A Floating Jewelry Store / The Beading Gem

Feature Designer

Miriam Grafer, a retired RN and her husband have lived in Long Island, NY, USA for all their married life, raising seven children. Some years back, they purchased a boat. Then an extraordinary jewelry store was created. Miriam explained its birth or berth (couldn't resist the pun) in the following email excerpt. She also kindly sent in a picture of themselves at "Nippers", Great Guana Key, in the Abacos, Bahamas and their boat :

"We bought a boat about 6 years ago and spent 2 1/2 years working on it. It is big enough to live on and we have been doing that for the last 2 1/2 years.

We travel on the eastern seacoast, in the south in the winter and we go back home to New York in the summer. Last year we did what is called the "Great Loop Trip". Up the Hudson, through the Erie Canal to Lake Ontario and then to Canada - Trent Severn Waterway, Georgian Bay and North Channel - to Lake Michigan to Chicago, down the river system to the Gulf of Mexico and around Florida. Today we are in Cumberland Island Georgia.

While on our boat I started making crocheted with wire jewelry and started a business run from the boat. I have been crocheting for about 30 years, but never with wire and beads. I found not only did I love it but I had so many necklaces that I needed to live to be 500 to wear them all, so now I sell them.

I try to do trunk parties or home parties while I am at dock. If someone contacts me via email or phone I can set up a schedule while at port, let them know when I will be in their area. Some docks I can set up and some I can't. If I am crocheting at the boat I will get people by who inquire what I am doing and then it goes from there. Frequently I will walk down the street with my necklaces on and people will stop me and ask me where I purchased my piece. When I tell them it is one of a kind that I designed, made and sell it is always a hit."

The design I chose for the main picture is her "At the Beach - Suntan Brown". The inspiration behind the colour of beads is the sun kissed skin she has seen and admired on many a beach. I thought the design evoked visions of fishing nets hanging to dry on the beach. Her design called "Blue Sky Fun"(below left) is yet another example of how Miriam takes advantage of the beautiful scenery she is lucky to see so often. I also loved her red "Butterfly Dance" where the little butterflies are flitting about looking for flowers to land on.

You can catch up with Miriam on her blog called A Daily Decision. Hers is an example of how one can sell jewelry from a blog without the additional cost of setting up and maintaining a website. NB. Payment carts can be obtained and embedded through Paypal and other such companies. If you are interested in learning more, check out Miriam's other blog called Selling Jewelry Online for her tips and views.