About Me

My name is Claudia Perry and I am a wife and mother of five sons. Although I have worked as a caseworker for troubled teens for 28 years and feel needed and fulfilled at work, I was nearing an empty nest at home and the prospect of that was heart breaking. I wish I were the parent at those college orientations who smiled and clapped when the orientation leader made those jokes about finally having the kids out of the house, but I was the one with tears in my eyes dreading the thought of it. I know in my heart that sending my sons out into the world was a job well done and realized it was time I thought about what my life would be like without them.  

I tried photography for a while and got paid to take pictures of my home town, high school basketball team. I love sports and taking pictures so I thought that would be, “my thing”. I needed better (expensive) equipment to really make a go of it so after a couple years, stopped being a quasi-photographer and took seriously to making chocolates.

I made chocolates for parties and holidays and created cute tags to go with them. I thought making and selling chocolates might just be, “the thing” to make me happy. After looking for, and not finding, a partner to help in my part-time budding chocolate business, I decided I couldn’t keep up with demand on my own. I needed to find a creative outlet, make a little money along with it, and be able to do it on my own. 

One day my co-worker showed some of the teens we work with how to make paper beads with cut up colored paper and a chopstick. She put them on elastic string and made pretty bracelets. I didn’t think much of it then, but after needing knee surgery and being off work for 3 months, I found myself bored out of my mind and thought about those pretty bracelets. I started teaching myself how to make beautiful, custom, paper beads and realized my, “real thing” was born.

I want you to know that paper bead bracelets are handmade and unique. Many customers have told me they are more beautiful than my pictures portray. It takes many hours of work to make paper beads and I promise you that the prices are fair. I love making the beads, especially custom beads, and hope you love them too. Please see my FAQs for more information.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my bracelets!