Senior Sydney Staten is known among her family and friends for her jewelry making skills. From bracelets to necklaces, she produces her own hand-made items that she wears herself.

“I would try to go find jewelry in stores and they wouldn’t have the kind that I wanted,” Staten said. “It would have some features that I liked but some that I didn’t like and they’d always be kind of expensive for the ones I did like, so I just decided to make my own.”

During the past year that she has been making her own jewelry, she has gone through trial and error on what works and what doesn’t. She came across an issue when making some of her items. Many who have made beaded bracelets or necklaces in their lives know that beads are notoriously hard to handle, but Staten was able to find a solution that made the process of using them a little bit easier.

“When I first started holding the other end of the string, I would just tape it to my desk and then put the beads on one at a time,” Staten said. “Now I just put them in this little container that I have and I put them on one by one still, but the container holds it in a way where they don’t slip off and I don’t have to hold the other end or tape it down.”

Even though she loves making them, Staten doesn’t only limit herself to bracelets. She makes different types of necklaces, some of which hold crystals.

“I weave the string together to make a pattern to hold the crystal,” Staten said. “I can take them out and replace them.”

Although she doesn’t sell any right now, her products may be sold on a site like Etsy in the future. At the moment, however, she is content with keeping this skill a hobby, and often creates and layers her jewelry to go with the colors of whatever outfit she is wearing.

“[I like] to make bracelets just because of the noise they make,” Staten said. “Just being able to style them with all my outfits because I make a lot of neutral color bracelets and jewelry.”