Creating simple things is sometimes the most enjoyable

I went to school so that I could create custom jewelry for individuals. I started out in jewelry as a beader. I love pattern and color and texture. I love the satisfaction of completing a piece where I have chosen or created each component. A piece that displays my esthetic. I love the reaction that my creations give an appreciative audience when they receive or give something I have created.

The schools that trained me as a designer, gemologist and silver smith thought I would work in traditional jewelry, you know, diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, gold and platinum. I did that for a while and I won awards for that work. I still do that work for myself and others, it is a part of what I do.

 I knew I wanted something different than that. I found myself coming back to the artisan work of stringing, wirework, kumihimo, chainmail. These are the skills that individuals who have artist's sensibilities use when they eliminate much of the technology in their creations. It is what I do when I watch tv, sit on an airplane, talk on the phone. It is the use of my hands and mind to create art that is mine.

What I get to create for myself and others is the piece that is missing from the artist's vision and that is the best thing I get to do. It is that clasp, cone, pendant, ring, charm, tag that fulfills and finishes the design.