She is a very creative person and she loves to work with her hands as a balance to the office work she does for a living. The last 15 years she has regularly attended silver smith classes and she finds it fascinating to work with silver, gold and stones and to turn these materials into individual pieces of jewelry.

Iris Heyer is one of the winners of People's Bead 2013 and designed This too... for the Traditional Sayings Collection.

"I really can't take credit for 'designing' my People's Bead entry "This too shall pass" as according to the legend it has been designed already thousands of years ago: A powerful king asked his wise men to find him a ring that made him happy when he was sad and sad when he was happy. After searching far and wide the wise men presented him with a simple ring that was inscribed with the words "This too shall pass".

I see life as a continuous flow, good times alternating with difficult ones. I always loved this saying as it gives me strength to pull through hard times, but it also makes me cherish happy times with friends, family, in a wonderful landscape or in peace on my own even more.

I'm well aware that happiness passes too and that I can't make it stay forever. I was pondering for quite a long time on how this saying should be represented in a Trollbead, but after all I stuck to the traditional shape of a ring, only scaled down to the size of a bead. I hope wearing and looking at it will provide you with much peace and strength."

IRIS HEYER DESIGNS