My journey with jewelry started when I was young. I can remember making friendship bracelets, wire bracelets from wire that I got from my dad’s work truck (he worked for a telephone company), and seed bead necklaces. I did not make too much jewelry as an adult, until I found myself laid off from my job. I now see this as a blessing in disguise – I would not have been able to get back into it like I have now! I started out beading, like many people do. I loved beading, but I wanted to learn more, so I took Metals classes at the community college in our town. Through the classes and lots of trial and error, I am able to make the pieces I am today! While I still love to add beads to accent certain pieces, I mostly enamel and make pieces using metalsmithing techniques.
I like to focus on color. In the majority of my pieces, I always start with trying to figure out how to best accent the color of each piece, whether it is a piece of sea glass, a pretty stone, or an enamel color. Lately I have been combining enamel with sea glass and stones. I love contrasting the stones with enamel!
All of my metal jewelry is hand sawn, hand stamped, and hand finished – I do not use pre-made blanks on any of my pieces.
