I began my interest in creating at a very young age, I am a self taught artist in most of the things I have created in my life time, but because of my love for creating I have gone on to become a Painting Instructor and Jewelry Designer. I have taken many classes in both mediums. I would make things and always give them as gifts, people would love my items and suggested to me that I should sell them. After giving it much thought, I started selling at local crafts shows, high scale craft malls, and finally as I got older and more health wise I decided to try on line selling. . In June of 2000, my creating journey lead me to become a Donna Dewberry OneStroke Certified Painting Instructor, I taught painting for over 10 years, having 4 - 7 classes per week. While working as a Floral manager at Michael's Craft Store I also found that I enjoyed designing and making jewelry as well as my painting, I then began to teach jewelry design to others. All the hand-painted items and jewelry designs in my shop are all hand-made or hand-painted by myself. In all my creations I only use the best quality materials I can find. Since I have a love for swarovski crystals and pearls you will find many of them in my jewelry designs. All my creations come from a non-smoking environment. My jewelry is unique as I try not to duplicate my designs but on occasion I do with some things I do, and state so. Shipping is as listed in listings!!!!! I am not responsible for packages which are lost or damaged during shipping!! I DO NOT offer CASH REFUNDS, but do stand by my items, I would be happy to repair the item or give the buyer the option to choose something of equal value in my shop for replacement. The customer would have to pay shipping charges to return the damaged item back to me and then pay shipping again to have the item shipped back to them. Places you can find me on the web are as listed: http://www.artfire.com/bellasgems http://www.bellasgems.blogspot.com http://www.facebook.com/bellasgems Thank you for stopping by and reading my Bio, I hope you enjoy viewing my Etsy shop and will mark me as a favorite! Come back often as I add new items daily! Please do come back soon....(: Teresa