My Mother collected paperweights, so I spent my childhood touring glass studios. I was always artistic, and had my first creations (note cards with pen and ink mushrooms) in a local store when I was in my teens. I started doing craft shows in my 20s to augment the income from my full-time job.

By the time my children were college age I'd transitioned to selling kitsch online. I'd always been attracted to computers, so I got my degree at 40, and moved from a management title in a customer service department to a series of IT jobs, including programming, system analysis, and server administration. I continued doing online sales, and many crafts, including jewelry making and scrapbooking.

Fast forward to 2012; I had 30 years in my job, enough to take an early retirement. Decades trapped in a fabric covered box had sucked my soul dry, and I was desperate to reclaim my life, so I decided to take the financial risk, and said goodbye to my job.

I'd received a beginning lampworking kit for Christmas 2011, and realized that I loved working in glass. For me, it's the perfect blend of art and science - as much about physics and chemistry as design and skill. But I also realized that using a torch in our post and beam farmhouse was quite literally playing with fire. I used my unused vacation pay to create a beautiful back yard studio, which is where I make my beads, fused pieces, stamp metal, and sometimes paint.

It's the ultimate sanctuary, and I hope the joy it brings me is visible in the beads I'm bringing to you.

Oh, and because I've never stopped loving kitsch and collectibles, I have a second Etsy shop, AtticObsession, under the user name eregel2, where I bring fabulous vintage finds (and some sewing and papercrafted treats) to you.

But my paper crafting side was eager to do something with the wonderful images in my collected antique books - but I couldn't bring myself to cut them apart. Enter my Geek side, and the birth of GraphicObsession, where I bring you digital downloads of wonderful images from 1870s-1920s books, postcards, advertising and other ephemera.