Jennifer Tough — beadFX's Founder and President

As the uber-busy mom of two pre-schooler girls — and the owner and heart of beadFX — Jen's time in her own studio is short. Umm - make that practically non-existent! When she does get in some time to create, she likes to make items just for fun, to experiment with new techniques, and to just play with new ideas.

In the late 90s, Jen started beadFX by selling on eBay while working as a Sysadmin (computer geek) for a securities firm. Around the same time, she also discovered lampwork beads. She got her hands on Cindy Jenkins "Making Glass Beads," and was completely enthralled. She ordered a torch online and went at it! She claims her first beads were pathetic - but she didn't care - she was hooked! Six months later, after a class with Lezlie Winemaker, everything started to click, and her beads actually looked like beads. She knew she'd finally found an art form that she was truly passionate about.

beadFX soon out-grew the second bedroom setup and Jen moved it into new facilty - with room for multiple torches. The beadFX Lampwork Studio and Bead Store was born! Selling and making beads, teaching and renting torch time, building a web site to sell beads all around the world, beadFX continued to grow and expand! Jen continued exploring and creating and obsessing over beads. beadFX has come a long way from selling a few beads on eBay! She now leads a team of bead-addicted, -obsessed, and -obsessive folks living in much larger quarters than the cozy, early days.

She currently sells the occasional handmade bead, metal clay creations and one of a kind jewellery. These are listed separately from the beadFX regular inventory as they are one-of-a-kind items, but they can be shipped free with your beadFX order! (Just let her know when you order them that you have a beadFX order in as well, and the two orders will be combined.)