I’m about to celebrate 10 years of making jewelry. I first began at Penland School of Crafts learning the art of metalsmithing.

This is one of my first designs, an organic hand-formed bronze cuff with detailing wrist bone relief. I quickly realized this design isn’t one to bring into production, everyone’s wrist bone is uniquely shaped and placed.

My client calls this her “weddings ring” because the redesign I created repurposed the diamonds and metal from a couple of her wedding rings.

Here are a bit of the redesign details. I hand carved the sculptural design in wax and added details of tiny bead drops to give it an organic feel. After sending her old gold off to the refinery, I cast the new design in 14k peach gold. I featured the repurposed diamonds from her old wedding rings with a bead set style texture to compliment the bead drop design in the ring.

The result is pretty amazing and my client loves it! Makes me happy to have a happy client.

I’ll be selling my wares at the Rock & Shop Market in Durham on Saturday, December 17th. Check out the website for more information.  www.rockandshopmarket.com

Here’s a few new pieces that will be featured in the market . These items are all available on my shop as well.

BRONZE HORSE CAMEO NECKLACE- Hand-cast horse cameo pendant,  strung with matte black heishi beads and knotted with mustard silk.

BRONZE CLASP- Detail of hand-made bronze clasp.

MINI TRIANGLES NECKLACE- Textured triangles in blackened silver with tiny yellow gold jump ring details. One triangle hangs in the center of the chain and the other rests by the clavicle. Very sweet and sexy.

SHEEP NECKLACE- Tiny hand-cast sheep in blackened silver, strung with indigo seed beads. I made a mold of a model train set’s sheep, so he’s super tiny and the bright beads just make it pop.

MINI SQUARE POSTS- Textured square post earrings in blackened silver. Perfect for guys or gals.

ORIGAMI NECKLACE- Bronze hand-carved and cast origami pendant with blackened silver chain and bronze handmade clasp.

KNOTTED JASPER NECKLACE-  Hand-knotted Impression Jasper 6mm beads, knotted with teal silk and hand-cast braided bronze clasp.

So, I had a lovely surprise today in my studio. This is the amazing texture I happened upon at the bottom of a pyrex dish I use in my soldering station. I always mix a little baking soda with water to neutralize metal pieces I’ve torched and then pickled for cleanup. The water had evaporated and left the baking soda dried into this ethereal pattern.

I love it when I find beauty while working or really whenever. I’ve decided to use it as a background for an invitation to a trunk show I’m doing for the holiday season. It’s just perfect.

You deserve a bit of TLC. Recycle your old jewelry into a new design. Purrrfect!

Contentment. Now wasn’t that worth it?

Custom designed ring using repurposed diamonds and gold. Mandarin Garnet Circle Ring with recycled White Diamonds set in Peach Gold.

Here is a lovely testimonial from a very happy client.

“I am always having to take my wedding ring off because people who see it want to look closer at the intricate detail and craftsmanship. It makes me so proud to have others take notice of the beautiful piece of art that is my bec wedding ring!”

The gold, rubies and diamond are all from my client’s discarded fine jewelry in her family. She sent me a bunch of old jewelry to get some ideas and instructions to use the diamond. I loved the little rubies in an old broken ring and thought they should definitely be part of the design.This ring was a collaborative effort between the designer and client. It turned out to be a wonderful piece. All involved are very happy with the results.

I encourage my clients to bring their old fine jewelry to use as materials for a new custom design. It helps the environment and hefty cost of materials.

My latest custom design for a client using her emerald cut diamond and yellow gold from her old discarded jewelry. Beautiful emerald cut diamond nestled in a hand-carved low profile bezel oriented horizontally. The shape of the ring from above has a slight octagonal look with double bands in soft planes. I’ve been making a few of these cutout rings lately. I think this one turned out quite nicely. Soft, yet geometric to make it just a bit different.

I just recently made a bark texture style man’s wedding band for a client that found me on my website. He had such wonderful thoughtful things to say about my work, I had to share it. It tickles me pink, to make someone happy with something I’ve made.

“Last night I received the ring and it is beautiful! It is better than I thought. The color is not completely white or yellow but white with a hint of yellow which is very special. And I didn’t even think about the weight. The ring is not light, it has presence and I love it. Thank you very much for making it for me!”

Bark Band is part of the Manlier Collection in my shop.

Man’s wedding band with a texture inspired by glaciers. Shown in 14K White Gold, using repurposed gold from client. To find out more about this man’s ring along with others, check out the Manlier Collection in the shop.

In the background, horses at play. I love this photo of the one horse biting the other one.

In the foreground, a bas relief style horse head ring.

The horse head is from a white plastic whole horse that came with a bottle of whiskey. Someone gave it to me after they finished the bottle. I don’t know the brand of whiskey, nor did I have the satisfaction of enjoying the mystery whiskey. I did however, live behind the famous White Horse Tavern several years ago during my first stint in NYC. I’ve always adored horses. They are such beautiful and amazing creatures.

Ring shown in 14 karat yellow gold. Custom design for an equestrian client. All materials/metals used in the process were from the client’s old gold.