BECKLEY, W.Va. (AP) - Kayla Cantley is not afraid to stand out in a crowd.
Good thing, too, as the bright blue hair and tattoos might make blending a bit difficult.
But just as her personality comes across in her style - she counts Gwen Stefani as an idol - it also comes out in her talent.
Cantley is the woman - and busy hands - behind KaylaJuku Jewelry. Each morning as she sends her two young boys off to school, Cantley busies herself creating bracelets, rings, necklaces, coins, earrings or whatever she happens to dream up that day.
She's only been at it for a few years, but she's accomplished each of her goals - a piece of KaylaJuku Jewelry is in all 50 states, is sold in three locations and has even been seen on national TV.
Although those seem like pretty lofty goals, she didn't set them right away. In fact, the only thing she set out to do was make herself a bracelet.
"I started right after my grandma passed away," Cantley said. "I was going through a little bit of a rough time and then right after that my kids went to school so I was lost and I just needed something to do. I can't have an idle mind."
Or idle hands, apparently.
So Cantley, who had never made jewelry of any kind, went to a local hobby store, picked out tools and beads and decided to make herself a simple strand bracelet.
"It was just something to do, but my friends said, 'Oh, that's cute, make me one,'" Cantley recalled. "And their friends would say, 'Oh, that's cute, where'd you get that?' and it just kind of snowballed from there."
As the demand for the beaded bracelets increased, the boredom with making the same beaded bracelets set in and the ideas for other jewelry took hold.
No longer making just bracelets, Cantley began evolving into the other forms of jewelry she now makes today. But even the styles change and although she still incorporates beading into her work, you will often find words of encouragement, song titles or quotes from movies - Disney movies are her favorites - stamped on her work.
"I would hear song lyrics I like and I would just be like that would be really cool on a bracelet or people would ask me if I could do something with their certain quotes or their kids' names or their dad's name on it," she said.
Cantley said she stamps the letters on metal, does the beading and picks out the charms. The stamping process can be time-consuming - much more so in the beginning - and dangerous as she said she busted her fingers on more than one occasion.
"I have individual little metal letters and I have to hammer each one individually," she said. "It takes a lot of time but I've gotten really efficient with it. I've had a lot of bruised hands, a lot of black thumbs, but I've gotten quick."
The most recent additions to the KaylaJuku collection are etched copper cuffs, which she debuted at the Appalachian Arts & Crafts Fair in August.
Cantley uses both freehand and stencils to draw designs on the copper bracelets, washes them in acid to bring out the natural color, hand paints the designs, uses sand paper to bring out the finishings and "make the copper pop" and applies a seal to prevent the copper from turning.
"The etched bracelets really take a lot of time," she said. "It took me months to get them where I was happy with them to start selling them, but I'm proud of them and they're the most favorite thing I've done so far."
Cantley takes special order requests from her KaylaJuku Jewelry Facebook page, but her work can also be purchased in a tattoo shop in Maryland, locally in Tickety Boo Mercantile on Neville Street in Beckley and in downtown Lewisburg, Pretty White Trash carries its own special collection of her items.
One of her necklaces was worn on MTV, by Leah Messer, the Kanawha County resident who appeared on the network's hit show "Teen Mom."
"I thought I was a big deal," Cantley said, laughingly, adding she wasn't able to watch the show herself as it aired just after Suddenlink dropped MTV from its lineup. "[Messer's] stylist sent me pictures of her wearing it so that tickled me."
But perhaps her biggest accomplishment with KaylaJuku was when she was asked to sponsor the Miss West Virginia Pageant. Cantley said she was contacted by the pageant's curators and asked to provide a gift to each of the contestants.
"I gave a pair of earrings to all the girls and the reigning Miss America was there so I sent a Miss America stamped bracelet for her," she said.
The gift made an impression on the eventual winner as when it was her turn to head to the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, she reached out to Cantley and asked her if she would again send a gift for each contestant.
"I sent crown coins," Cantley said. "I was really tickled with them. I checked off all 50 states on my bucket list that day."
Cantley is keeping busy as she heads into the holiday season. She said she spends about 20-25 hours a week working on her KaylaJuku Jewelry - the name, by the way, is a nod to Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Girls - but dedicates the weekends to spending time with Hunter, 11, Talon 9, and her husband Roger.
She is, however, taking orders for Christmas through Dec. 1, and will be on hand at Tickety Boo's Holiday Open House Saturday, Dec. 5, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. where she will do monogramming.
"I know a lot of people don't want to wait for orders at Christmas time so I'll have all of the stamping with me to do personalization right in the shop," she said. "I'm excited about it. I think it will be a lot of fun."
Although family life and KaylaJuku keep her busy, Cantley said she has no plans to slow down.
"It's a sort of therapy honestly," she said. "I've tried to take a break from it. I worked all summer on the arts and crafts fair stuff and after it was over, I said, 'OK, I need a break.' I made it a week. I said I was going to take a month off and I made it a week.
"I was feeling antsy," she continued. "It's an addiction and I just really enjoy it."