by Rachel Witkowski
Staff Writer
Nicole Madeux only began making beaded work to help her eldest daughter, Mya, gain better eye-hand coordination. Five years later with a house full of beads and handmade jewelry, Madeux has decided to start selling her product, A Beaded Peace.
“I’m a full-time mom,” said Madeux, who now has five daughters that also make jewelry with their mother. “This is my therapy.”
It was also therapeutic for Mya, 12, who has overcome her first-grade problems of bad eye-hand coordination. Madeux bought a “klutz book” and began making beaded frogs with Mya, which led to making more animals, and then necklaces, bracelets, earrings and even beaded lanyards.
“We love it. We also make some for our teachers,” said Mya. Madeux added that’s why she can’t keep her children out of her stuff.
The family is from Merritt Island, Fla. and came to the Farmers’ Market in Hemming Plaza for the first time last Friday. Madeux brought two of her five daughters with her who helped make some of the jewelry. Monet, 10, made the first sale of the day with her pair of earrings.
“Yeah, I made my first five bucks,” said Monet, excitedly.
Madeux said the money her daughters make in jewelry sales will go toward school clothes and supplies, and tickets to a Shakira concert.
In between working as a jeweler and mother, Madeux and her husband, Mark, also run a vending company where they travel to businesses and stock the vending machines. Madeux has made sales mostly by word of mouth but said she hopes to eventually sell A Beaded Peace jewelry in boutiques. She said she definitely will come back to the Farmers’ Market, hopefully before school starts.