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Cancer Inspires Works Of Art

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By ELAINE MARKOWITZ, Tribune correspondent

Published: December 31, 2007

RIVERVIEW - Life has become a swirl of color and glass for Melissa Carter of Riverview.

The artistically inclined grandmother has designed whimsical wineglasses and colorful bead bracelets with a message. The bracelets are fashioned from 16 shades of glass, each representing a different kind of cancer.

Carter's wineglasses have added a note of lightness to her life, the bracelets a reminder of hope.

The vibrant wrist ornaments are near and dear to the hearts of Carter and her husband of 39 years, Jeff, who is suffering from brain cancer. Jeff was diagnosed in June 2004, only a few months after the couple had moved from their home in Kansas City, Mo., to Riverview.

"This type of cancer won't travel to any other part of the body," Melissa Carter said recently in her sunlit kitchen, "but it is the worst kind of cancer because it sends little feelers throughout the brain and can pop up anywhere in the brain."

The couple began wearing Lance Armstrong's yellow cancer awareness bracelets shortly after Jeff Carter's diagnosis, but later learned that yellow or gold usually signifies childhood cancer. Melissa Carter wanted more forms of the disease represented on her bracelets. Five members of her husband's family have been diagnosed with different types of cancer.

Breast cancer claimed Jeff Carter's mother, Melissa Carter said, and lung cancer his father. With family as an incentive, she created bracelets with colors representing different types of cancer, including ovarian, breast, lung, brain and colon.

She crafts the sparkling bands by alternating sterling silver beads with brightly colored crystal ones. Bracelets have easy-to-open clasps and are made for small or medium wrists.

Carter has taken her bracelets public. The bracelets sell for $38 each, plus $3 for shipping if the customer shops online.

"I don't make a lot of money," she said. "I spend more on materials than I often make."

Even so, Carter donates a portion of her proceeds to the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa.

Sales started slowly.

"I sold the first ones at a church retreat," she said.

A breast cancer survivor from Punta Gorda saw the bracelet on a Riverview friend, loved it and bought others for friends and family. Now Carter has regular clients in Punta Gorda and exhibits her wares at the annual arts and crafts show there.

Other shows have proved lucrative as well. Carter showcases her bracelets and wineglasses at the annual seafood and tomato festivals in Ruskin, the Apollo Beach Manatee Arts Festival and other nearby crafts shows.

She also has a Web site and relies on word of mouth as advertising.

To lighten the challenges facing the Carters as Jeff continues weekly infusion treatments at the cancer center, Melissa works on her series of wineglasses. She has dubbed her paired sets "Lively Ladies" and "Groovy Guys."

The long-stemmed glasses first featured only spunky, colorful female forms, whose legs are painted down the stem and whose feet land whimsically on the base of the glass. Confetti colors are scattered about the bowl of each glass. Carter later added male counterparts, many depicting cartoon faces and large ears. The casually clad men also have legs tapering down the glass stem and sandaled feet resting on the base.

The eye-catching glasses, she said, sell well at art shows.

"If I can only use one medium for a show I take the glassware," Carter said, "since the area has so many jewelry makers."

The bracelets most often attract those needing a boost as they or their loved ones battle cancer, but the concept and the novelty of the colorful baubles inspire others to don them as well.

Jeff Carter said he appreciates his wife's artistic effort but also counts on the help of others to keep his spirits up.

"Friends, relatives and church all help," he said. "It's the kind of thing that when people hear about it they give you a hug."

For information, call Melissa Carter at (813) 672-6637. Her two Web sites, www.jnmgulf coastdogsupply.com and www.jnmgulfcoastcoffeeco .net, also contain bracelet information.

This story appeared in one or more of The Tampa Tribune's semiweekly community papers. To read more community stories, go to community.tbo.com.

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