About
Award winning artist and native Hatteras Islander, Wendy Sisler, has had a passion for jewelry throughout her life. Over the past 20 years, she has developed a wonderful mastery of original Lampwork bead making. This process is commonly used for making very small glass objects. Lampworking, rather than glass blowing, gives the artist the freedom to create beads and other glass objects that are unique, colorful, sculptural, and highly detailed while also being quite small in scale. The process relies on the heat of the flame and gravity to allow for creation of the intricate beads. Each is crafted one at a time from German or Italian soft glass and has unique qualities all its own. A considerable amount of time goes into making each bead. Thus, this method of making jewelry is very time consuming.
(If you want to read more about Lampworking, just click here.)
She’s been at it for two decades. Nevertheless, her passion for working with glass continues to burn. On any given visit to the shop, you might find Wendy at work forming hot molten glass into beautiful components for necklaces, bracelets, and earrings - pieces that are one-of-a-kind, in production, or made-to-order. If you visit her on one of the days when she’s turning the beads into jewelry, you can see her process for matching the beads up with crystals, pearls, brilliant gemstones, and other elements that showcase the most important part of the jewelry - the beads. Her designs are such that a single bead can appear as a pendant on a silk strand or be part of a statement piece composed of a dazzling assemblage of individually made, one-of-a-kind beads.
Wendy has been dressing locals and visitors alike in the most distinct of jewels for many years. Each season brings new beads, new customers and the return of longtime clients. She has a large following of patrons who adore her work, but also trust her taste in the jewelry designs of other crafters as well. Every year she attends trade shows in New York where she selects designer jewelry that compliments her own and makes it available to her customers in her beautifully appointed boutique in Hatteras Village. Speaking honestly, she will tell you that running a shop is incredibly hard work. She’s a one-woman-operation. She makes so much of the boutique’s inventory and is responsible for being her own salesperson as well. That said, she wouldn’t trade it for any other profession. She has a deep deep love of the craft. But her love for meeting and talking to her customers runs equally deep.
With her pup, Sport, by her side daily in the shop, Family Jewels is Wendy’s heaven-on-earth. There’s no place else she’d rather be spending her days than in her marvelous studio and shop in Hatteras Village.
Custom Orders are Welcome!
When you stop by, check out Wendy’s bead work. If you’d like her to make you a custom piece, just ask. She will be happy to handcraft a piece of jewelry just for you! With so many exquisite beads to choose from, the sky (and beyond!) is the limit.