Artist Bio

Hi, my name is Cheryl Skeens, I am a self-taught jewelry artist, jewelry designer and wire artist. I have always been an arts and crafts person keeping my hands busy and experimenting with different ideas. My jewelry career began when I started making custom bracelets with letter beads and school colors to sell as a fund-raiser for my daughter's winter guard team for traveling expenses. I was still working full time in the corporate world and doing jewelry in my spare time. My bracelets table grew into a full jewelry booth at competitions and state championships for several years. People came back each year to see what new items I was selling and my custom jewelry business began.

With the encouragement of my family and friends, I started designing and selling my handcrafted beaded jewelry in 2001 on various auction sites and their stores. In 2003, after some health issues, I left the coporate world and decided to design and handcraft beaded jewelry full time and open an online business to show and sell my jewelry. I set up my first website, KC Bead Designs - Beaded Jewelry by Cheryl Skeens as my first virtual store location. In 2008 I created and set up a new blog site and added my second virtual store location with the blog. In 2009, I decided to try a new shopping cart on my website and changed to a new domain name also.  Cheryl's Jewelry Expressions - Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry and Wire Art Jewelry Designs was born.  Since I  had not been blogging for quite some time, I also set up a new blog, Cheryl's Jewelry Blog, for news, pictures and articles about my jewelry and the jewelry business.

In addition to my two virtual stores, I still do some local festivals and arts and crafts shows. I am proud to be a one woman shop located in the metropolitan Kansas City, Missouri area. I love stringing beads and working with wire is my newest passion. My job allows me to play with beautiful beads and create lovely jewelry for other people to wear and enjoy. Life is good!

Shop Info

Cheryl's Jewelry Expressions is an online web store specializing in affordable handmade beaded bracelets, earrings, necklaces, jewelry accessories, unique beaded gifts, personalized beaded jewelry, and artisan designer wire art jewelry. I have a studio in my home where I design and handcraft my jewelry using Czech glass beads, Swarovski crystals, Cosmic crystals, Celestial crystals, natural and man-made gemstone beads, glass and freshwater pearls and plated and precious metal wire and components. All beaded jewelry is handmade by me and usually one-of-a-kind or limited unique beaded jewelry designs. The specific beads, findings and wire are listed in the descriptions for all jewelry.

My handcrafted beaded jewelry is strung on stainless steel - nylon coated multi-cable beading wire for strength, flexibility, and to resist kinking unless otherwise stated. Some jewelry is strung on other cords and materials as listed in the description.

I've included my picture so you can see who is designing your jewelry along with two of the groups I belong to and support as an independent jewelry artist.