AS SEEN ON TV - Excerpt from the book "Multiple Streams of Income" - The Preston Reuther Jewelry Making Story

From the Funny House to the Money House: The Preston Reuther Story

The year was 1990 and Preston Reuther's manic depression had finally got the best of him. He lost his job, his family, and everything he owned. Financially and emotionally devastated, he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. His future looked bleak. Here is his story in his own words.

There I was in a mental institution with not much of a future to look forward to. Believe me, there is not much demand in the workforce for someone with mental illness. While in the hospital, I was asked to attend occupational therapy, which consisted of ceramics, art, and jewelry making. I went to the class but refused to do anything. As the hour passed, I began to get a little bored and started making jewelry from some kind of plastic. To my surprise, I found myself enjoying it. It was fun and relaxing, and I really got a kick out of all the crazy designs I could come up with.

As the days turned into weeks, I wanted to go further in the jewelry making process. I bought tools - a torch and a jeweler's saw-and jumped in with both feet. I was going to be a silversmith or maybe even a goldsmith.

"Oh, yea," I said to myself, "This is it. I've finally found my niche. Something I can do from my home with my illness and make a living - my own home jewelry business just using some cheap jewelry supplies and small hand tools!"

The very next day I accidentally stuck the jeweler's saw in one side of my hand and out the other. I'm not exaggerating here-it was pretty ugly! Next, my shirt caught on fire from the torch (I forgot that it was turned on-I have short-term memory loss), and while trying to put out the flames, I threw the burning shirt outside, where it landed under the gas tank of my truck and almost blew it up! At that point, I realized I had no skill in using specialized jeweler's tools, torches, and other sophisticated equipment.

It was one of the lowest times in my life. Realizing I needed some training by real jewelers, I sent a resume to 54 regional jewelry stores and offered to work a 40 hour week for free. I would sweep, clean toilets anything if they would just show me how to use the tools. Not a single shop responded. I know what it means to be down. It seemed that I would spend the rest of my life in mental institutions. Maybe they thought I was really crazy. No one would hire me for anything--even without pay!

A few days later I got a two-day pass from the hospital and went to the French Quarter in New Orleans, where I was introduced to a simple way of making jewelry from wire. I watched a street vendor in the flea market making little rings from silver wire. I noticed that he used only a few pairs of pliers to make his jewelry. No torch. No saw. No expensive machinery.

I also noticed he had about 10 people waiting in line with money in hand. I said to myself, "I can do this!"

I then bought every book and video I could get my hands on and started to practice, practice, practice. I went back to the psychiatric unit and started making jewelry from brass and copper wire. Actually, my new designs were not too bad. One day a nurse came to me and said, "How much do you want for that pair of earrings you just made?"

I  said, "Gee, I don't know. How about $5?"

She bought the earrings and wore them to the cafeteria. Ten minutes later another nurse came in and bought a pendant. Then another nurse and another. By the end of the day, every nurse in that hospital was wearing a pair of my handcrafted earrings or a little wire pendant! I made over $200 right from my hospital bed by charging only $5 and $7 each!

It was then that I decided this is what I wanted to do when I got out of the hospital. Nothing was going to stop me. I was tired of the big-business life and all the stress that came with it. I was fed up with 9 to 5, coats and ties, and bosses from hell! I just wanted my own little home business with enough money coming in to pay the bills and feed my family. This began to be my dream.

But I soon found out it wasn't going to be that easy! No one was going to teach me anything about making wire jewelry, and that was that! I began to look for information about this unusual art form that few people knew anything about.

Twenty years ago, there were not that many wire artists around, and only a handful of people were actually making any money at it. I bought every book and video I could get my hands on and even studied the blacksmiths who made beautiful wrought iron in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

With this information, I started my career in handcrafted jewelry. Every weekend I set up my little card table at flea markets and festivals-anywhere I could create and sell my jewelry. Many times I did not even have the money ($14) to get a booth, so I waited until it was over at 6 P.M. and set up from 6 to 10 P.M. just to make a few dollars for food and next week's booth money.

I was really struggling to make it, but I loved what I was doing for the first time in my life and wouldn't give up. I probably worked every flea market and festival within a 100-mile radius of New Orleans. I pulled the backseat out of my old Datsun and put all my jewelry, tools, and displays in there. Then I bought a steel rack and bolted it to the roof of my car to carry my handmade table, made from a piece of plywood and four aluminum fence posts so it could fold up.

But I never missed a weekend. Not one. My small jewelry business began to grow and the money kept getting better. I learned lots of tricks on the road: what to sell, how to sell, how to display, how to negotiate, when to discount, and never to have a bad show!

But I really wanted something a little more interesting than the typical wire wrapping techniques that have been around for 100 years. I wanted to create some really great high-fashion gemstone jewelry using just my hands and a few small tools. What I wanted to do was sculpture the way Michelangelo did--only with wire!

It took time, and believe me, I was no Michelangelo, but I was improving continually. Slowly, I started to develop my own particular style of wire sculpture. It was rough at first, but as I worked all the little fairs and festivals around the state my designs kept getting better. I wasn't using a torch and still don't to this day!

After about two and a half years, over 100 flea markets and festivals, and a large spare room full of bent and twisted wire, my jewelry began to take on a totally different look. I called this new look my gold-wire-sculpting-system. It was mostly formed by hand - I use very few tools in my method, and because of this each piece comes out differently.

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