Best Beads

Happy Valley jewelry maker is self-taught, and gives a portion of her proceeds to charity

By Ellen Spitaleri

The Clackamas Review, Nov 14, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (3 Reader comments)

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When Lea McWhorter decided to start her own business, she did not sit down and think about how much money she could make.

Instead, she asked herself, “Who can I help?”

A friend had recently dealt with breast cancer, and McWhorter realized that “this can happen to somebody you know day to day – it hit home.”

So, she said, “I decided to make something and give back some of the proceeds.”

McWhorter, a Happy Valley resident, began making jewelry, and discovered she had a “gift” for it.

“I didn’t take classes; I am self-taught. I have [the ability to make jewelry], because I’m supposed to be using it. It makes people happy and feel good about themselves,” she said.

She chose to call her company Sophisticated Beads, she said, because she wanted to project an image of “elegance.”

Holiday Open House Nov. 17

Once underway with her jewelry making, she looked around for charities to support and found the Oregon and SW Washington Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure; Jessica’s Hope, a company affiliated with the Ovarian Cancer Federation; and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

She will have a trunk show at the Clackamas Monarch Hotel, featuring all her jewelry designs, including bracelets supporting cancer research, this Saturday, Nov. 17.

“I make a pink bracelet for the Susan Komen Foundation; a teal bracelet for ovarian cancer, green for leukemia and yellow for lymphoma,” McWhorter said, adding that each bracelet comes with a card saying that 10 percent of the proceeds goes back to the sponsoring organization.

People who buy the jewelry often want “to share their stories – it is a healing thing for them.”

Nairobi beads

In addition to the jewelry designed to support cancer research, McWhorter uses beads made by Nairobi tribal women. She said the company that produces the beads began with just two women, and has now grown to employing more than 300 women.

“They make the beads from the clay of the [nearby] mountain, and they form them by hand, hand paint them and fire them in a kiln in Kenya – no two are alike,” she noted.

“I started designing necklaces [made from the Kenyan stones}, and I’ve sold a lot of them. It is about helping others – the money from the sale of the beads goes back to the women in the factory, and allows them to take care of an extended family.”

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