Theresa Landow, Owner and Head Designer
Hi. My name is Theresa Landow, and I am the owner and head designer for The Beaded Branch.
I started making beaded jewelry in 1999, and fell in love with it. What started as a hobby, soon became something of an obsession with me. I took a couple of basic classes from a local bead store, and soon was known as "that lady who is always working with beads" at my regular job at the local community college. Friends of the family noticed, and were soon giving me all sort of broken necklaces they didn't want any more, and bags of beads that were just lying around their homes. The next thing I knew, I had more jewelry than I could wear in a lifetime.
A friend of my mom's suggested that I sell some of my jewelry at a local craft show, and my business was born!
People often ask "Why did you name your business The Beaded Branch?"
The answer is actually quite simple. When I would tell people that I really like to make jewelry, I would then have to explain that it was the beaded branch of jewelry, as opposed to the metalsmithing, glass working, fiber art, or any other branch of jewelry making. Hence, the name "The Beaded Branch" was born. Plus, I really like trees and wanted to incorporate the idea of a tree into my business name somehow. I'm excited to be able to offer you a wide range of styles, colors, and jewelry made with different mediums and techniques. I am always experimenting, and looking to learn new techniques to add to my repertoire. I hope to keep expanding and to continue to offer a wide range of selections.
Timothy Landow Chainmaille Artist
Timothy is our fabulous chainmaille artist, and my husband. He creates the rings used from sterling silver wire, and then weaves the most intricate and beautiful weaves imaginable to create this fabulous jewelry. He is pretty much self-taught, and his love of chainmaille came about when it was decided that he needed a productive hobby. (Okay, I pressured him into it!) He loves being able to use the math and linear thinking needed to create these gorgeous pieces. We're looking forward to soon being able to offer less expensive pieces, and highly colorful pieces of chainmaille jewelry to tempt you with.
Rose Meese -- Superior Seamstress My mom, Rose Meese, has a long history of sewing, basically for over 65 years. She has had a love of making beautiful clothing and accessories for more years than I can remember. It is a love that was borne out of necessity, and she has learned a lot through her many years of sewing, quilting, embroidering, and any kind of handwork that requires a needle and thread! Rose loves to learn new techniques with her sewing, and loves quilting most of all. Creating beautiful quilts does have a tendancy to leave a lot of scraps, so she uses those pieces to make the magic wallets and bug bags.