Meet Your Maker: Janice Lichtenwaldt, Beaded Jewelry Maker
There's a particular kind of quiet that settles in when you're choosing beads. You pick one up, hold it against another, put it back, try a third. It's tactile and slow and completely absorbing, and somewhere along the way, you stop thinking about whatever you walked in worrying about.
That's what Janice Lichtenwaldt wants to share at Mischief & Makers Camp this August.
A Coach Who Works With Her Hands
By day, Janice is a leadership coach based in the Seattle area, helping people navigate the messy, human parts of their work lives. But the thing about spending your days in conversation is that sometimes you need to spend your evenings doing the opposite. Something quiet. Something you can hold. Something where the reward is a finished object and not a breakthrough.
For Janice, that something is jewelry. She's been making beaded pieces for years, and her craft keeps growing in new directions. She's a trained silversmith working toward her diploma. She studies lapidary, shaping cabochons from raw stone. And she's just beginning to learn gemstone cutting, the kind of slow, precise work that teaches you patience whether you wanted the lesson or not.
Metalwork and stonework are where her deepest craft sits, but for camp, she wanted to bring something that doesn't require a torch or a saw. Something anyone could learn in an afternoon and keep doing at their kitchen table for years.
Memory wire beaded bracelets fit the bill.
The Workshop: Intentional Memory Wire Bracelets
Memory wire is exactly what it sounds like: a stiff, coiled wire that holds its shape and wraps comfortably around your wrist without needing a clasp. It's forgiving, it's beautiful, and it lets you build something that looks far more intricate than the technique actually is.
But this workshop goes beyond technique. It's about making a bracelet with intention.
Before you pick up a single bead, Janice will guide you through a short practice to help you name what you want the piece to hold. Maybe it's protection. Maybe it's a dream you're working toward. Maybe it's a reminder of a quality you want to grow in yourself, or a wish for someone you love. Whatever it is, you'll choose your stones, colors, and charms with that intention in mind so the finished bracelet becomes a kind of wearable talisman. Something you can glance at on an ordinary Tuesday and remember what you're doing here.
You'll work with a spread of stone beads, glass beads, crystals, and charms. Janice walks you through the basics of working with memory wire, finishing the ends, and thinking about color and texture as you go. Then she lets you loose on the table.
Stack soft neutrals for grounding. Go full celestial with pearls and stars. Lean into protection with evil eye and black stones, or build a chakra stack to carry with you. There's no right answer. Just what calls to you.
You'll leave with finished bracelets you'll actually wear, and the know-how to keep making them as intentional objects for yourself and the people in your life.
No experience needed. Just a willingness to slow down and let the piece mean something.
Why This One's Special
Beading rewards exactly the kind of attention camp is designed for. It's meditative without being boring. It's creative without being high-stakes. And there's something about sitting at a table with other people, all of you choosing stones and quietly thinking about what you want for yourselves, that turns a craft project into something a little bigger.
Janice is bringing the side of herself that lives outside her coaching work, but still believes that making things with your hands can change how you show up in your life.
Follow Janice's work on Instagram at @forhaxajewelry and at forhaxajewelry.com.
Save Your Spot
Mischief & Makers Camp runs August 7 through 9 on Vashon Island. Janice's Intentional Memory Wire Bracelet workshop is one of several hands-on sessions over the weekend, alongside chef-prepared meals and a long weekend of the kind of making that actually feels like rest.