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Gossamer Wings Bead Store

We offer a lot of Bridal Jewelry classes year round to teach people how to make their own jewelry perfectly coordinated to their dresses. We also specialize in making custom jewelry for brides, bridesmaids, flower girls and mothers of the bride and groom. The web site has photos of everything we do from necklaces and earrings to tiaras, barrettes, tikkas, headbands and veil alternatives. The website is www.LaCrosseBeads.com. We offer every color of pearls and Austrian crystals imaginable. So, no matter what shade of dress a bridesmaid has, we have beads to match. For internet orders, we send out free samples of beads so the bride can use her own judgment in deciding the best match for her dresses. We only do custom work, so everything is made to fit perfectly. There simply is no other way to get necklaces for bridesmaids that will be guaranteed to fit. When you have your jewelry custom made, you know that whether one girl is a size 6 and another is a 14, their necklaces will fall at the same place on their necklines. Necklaces, bracelets and earrings all start at $12. Flower girl sizes are priced a little lower. Turn around time is generally 14 days unless we have a last minute order.

Gossamer Wings jewelry can also be seen at Charlotte’s Bridal on Rose Street.

Frequent Buyer Program - For every $100 you spend, you get $5 off. We want our customers to know we appreciate their continued business.

Preferred Customer Night - was held in October. We had the "Gossamer Wings Stud Muffins" serving us champagne and hors d’oeuvres. These hunky guys were dressed in white tie and tails and made the ladies feel completely pampered. They greeted each customer at the door with a glass of champagne adorned with a wine charm for her to keep. On her way out, the customer was presented with a lavender long stemmed rose. We had a flutist play while people shopped. Most people stayed for 3 hours! Our one year anniversary party in November was similar to the Preferred Customer Night with the exception that one of our Stud Muffins played guitar while the ladies shopped. That night, instead of a rose, each lady was sent home with her very own stud muffin; a muffin with "Stud" written in lavender frosting!

Free Classes - Every bead store I’ve visited charges $20 to $25 for beginner classes such as basic bead stringing or earring construction. I prefer to offer most of my beginner classes for free. The only requirement is that the student buy all his or her beads in the store on the day of the class. We also offer free classes for kids on days when there’s no school, even on snow days. These classes typically teach kids how to do hemp macrame, make charm bracelets, use friendly plastic or make book marks. Children must be at least 8 years old. (Of course, parents of younger children are always welcome to sit down and do a project with their children.) The more advanced classes are held before or after store hours and allow for a lot of one-on-one attention. Most classes cost $20

Bead & Breakfast™ is held on Sunday mornings at 9:00. We offer a beading lesson, coffee and croissants and live guitar music. Bead & Breakfast classes always involve a choice of an advanced beading lesson or a beginner lesson.

Glass Bead Making - My new passion is making glass beads. I teach people how to use a torch to melt glass rods onto a steel rod and make a bead. It’s really fun.

Cheri grew up in La Crosse and graduated from Central in 1975. She graduated from UW Madison with a BS in Philosophy in 1979 and from San Francisco School of Law in 1984. She practiced law from 1984 to 1994, the last 5 years of which were in her own law practice in Sacramento, CA. She specialized in construction law and business law. She also had her own mediation and arbitration practice.

She eventually found her true calling in art and found she was much happier when she was creating things. She folded up her law practice in 1994 and moved to Hastings, MN where she worked as a law clerk. At that time, she took and passed the Wisconsin Bar. She also taught Business Law and related legal courses at the Minnesota School of Business in Bloomington.

Meanwhile, she found a painting studio in St. Paul and devoted her weekends entirely to painting. Waiting for water colors to dry, she played with pieces of beach glass she’d collected on the California beaches. She wrapped them with wire and turned them into earrings and pendants. Life eventually took her to a rural area of Southern Illinois where she began selling her creations at craft shows. In the mean time she taught English as a Second Language and Business Law at the University of Southern Illinois. (She spoke fluent French and Spanish and dabbled in German, Norwegian and Japanese which came in handy teaching immigrants conversational English.)

In 1996 her father, Robert Haug, fell ill with lung cancer and she moved back home to La Crosse. He died 5 days later.

By the time she moved back to La Crosse, her jewelry making business had become a full time obsession and occupation.

She made a living making and selling jewelry at craft shows over the next seven years. Eventually she grew weary of dealing with the weather and longed to be home in La Crosse more. She sold her crafting business to another crafter and opened Gossamer Wings Bead Store on November 1^st, 2002.

Quotes - Whenever people ask me how it’s going, I tell them, "It sure beats working for a living!" This business is so much fun. Every day I marvel at how lucky I am to have a roof over my head, clothes and food and a business that I’m totally in love with. Seeing television coverage of the wars in Afganistan and Iraq has helped me see the conditions in which people are forced to live. It makes me appreciate what I have all the more.

What does Gossamer Wings mean? "Gossamer" is an old English term that refers to things that are light, thin and filmy. It conjures up images of fairies, dragonflies and butterflies, things that are shimmery and lovely.