This is a tough one! I think I naturally progressed onto making jewellery from when I was making my cake toppers; I had a lot of polymer clay lying around and thought I could do something else with it.
This was my first attempt about 7 years ago, don't laugh, I thought I was cool *snort*
I made some pretty ugly things to be honest as I was teaching myself and didn't really have a clue. Eventually I decided I wanted to work with metal so I started using metal clay. I remember when I did my first bit of soldering, it was soldering some posts onto my little paint palette earrings and then sheet metal was the next step.
I still make jewellery because I like to experiment, I like to be able to cut out intricate designs with my saw and see how far I can push myself. I love getting the feedback when a customer likes my work and this spurs me on to think of more designs. I still have a lot left to learn and rings are my next challenge, I must conquer them! :)
I am not sure if this has really answered the question properly but I didn't think I have a specific answer, I do it because I love the materials and challenges and putting a smile on somebodies face.
Other members of the EtsyMetal team have answered this question too: