Costa creates all of the beads and pendants by hand from polymer clay. Shelby designs the jewelry and wires/assembles all the pieces.  We have a fully functional studio in our home with several work tables, drawing table, oven and computer. 

We have always been interested in the art world and have been involved in creative ventures for years.  Shelby, BA in Visual Arts, first worked in a small Boston graphics company.  After working with the mohawk-loving punks in the backroom for awhile, she was ready for a more polished atmosphere.  Moving on up, she landed on NYC’s Fifth Avenue with an international cosmetic company as Production Manager in their Education Department.  She designed business training books and learning tools.  She enjoyed working with the Creative and Marketing Departments whose inspirations are still felt.

 Costa, BA in Business Administration, is the true entrepreneur of the team.  Around 1984, Costa started making his own Christmas cards as he became unimpressed with the generic, mass produced cards.  It was this interest in card design that led to t-shirt design and eventually to buying the Shirt Shop in NJ.  He took computer graphics classes.  Eventually he started to design his own line of t-shirts and produced custom invitations, posters, shirts and logos.  Shelby started hand-painting t-shirts and sweats for the store and eventually was getting custom orders for her hand painted designs.  All this lead to their marriage in 1993 (shocking, no?)

Shelby left NYC for a job in Princeton, NJ.  In between, she became interested in hand made jewelry, took some courses with enthusiastic teachers, and started to produce some wonderful pieces.  But to make the jewelry truly unique, Costa saw the need that the beads had to be hand made.  And, always ready for a challenge, he jumped into the polymer clay world and started creating truly one-of-a-kind beads.

Eventually Costa closed up the Shirt Shop, got a ‘normal’ part time job and now devotes as much time as possible to our studio.  The studio, with its multi-colored walls and hobby horse hanging from the ceiling, is meant to inspire and relax.  We enjoy meeting new customers and old friends at the many craft shows we participate in.  We provide wonderful service for our online customers.  And, we look forward to home parties and wholesale opportunities in the future.  Spare time, when we find it, we cruise on our Kawaski Vulcan, taking in the sights of the Jersey shore, mountains in NY and scenic stops in between. Life is very good.  It’s exciting when we see how far we've come and look ahead at how far we can go.