Outlet for my Silverwork and artwork
I enjoy using Sterling Silver to make all kinds of objects from jewelry to spoons - I must be one of the few owners of cheap $2.00 reading glasses repaired with Sterling silver rivets....
I taught Art during in my career as a teacher and later was a school Principal in Chile, Uruguay, Botswana, The Bahamas, Lebanon, Colombia the USA and the UK. Now fully retired and living in retirees' Paradise - 'The Villages', Florida.
Etsy helps me to earn some funds to replenish my silver stock so that I can take on more creative challenges in silver. Also it encourages me to search out some of the more 'exotic' and unusual crystals, minerals fossils and rocks with which to work. Some believe that these Crystals and Minerals have certain powers that can affect a person's mood or even their health. Some I have incorporated for those reasons.
I have been silversmithing since the early 80's and have made some pieces of which I am very proud and others which were rather more mundane and now in my jar for recasting! The Lapidary side I started teaching in San Francisco, California in 1967 - at The Boys' Clubs of America on Page St.(in the midst of Haight-Ashbury district - for you old Hippies).
Etsy has been kind to me with steady sales and excellent feedback - Etsy is the only outlet for my work apart from local word-of-mouth, and of course family !
I consider myself a hobbyist not a professional but I try to be original in my settings and creative with each stone, fossil, shell or mineral crystal. I never cease to marvel at the beautiful objects one can find in Nature.