Some of my earliest memories are of going through my mother's jewelry collection. I'd sit with her pieces spread out around me, carefully setting aside the ones I hoped would find their way to me someday. Even then, I understood that jewelry was different from everything else. It wasn't just something you wore — it was something you kept. A souvenir from a trip with your best friend, a birthday gift from your parents, a little token that carried the weight of a moment you never wanted to forget.

In my teen years, my relationship with jewelry changed completely. I developed severe eczema and contact dermatitis — a serious allergy to the metals found in most fashion jewelry. The pieces my friends could throw on without a second thought would leave my skin irritated and inflamed. There's a particular kind of frustration in loving something you can't fully have. A friend gifted me a friendship bracelet — one I still have to this day, completely untarnished — that for once didn't irritate my skin. That bracelet changed everything. I researched metals that were actually safe for sensitive skin and began making my own pieces: polymer clay jewelry to feather earrings in high school, and eventually demi-fine pieces that we still sell to this day.

Looking back to 2019, when Beads by Tara was just something I was doing from my kitchen table, it's hard to believe how far we've come. I was solving a problem I'd lived with my whole life — the frustration of loving jewelry and not being able to wear most of it. What started as a personal solution, grew into something I never quite planned but somehow always needed.

Watching BBT grow into a real community, and now into a home in San Francisco, is something I don't take lightly. The journey has been full of unexpected turns, but the heart of it has never changed. I believe jewelry should be accessible without feeling cheap. I believe sensitive skin shouldn't be a reason to miss out on something you love. And I believe that the pieces you wear every day — the ones you forget you have on, the ones that hold your memories — deserve to be made with real care.

None of this would be possible without you. Every time someone tells me they haven't taken their BBT off in months, or that they finally found jewelry their skin can actually handle, I remember exactly why I started. You trusted something that was barely a dream, and you helped make it real.

Thank you for that. Truly. Here's to many more years of making jewelry that means something: for every body, every skin type, every moment worth remembering.

With so much gratitude,
Tara