"I could make that..." Those very words are what started me on the path to creating my own jewelry. It began simply enough - with beaded necklaces, bracelets, and earrings using ready made findings and the most basic of tools from the local craft store. I found I really enjoyed it so I picked up a few books, bought some more tools, and gradually began bezel setting stones and making all my own findings. Much to my own surprise I found I was good at it. I couldn't get enough and spent hours every day with my new love. I studied cold forming, casting, and filigree. Bought more tools, more books. Friends began asking me to make them jewelry, even strangers would ask after a piece they had seen me wearing. And so Gifts of Gaia was born. I am continuously learning and growing as an artist and am always eager to pick up some new tool or technique. As in life, there are exciting successes and depressing failures but at the end of the day the best kind of happy is saying to myself "I made that".

A note about the Gifts of Gaia name and logo... Gaia was the Greek goddess of Earth and considered to be the great mother of all. Precious metals, crystals and gemstones are her gifts to us and it was important to me to recognize and honor those gifts. The Gifts of Gaia logo is a stylized representation of “Bird Lady”, an Egyptian goddess statue c. 3500-3400 BCE and other ancient goddess imagery. The color purple was used to symbolize spirit and the crown chakra and green the earth and the heart chakra - the two colors together symbolizing the union of the heart and mind.