Creating jewelry has been a means of self-expression for me since I started at the age of thirteen. At sixteen I received a wire working book for my birthday and I have been wire working ever since. I continued my jewelry making education by receiving a B.F.A. from Bowling Green State University and studying advanced jewelry design abroad in Florence, Italy. I have been taught all the traditional jewelry making techniques and made many pieces over the years, but I have always loved working with wire. 

I have found anodized aluminum to be a new exciting medium to create jewelry out of. Anodizing is a surface-treatment of aluminum that colors the metal. I acquire my aluminum wire from a wide variety of companies in order to get the rainbow of colors I have available; these companies anodize the wire by placing the aluminum in electrically charged chemical baths. The color is the metal and the shiny finish of anodized aluminum is aluminum oxide, which will not tarnish or change. Aluminum is light weight, hypo allergenic and brighter than sterling silver.

All the pieces of jewelry I create are my original design and handmade by me, using the skills and techniques I have developed over these 13 years of wire working. I prefer to make the wire flow and look natural, rather than kinked and manipulated looking. My designs are elegant and convey a lot of energy with many spirals, squiggles, colors, and long gentle bends. The only tools I use, other than my hands, are flush-cutters, needle nose pliers, wooden mandrels, hammers and an anvil. At every show I make items specialized to customer’s size or color preference, which puts my skills out on display and really conveys to the patrons that everything in my booth is original and handmade by me.