Sherry Watkins has always known she was put on this earth to make things. She says she is never truly happy unless she is busy making things with her hands. Bill and Nancy Hawkins, her creative and resourceful parents, always supported and encouraged their children’s creativity. Together they taught, Sherry, Steve and Wendy, to use their imaginations. Nancy, a Girl Scout leader throughout Sherry’s school years, inspired Sherry and many young girls’ creativity, resourcefulness and independence through the scouting programs—from basic life skills to setting goals and how to make them a reality. Sherry’s father, Bill, a master craftsman, machinist and boat builder, drafted each child into apprenticeship building the many projects around the house, including a 28’ skipjack and a 40’ ocean-going sailboat. Reminiscing, Sherry says, “We never did anything small around the Hawkins house, and we always did it as a family.” 

Through the Years 
Sherry has constantly nurtured her creative skills studying commercial art, ceramics, calligraphy, watercolors and flower arranging in college. Eight-years in the US Air Force brought Sherry the love of her life, Jim, and their beautiful daughter, Kryssie; together they lived and traveled around the world with Jim’s 30-year Air Force career. 

In 1985, while in Texas,  Sherry started her first art venture with Needles and Pens, a combination of calligraphy and quilted pieces. The business continued to flourish during their assignment in Cairo, Egypt, filling a much needed void in the English stationery and gift market. She also worked at the American Embassy in Cairo as the newsletter editor and taught calligraphy and quilting classes at the expatriate community center. Traveling through Egypt and Europe she studied the ancient art of illumination at fascinating places like the library at St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai desert and the British Museum.