My "Second Career" !

Designing and creating jewelry is Naked Jewelry's “second career”. She loves to design with techniques that create organic textures and finds it a privilege to use the precious metals and stones of the earth to create personal adornments that bring people happiness. Her Etsy shop offers many beautiful pieces http://www.nakedjewelry.etsy.com/ .

Designing and creating jewelry is my “second career”. For 26 years, I co-owned a video production company (www.onthescene.com) headquartered in Los Angeles. I loved the company and the employees who called it home, but my partner and I did not want to grow old “propped up at our desks” as we used to say and so in 2006 we sold the company to investors and I was able to pursue my growing passion for jewelry making.I took my first beading class in 2006 and was hooked!

After about six months, I realized that I wanted to have a design range that required metalsmithing skills so for the past two years, I have been taking a variety of classes along with book learning and plain old experimentation. I find that I gravitate to techniques that create organic textures. I love to use my rolling mill to imprint grasses, bark and leaves into silver. I figure you just can’t improve upon Mother Nature so why not use it, along with natural gemstones, to create beautiful jewelry!My bucolic studio is perched atop a hill in our backyard. From there I watch squirrels, hummingbirds and spiders go about their business. I can hear the next door neighbor's baby burble and coo. And, as I pass by our vegetable garden, I am able to watch the plants grow almost imperceptibly day by day.I did not imagine even five years ago that I would be making jewelry. Life has a way of taking some unexpected twists and turns. I was never interested in science or chemistry, yet as a jeweler, I am now fascinated by the characteristics of stones and the use of heat to manipulate precious metals. After nearly three decades working in a service industry under tight deadlines, spinning pie plates and huge pressure, I love the peace and solitude of creating a piece of wearable art that is all my own, entirely with my own hands; relying only upon myself to conceive, design, execute and sell. For me, it is a privilege to use the precious metals and stones of the earth to create personal adornments that bring people happiness.