Before becoming a beadmaker, Rae earned her Masters degree in School Psychology from South West Texas State University. Rae worked as a school psychologist and administrator for fifteen years, later opening a private practice in family and marriage counseling. When she decided to close her private practice in order to open her lampworking studio full-time, she chose an enigmatic name for her business, Good Medicine Beads. "I was taking the decorations down from my office walls, and I noticed that I had cross-stitched a verse from Proverbs on one of them: 'A cheerful heart is good medicine.'" Since working with glass was to be the culmination of all her previous artistic endeavors, Rae chose the title as a good omen. And it seems to have worked. Rae's prior knowledge of alternative therapies has stood her in good stead, inspiring her to create her most successful design, the tiny bottles, complete with miniature corks, that are now her trademark.

Good Medicine Beads has become an old-fashioned family business. Rae's husband, Chas, a professor of Mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin, helps by building displays for her jewelry. Her son, Ryan, assists in teaching private classes in her studio, and also finds time to pursue a degree in molecular biology at Southwest Texas State. Daughter Nikki , her part-time indentured servant/slave does most of the selling at shows and all of the writing and typing. while her new husband, Dave Wilson, is the Web Master responsible for all you see here. Unfortunately, Naomi (daughter #3) decided to work on a Doctorate in Psychology rather than work in the Bead Shack for her mother, peyote-stitching the most intricate patterns in the dim light of a single bare bulb. Lari (daughter #1) and husband Brian have fulfilled their obligation to mankind by producing the world's most exquisite baby girl, Taryn. Son Noah recently escaped to California to help Netscape make sense of the Net, and took Rae's brand-new daughter-in-law, Aviva, with him. Even Grandma Mary Moses helps wrap up purchases at very busy art shows, and always is willing to provide valuable input and opinions on Rae's newest creations (e.g.: "I don't like those beads with boobs!" -- See goddess beads). Her dad Raymond's influence can still be seen in many of her designs, even (she thinks), the goddess beads.