Hey lovely!

I’m Cheyenne, the founder of The Wholeness Shop.

Let me take you back to 2021, when my life was in absolute chaos.

I was living in San Francisco, working full-time as a nanny, and struggling to keep my head above water. Years of rescuing animals and investigating factory farms had left me with deep, unprocessed trauma, though I didn’t fully understand it at the time. Then the pandemic hit, and suddenly, all the emotions I had buried came crashing down on me.

If that wasn’t enough, my mom fell seriously ill with a mysterious condition that kept her in and out of the hospital. Not knowing whether she would get better was terrifying. I felt like I was barely holding it together.

One afternoon, I sat with my mom as we sorted through jewelry my great-grandma had left us. I was just trying to distract myself, but then I spotted a pair of gorgeous fringe earrings. I assumed they must have come from one of my great-grandma’s trips home to New Mexico.

But then my mom said something that stopped me in my tracks: “I made those when I was pregnant with you.”

I couldn’t believe it—I’d never seen her beadwork before.

That discovery changed everything.

While she was recovering at home, my mom taught me my first stitch: brick stitch. We didn’t have fancy materials—just one needle, some mismatched beads, and candle wax to coat the thread. But in that moment, none of that mattered. It was simple and imperfect, but it was ours.

I was hooked.

Determined to create my own pair of earrings, I spent countless hours trying (and failing) to get it right. My first attempts were messy, frustrating, and full of mistakes. But then, finally, I made a pair of fringe earrings that I was truly proud of.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was healing.

Every evening spent stitching after work, every small victory, every completed piece—it all worked its way into my soul, soothing wounds I didn’t know how to name. Beading became my meditation. It became my sanctuary.

As I got better, I started helping others learn. That’s when I created my very first tutorial on YouTube. I thought a handful of people might watch it—but the response was incredible. Seeing others connect with beadwork, and even begin to heal through it, lit a fire in me.

Meanwhile, my mom was healing too, though the illness left her with significant vision loss. It’s a bittersweet thought, but I can’t help wondering: if I hadn’t found those earrings when I did, would she have been able to teach me?

That timing felt like fate.

Flash forward to now, and I am blessed beyond words to call this my full-time job. The Wholeness Shop has grown into so much more than I ever imagined. That very first YouTube tutorial? It’s now on the verge of reaching half a million views! I’ve been able to teach thousands of people how to bead through tutorials, courses, and resources, and I’ve connected with an incredible global community of bead artists.

But it doesn’t stop there. I’ve also launched The Wholeness Academy, an online school where I teach beadwork and provide the skills and empowerment to help others start their own successful beading businesses. It’s a space to learn, grow, and discover the joy and healing power of beadwork—and I couldn’t be more excited to share it with the world.

To me, beading is so much more than art.

It’s medicine. ❤︎