About Me:

I had always been into 'making and doing' creative things - I remember the sheer delight of being given crayons, glue and paper by my parents when I was small! Later, I progressed to embroidery, the lure of all those threads and colours was irresistible; the complexity of following a chart and then later designing my own work gave me many happy hours.

At school I enjoyed creative pursuits, but was happy to be chanelled into academic avenues; at the back of my mind was the thought I might follow something creative but the focus of school seemed to be to produce workers rather than business-owners though I did some story-writing and was forever hopefully sending off my manuscripts to patient publishers; after leaving college I went to work firstly as a secretary, then as a personal assistant, and having attended university later on, as a Personnel Officer - I enjoyed the latter very much, and it came as a shock to be diagnosed with Endometriosis which meant it would be difficult to hold down a 'real' job; a period of time followed where I scratched my head a little and wondered where life would take me.

Around that time, I made my own tiara for my wedding, and this created a little flurry of people asking me to make tiaras for theirs; I also got into making stationery as well as wedding garters; I attended a silversmithing course at my local college and then began making small items of jewellery; over time I felt making jewellery was more enjoyable than working on anything else, and so 'SLC Designs' was born; most of what I do here is self-taught; the lure of beads and colours is wonderful!

I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis a few years ago - this confirmed my decision to work for myself which is my 'silver lining' - allowing me to enjoy the passion of creativity in my own time and space, and this makes me very very happy.

Nowadays there is also 'www.Beadaddict.co.uk' which focuses on the supply of beads and jewellery making supplies; but making jewellery, for me, is the most enjoyable process of all, waiting for inspiration to strike and pieces to 'make themselves' - other elements of my silver lining are Cleo my cat, and my horse Merlin - my children; the difficulties that life throws at us are sometimes hard to comprehend, but there are often wonderful compensations in the long term.

The site and my jewellery making are a work in progress; I don't look at it as a job, but as something I choose to do. I believe strongly that creativity is within everyone - what happens in life shapes your present and your future, and creating, to me, is in my soul.

Kind Regards

Stephanie Lewis-Cooper

Above: with the love of my life.....

All Content, Design, Text and Photographs Copyright Stephanie Lewis-Cooper, SLC Designs™, 2002-2008