My speciality is wire wrapping, but my love for jewelry-making started when my Mom taught me seed bead weaving when I was elementary school age. This medium taught me how to use dynamic color play and focus on extremely fine details. These skills translated well into designing with gemstones and metal. I treated the wire like thread, and was able to capture color and dimension in a way I never could before.

Much of my inspiration comes from nature. You’ll often see floral motifs in my work, or settings inspired by dragonfly wings, or colors reminiscent of autumn leafscapes. A lot of inspiration also comes from the gemstones I work with themselves. Their shapes or patterns or colors are often what I build off of in a design. I’ll sometimes lay out dozens of gems on my desk and see what’s calling out to me, and start a design from there.

With the prize money, I’d invest in gorgeous gemstones cut by people in the gemstone community I’ve looked up to for many years. Gemstones with fantasy cuts and reverse intaglio carvings, and rare, vibrant specimens that I’ve never been able to invest in before. I’d buy gold wire: yellow and white and rose. I’d love to make an extravagant piece with all three shades of gold. The thought sets my creative spirit alight!