Before glass beads and jewelry, wire jewelry took up most of my time. I was living in near Sabino Canyon in Tucson, Arizona at the time and I just couldn't find any jewelry I liked. A friend suggested that I walk downtown at the end of January to look around at the gem shows in town - if you don't know already - Tucson Arizona hosts the worlds largest gem and mineral shows in the world during the end of January. Of course, at the time, I didn't know that and was surprised to find out what all the traffic jams had been about. I bought a few beads and stones. I picked up a copy of Handmade Jewelry: Simple Steps to Creating Wearable Art by Carol Grape and made two sets of earrings. Hooked, I found myself a week later at one of the local bead shops signing up for a wire class. I took every class they had - I loved it!
I still love wire - you'll see it throughout my jewelry designs, in my stitch markers and in the bracelet above. I use primarily sterling silver as it has the best temperament for jewelry design.
What's your favorite material to create with?
