Fridays After 5 Featuring Judy Beebe

SDA’s member spotlight Fridays After 5 showcases the varied creative, fun, adventurous, or interesting achievements our members accomplish after business hours.

This week’s Fridays After 5 features Judy Beebe, FSDA.  Judy is an administrator at the Seattle, Washington office of WSP and president of the Seattle chapter of SDA. She’s also a jewelry designer!

Judy’s workplace can actually be credited for her passion. At the firm’s 2016 Secret Santa exchange, she received a bead board and a few beads. Back home, she relied on YouTube videos for instruction. “The first piece I made was a necklace,” she explains, “I had to watch YouTube videos to learn how to finish the ends of the necklace.”

After mastering those early techniques, Judy continues to learn new skills and ways of fabricating her designs. More recently, she’s focused on improving her wire-wrap stones proficiency.

Judy initially crafted  from the dining room table. Today she uses a home office / desk setup she added. When she’s ready to create, pushes aside her electronics and begins crafting from her work-from-home desk.

Judy finds jewelry design a great way to unwind. In Judy’s words, “It's very relaxing to sit by myself and play with beads and pendants, seeing what design I can come up with.” After getting any necessary errands and housework done, she tries to spend some time crafting on Saturdays or Sundays. While her schedule may not always allow the time,  Judy expresses, “If I can squeeze in a couple of hours either day, I'm happy dancing!”

Her favorite medium of the moment is polymer clay and gemstones. Once she discovered polymer clay, she really found “claying” incredibly calming. So, she admits, “I’ve been making a lot of clay jewelry!” Her favorite online store for gemstones is Magpie Gemstones. 

Color plays a large role in her design inspiration. Judy reveals, “When I'm buying gemstones, I tend to go by color first. I love the deep jewel-tone colors - blue, purple, red, black. Same thing with polymer clay - I'll pick colors I like and start messing around with them. I do a little happy dance when I realize that what I made in clay, will pair nicely with the stash of gemstones I have.”

Lately, she also started drilling rocks that she then tumbles, polishes and turns into pendants. For this new skill, Judy gives an enthusiastic “Shout-out to SDA Seattle chapter 2020 board for giving me a gift certificate that I used to buy a bench drill press (another tool I can use), so I can drill the rocks I've been polishing!”

In her hubby’s eyes, “He would prefer if I could recoup some or all of the money I've invested in supplies by selling all of the pieces I am making.” But, for Judy, sharing her creations brings her tremendous satisfaction. She points out that “giving my items away, especially to people who don't know they're getting it - it just shows up in their mail.” She’s not naming names, but there are a number of SDA members who have benefitted!  She also likes to donate jewelry to causes she supports including women’s shelters and even SDA’s PPC (Past national President Council).

People who have purchased some of her designs did so through word of mouth or from inquiries by fans of her Pinterest board.

For anyone who wants to try jewelry making, Judy suggests, “start with inexpensive items first (e.g., hobby store beads) to see if you enjoy doing it, and if you're reasonably good at it. Then invest in better quality beads and findings, and tools.”

 SDA’s member spotlight After 5 Fridays showcases the varied creative, fun, adventurous, or interesting achievements our members accomplish after business hours.

The February 5, 2021 feature highlights SDA National Secretary Anne McNeely.  Many know Anne as an associate and project administration manager at Fentress Architects in Denver, Colorado.

But there’s another side to Anne. She is also a published romance novelist. Anne has always been a voracious ready and storyteller. In 1998, she discovered an online writers' forum and began the habit of regularly writing.  It wasn't easy at the start, but over time her confidence and writing skills improved and she found she loved the process.  "At the end of the day, I like to write as a way to decompress.  I like escaping into my own head to forget the day-to-day brouhaha."

Her book, Meaningful Omissions, was published in 2017, holds a 5-star rating on Amazon and dozens of positive reviews. Full disclosure: it's has a high "steamy" factor and may be considered #NSFW or not sharable with your mother-in-law.  You can find it online as an e-book and POD paperback at BookBaby, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and more.

We asked Anne a series of questions about how she got started, her process and what keeps her writing. Being a writer, her answers are a great read. So, with no further ado, Anne’s answers in her own words:

Who doesn’t love a good romance? 

For as long as I can remember, I have always thought of myself as a storyteller.  I never imagined myself as a writer, let alone a published author.  Being able to come up with a good story and being able to tell it in published form are two very different things.  Writing was a craft I did not possess naturally, and I had to learn how to write before I could ever dream of getting something published. 

Like many, I have always been a ferocious reader.  I was bit by the writing bug in ‘98 after I found a writing forum online.  Members were encouraged to post their own stories, poems, etc. for the community to read, critique and comment.  So, I gave it a shot and the critiques I received cemented my belief that I was in fact, a fantastic storyteller—just a not-so-fantastic writer.  It was a true learning experience and in the time that followed, I learned how to write, admittedly through a lot of starts and stops, waiting for the right inspiration. 

Meaningful Omissions came to life after a 1-minute news story about Deborah Jeane Palfrey.  It was the moment my character Emily Clairbourne was born.  I knew from the very beginning that when the book was finished, it would be something special.   It was marvelous fun to write! 

At the end of the day, I like to write as a way to decompress.  I like escaping into my own head to forget the day-to-day brouhaha.  I love human nature and I love plot development based on a ‘what if’ scenario.  I love multi-faceted characters and understanding their motivations. 

Getting the story out of my head is the goal and in order to achieve that, it has to follow its own path.  Romance is a byproduct of how the characters develop as the story is told.  I am not afraid to go there or take readers along for the ride.  It is fun to embrace a little bit of naughty.  Who doesn’t love a good romance?  I certainly do! 

Meaningful Omissions is a fun, coming of age story, that is full of surprises with a plot that is unexpectedly unique.  You can find it online as an e-book and POD paperback at BookBaby, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and more.

It’s the beginning of a new year and no doubt you've made a few resolutions for 2021. What are resolutions anyway? Simply stated - they are goals. Goal setting is easy. While we have all made personal resolutions, what about in our careers? Achieving those workplace goals can be frustrating for some people, as they have trouble identifying and working toward milestones. 

SDA National Education Services Committee member Diane Klug, CDFA, has written a terrific article that discusses goal setting as well as steps to achieving those goals. Download the entire article here.

Diane Klug, CFDA is the Director of Facilities Administration, Central US at WSP USA.

She currently serves as a member of the SDA National Education Services Committee.