Almost everything about the way that Palm Beach County artist Maddy Bloch approaches art is not traditional. To start, at just 17-years old she already enjoys the rewards that come with operating her very own jewelry design company. Well on her way to entrepreneurial success, this year she was tapped to attend an elite artist program on the western coast and not Florida’s – California’s. The talented young artist’s story of Blochs Beads Designs begins in her very own art studio – which she operates from under her bed?

“I have a small art studio underneath my bed which is a small loft,” she said. “I have a small desk that I sit at and just bead there.”

When larger projects demand space like exhibiting at a show, she moves to the kitchen table, Bloch added, “…where I can really lay things out and get patterns going.”

Preferring the medium of painting, and use of acrylics laced in glazes, her creations start with the inspiration she draws from hues. Her self-professed style she says, is what helps her to keep it entertaining. “I base everything off what I think might look good together,” she said. “I make it as I go, so that it is always a fun way to do things.”

Bloch’s recent interest in making bracelets is what she calls “her newest love.”  “They are hand-made and one-of-a-kind, made with beads I specially pick out from many different locations around the world.”

Managing her inventory of diverse jewelry and upward sales in spaces like the Cultural Council’s Roe Green Uniquely Palm Beach Store in Downtown Lake Worth, her etsy store, and social media sites is all a part of running the business that she adores and embraces. After all, she has been making jewelry since the 7^th grade.

“Personally I do not think I had a moment where I just realized I became an artist,” said Bloch. “I think I have always been an artist and a creator of my imagination as someone who puts ideas out in the world in a way other people can visually enjoy also.”

Recently Bloch, a student at the prestigious Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, was selected to attend a competitive semester program at the Oxbo School in Napa, California where she and just forty-four other students from cities all over the country, will study art full-time.

Bloch feels she has always been an artist. “Art comes naturally to me,” she said, now looking to the business side of the industry.

Her ongoing motivation to succeed as an entrepreneur is evident in the focus she set in motion years before when someone offered to buy a bracelet she was wearing given to her by a family member.

“I declined, but offered to go home and make her one,” Bloch said.

As soon as she did, she had more customers wanting to buy bracelets, she said, “and that was that.”

“If I can make my jewelry work and take off enough to the point where I can make a living off of it, I would definitely do that,” she said. “I want to make it work.

To learn more about Maddy Bloch and her works, visit her on Instagram @BlochsBeads, etsy.com/shop/Blochs.