts taught by the very talented Jennifer Geldard and in July 2005 I set up a glass studio in my home.
I discovered Etsy in 2007 and have been happily selling my glass ever since. Over the last few years I have added metalwork and enameling to my skill set in an ever increasing effort to raise the bar for my glass work.
Growing up, most kids in my neighborhood had lemonade stands. I tried selling painted rocks and gave the lemonade away just to get people to stop and look at my creations. Things haven’t changed that much. Welcome to my Etsy shop.