Welcome to my little Shop of Earrings!

I am a Freelance Harpist and Artist in Southcentral Alaska. I began playing the harp as a child and grew up in Alaska. As a Freelance musician, I play for many weddings and events and perform with local orchestras and ensembles all over Alaska. I also maintain a small teaching studio, with students of all ages on both Pedal and Celtic harp. I love teaching and freelancing, because I have lots of adventures, meet wonderful people, and every day is different,

I have been torn between music and art my entire life. I studied both in college (with a little Theater on the side) and have a Fine Arts degree. With age, I have found a way to combine all my artistic loves, and can usually be found playing my harp in the woods somewhere, adorned in beaded jewelry. I often tell my friends and students that I play the harp to support my beading habit.

Every pair of my earrings is an original design and made with the finest quality beads and unique materials. No two pair are alike. In my earrings, I use retired and recycled harp and guitar strings, recycled instrument parts, tiny found objects, wood, glass, clay beads, and natural materials from Alaska, such as stones, shells, porcupine quills, and antler bone. I also enjoy working with seed beads, using hand-stitched beading techniques. Every pair is unique, for I don't like making the same design twice.

About Harp Strings - Harp Strings are Expensive! By recycling them, I can give them a new life as "wearable music", and make a little extra money for my "spare string fund". I replace strings on my harps frequently, when they break, and change out all my strings every two years. Even broken harp strings are beautiful - they don't have the sound they used to, but they come in many different materials (nylon, gut, bronze and steel), and in many colors (red, blue, black, white, silver, and gold). The colors of harp strings represent the different notes in the scale - RED strings are Cs and BLUE and BLACK strings are Fs. Used steel strings are beautifully tarnished or have a patina on them, and gut strings, as a natural fiber, have tiny imperfections that make them really beautiful and unique. These "flaws" in the string, also represent to me the human contact of the harpist's fingers plucking the strings.
The "Harper's Knot" (also a "Fisherman's Knot" to Alaskans) - this is a Traditional knot used to secure the gut and nylon strings inside the harp's soundboard. As recycled strings, these knots have tightened over the years inside the harp's soundboard, as the harpist tunes and plucks the strings. Sometimes I like to keep the knots on the string ends in my earring designs, because they are great for securing beads and earlobe hooks.

About my Prices - The prices of my earrings are based on the value of the materials used and the time it took me to make them. For example, the more expensive pairs are the hand-stitched seed bead designs, and earrings that include materials such as Trade Beads, semi-precious stones and crystals, and sterling silver.

Note to Alaskans - I offer Free Shipping within AK. If you have an AK zip code, please enter the following coupon code at checkout, and I will ship your earrings for Free - coupon code: ILUVAK
If you live in the 'Anchorage Bowl' area and want to arrange for delivery or pick-up, please send me a message via my 'Contact' page.

Thank you for reading about me and visiting my shop, Broken String Earrings.
I hope you will enjoy my little creations.
And to all you Harpists out there...THUMBS UP!