we just opened up the collaborative exhibit
that I suggested called ‘Brought to You by
the Letter Q’ that features over 40 pieces of
artwork, each with a hidden ‘Q’ in it. I am
very proud of collaborative efforts and look
forward to doing more!
What inspires your creativity and style?
Color is a huge influence for me! I have
been described as a
‘color addict’ and I
have taken that passion to a monthly
color palette challenge on the Halcraft
blog (www.halcraft.
com/blog) as well as
my highly anticipated
Challenge of Color
blog hop each November. 2014 marks
the fifth anniversary
of that blog hop! I will
have to do it up big
this time!
My sense of design
has evolved over the years. I started out
with just simple patterned necklace but
quickly got bored with that so I started
pulling together looks that included found
objects, repurposed materials and even
hardware store finds. That is where the
name ‘Tesori Trovati’ developed, as a way to
name my line of found object jewelry. But
the name soon became synonymous with
everything I made, so it sort of stuck! I like
to say that each piece I make is a treasure
creativebeadchat.com
waiting to be found by the right wearer and
it makes me so happy when people tell me
that what I created feels like it was made
just for them.
I am hugely influenced by nature, architecture, music, world cultures and poetry. The
poetry and my childhood crush on Mary
Engelbreit and her whimsical illustrations
paired with heart-felt quotes inspired my
Simple Truths line.
What do you regard as
the most rewarding/
frustrating/ aspect of
your work?
Creating something
from nothing is a huge
rush for me. However,
there has to be a back
story to every piece
that I make. I have to be
inspired by something.
Sure, I can crank out
pretty jewelry made
with pretty beads, but
if it doesn’t tell a story
then it is not infused
with life and is therefore rather hollow to
me. Fortunately, there is no shortage of
inspiration!
The most frustrating aspect is that there
is no shortage of inspiration! I only have a
very limited number of hours in each day to
create – I usually say that this is my 9-midnight foolishness – so I have to be choosy. I
have so many ideas and would love to work
more with metal (every single class I ever
take is devoted to metal work in some way),