My story started early, my parents brought me to this awesome museum called Lizzadro's Museum of Lapidary Art and my love of rocks began. I think I was about 4 or 5 at the time. Then every time my dad would take me fishing I would collect rocks on the shore of whatever pond we were at and when we got home I would clean them off and fill my 25 gallon bucket with more of my precious finds. Imaginatively after that I taught myself how to bead.
From then on I have been hooked on making jewelry!
I remember in grade school I would make earrings and friendship bracelets and sell them to other girls on the bus ride to and from school! When my parents found out about my miniature entrepreneurship my dad bought me a package of sterling silver earring wires and told me only to make earrings with these hooks instead so no one's ears would get infected.
Later in my high school we had jewelry classes in our art electives. Metal smithing...HUZZAH! Oh the possibilities were now endless to me of what I could create. So I continued down that path all the way through my college years and to beyond. I have a great silver smithing studio space that I work out of in my home.
I am deeply inspired by everything around me. Plants, flowers fabric prints and textures. The sky, the way that tree has a crooked limb at just the wrong angle. I look at my surroundings and my mind is always creating some piece of wearable art. I never draw out my designs. It was difficult in school for me that way, we would have to come up with our concepts and draw them out for part of the homework for the teacher. I never needed to draw mine out. I could always visualize my design in my mind's eye and then create it. I always felt that drawing it was such a longer than needed process that by the time I would complete the drawing that I no longer wanted to create the piece of jewelry.
I am clearly a girl that was born with glitter in her veins! My taste is very eclectic and sometimes a little off the wall but in the spirit of the Cheshire Cat "We're all mad here" makes me feel right at home when working on a new project.
I love creating unique one of a kind pieces, and nothing brings me more joy than when I can share my passion and my art with others.
So come on in, have a glass of wine, linger a while and enjoy all of the beauty that I created for you. Feel free to convo me at anytime you have your own creative idea about a piece of jewelry that you may not have the skills to create on your own and we can have a wonderful adventure together!
~Many blessings forever and always
Julie