Captured® Periwinkle & Goldenrod Boulder Opal Earrings

18k gold, Australian boulder opals

2 inch length

I make jewelry because creating something with my hands, from raw material to finished piece, gives me a kind of fulfillment I haven't found anywhere else. My studio days move between design table, bench, and soldering station—turning an idea in my head into something real.

Gemstones are my constant inspiration, and the more unconventional the shape, the better. A difficult form is a challenge, and eventually, a signature. My Captured® setting grew out of collecting seashells and beach stones along the Northern California coast and wanting to set them—pieces with no flat facets, no standard proportions. The result is a crossbar or ball-rivet setting I think of as the anti-setting: a way of holding a stone that doesn't ask it to conform. I'm drawn to the pieces that resist a traditional setting, because that's where the real design work happens.

Artist Bio:
Born and raised in St. Charles, Missouri, wanderlust moved me westward. I studied jewelry design and metalsmithing in college for three years at CSU Fort Collins, Colorado. Then in 2000 kept heading west until I landed in San Francisco, California, where I still live and work today.

In 2018 I restarted my jewelry business after years away from the bench working in a different field and raising my son. The last 8 years of making jewelry and running my business have been my happiest.