I have always had a love of the arts, even at a young age. When if school I had an amazing art teacher who would push me to try things out side my comfort zone trying to find an area that I would truly love and was gifted in. Every Christmas I would get art supplies of all kinds, everything from crayons and pencils to paints of every color. I finally settled on beadwork, and started in jewelry. I struggled for years to brake into the jewelry ... Read Full Bio »

I have always had a love of the arts, even at a young age. When if school I had an amazing art teacher who would push me to try things out side my comfort zone trying to find an area that I would truly love and was gifted in. Every Christmas I would get art supplies of all kinds, everything from crayons and pencils to paints of every color. I finally settled on beadwork, and started in jewelry. I struggled for years to brake into the jewelry market with no success. At the age of 24, now a single mom, I gave us my beads to go back to college and got a degree in Applied Visual Arts and training as a Graphic Designer. Unfortunately when I graduated the economy decided to take a step back and I was unable to get a job. Slowly I started to create jewelry again and try to bring in some extra income for my family that would shortly double in size. While planning my wedding, I was looking for something different for my four flower ring girls. While googling one night I found French Beaded Flowers and fell in love right away. My artist training, my beading skills, and growing up on a farm all seemed to fall into place and help me to make some amazing flowers for my own wedding. I received so many complements on them that I started to create more flowers for friends and family. My parents talked me into doing a few shows and with the help of my husband, son, and stepdaughter I was able to get enough inventory ready for a show. It was a bust but my husband and father told me not to give up and now I am making sales at my show. Working full time and doing show was starting to become tiring. That is when a friend suggested going online rather then doing craft shows. This has given me more time with my family and my flowers. I still do a few shows a year but limit it to ones that have been there for me since the beginning and ones that support a good organization. With the help of my friends and family I am able to stock my online store with many one of a kind artworks that inspire me to keep at it even through the hard times. I love to see the looks on people?s faces when they see our works of art and the look on my friends? faces when I tell them that I have sold some of their works. Trips to the store are no longer just my son and I but have become a family affair with my husband even helping me pick out beads and vases. My little business has turned into a big family activity with husband, son, and stepdaughter each learning a step in the process so that they can help me out in every aspect. Even my niece is getting involved as my model. Andrea Thomas Deigns is made up of my family and friends, all who are very creative and needed an outlet for their artwork. I started with just my French Beaded Flowers and my moms Glass Garden Art and soon added a friends Hand Beaded Jewelry and another friends Dream Catchers. Our goal is to give you a one-stop shop to find all those fun, creative, and amazing items you are looking for. Our little shop started as a fun excuse for us all to get together and be creative while making enough money to support our habits so our husbands would stop complaining about how much we were spending. Well now they are eating their words as we are becoming successful at what we do. Some of us have even gotten our husbands to assist us in our creating processes. Thank you for taking the time to learn a little about me Andrea Thomas www.etsy.com/shop/AndreaThomasDesigns