Hi! We are Kathy and Jennifer Mears!

We're a mother and daughter from Vancouver, Washington. Many people assume we live in Vancouver B.C., but we don't! Instead, our Vancouver is located in the southern most part of Washington State across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon. We are "the other Vancouver" or often we just say Vancouver USA.

Jennifer and I have been making jewelry for many years. A few years ago it took a new direction when we discovered lampwork glass beads. I stumbled across a wonderful glass studio called "M&D Designs" in Chinook on the Washington Coast. They offered a class to learn how to make beads in a torch... and I was hooked. Jennifer loved learning to work in the torch also! Since then, we've taken many classes there from amazing bead artists who are invited to come and teach. It wasn't long before I got the complete lampwork station set up in my craft room in Vancouver.

It then follows naturally that we call ourselves "Beads on a Half Shell". We learned to make lampwork beads in Chinook... and we actually make the beads into jewelry at our beach house 45 minutes up the coast from the glass shop. We sit at the table and look out over the grasses and sand dunes at the magnificent ocean and have the most fun imaginable!