This week I interviewed Connie Rodibaugh of CR Wearables Sea Glass Jewelry. Connie has been an outstanding market member for many years now and it was wonderful to spend some time learning about her business.

When I asked her when she began making jewelry she said, “I have three daughters so I always made jewelry.” At that time she lived on Mount Rainier. Thirty years ago when one of her daughters was just 10 years old, they made 140 pairs of porcupine quill earrings for the national park gift store. Living that rural, there were not many outlets for selling jewelry so Connie made her living as a seamstress.

Connie began her career as a jeweler at the Port Angeles Farmers Market, creating beaded jewelry. She had a friend who was a sea glass artist and the two of them would go and comb the beaches for sea glass together. This was about 11 years ago. Connie started to get hooked on the treasure hunt but her interests were the sea metal. Sea metal, like sea glass, is worn by the sea and all sorts of scraps turn up on the beach.

She tells me she loved working with the metal pieces and it is still her signature specialty. The friend who did sea glass with her at the market moved on to a new career and left the market. It was then that Connie began working more with sea glass and she started at the Sequim Farmers Market, about nine years ago.

When she began at the market, she says, “It was so hard to talk to people,” and as time went on she realized she had to. She learned from a business seminar that in order to make sales you have to talk all day long and she says she has tested the theory. “If I talk all day, my sales are better.”

More recently she has started creating some spectacular ornate beaded necklaces, though her sea glass is most prominent. She hand-wraps all of her sea glass and has a lovely delicate style of wrapping. “That’s what it takes,” she said, referring to the hand work she does.

She mournfully tells me that it is getting harder and harder to find sea glass on the beaches. When you look at the variety in her display you will be amazed at all the colors she has found. She says, “People collect their sea glass and keep it in jars, they don’t want to part with it.” She also expresses that if anyone would like to lighten their load of sea glass, she would love to accept it at the market.

Regarding the market, she says, “I am thankful for a place to sell my product so I can make more.” She also shares that she loves the Sequim market because there are so many wonderful artists here.

Connie served as a board member and on various committees for many years. More recently she has donated all the sewing of our flags, including the fabulous purple ones we flew for Lavender Weekend. We are very thankful to Connie for her generosity toward the market.

Come and visit CR Wearables for truly unique and beautiful pieces of sea glass jewelry.

Dungeness Health and Wellness will be at the market on Sept. 27 and the music booth booth will host Bailey Bryan.

See you at the market!

Sequim Farmers Market

Sept. 27

Open Saturdays 9 a.m.-3 p.m. through October

Downtown Sequim, corner of

Sequim Avenue, Washington Street

Contacts: www.sequimmarket.com;  manager@sequimmarket.com; 460-2668