Suzy Louise, Storyteller

The art I create with metal and stone speaks to childhood memories of summer days and sunlight on moving water, and more recent experiences of gravel beaches and garden flowers. I texture the metal to create a tactile feel to the jewelry, and use stones that blaze with color from when they lived with minerals in the earth.

My jewelry making is part creating and part engineering. Where is the best place to put that ear post so the earring hangs right on the ear? How does the necklace bail work with the pendant design? And will the pendant hang correctly? Is the cuff bracelet comfortably shaped? All kinds of questions run through my head with each piece I design and make. I listen to the stones because they have a pretty good idea of what they want to be.

Whenever possible I use recycled silver, copper, brass, and gold metals. I cut flat back cabochon shapes from my collection of rough and slabbed stone, and I use cut stone and beads from folks in the lapidary trade. Much of my art jewelry is one of a kind, and I fall for each piece as it’s being created.

I make art because it completes me. Art challenges me and stuns me with beauty. It moves me into a different dimension away from my anxieties and into a comfort zone of creating.

In a previous life I was a farmer and a seed saver. Similar to the color and texture of the stones I both collect and cut, I’m smitten with the color and texture of seeds, and their potential for providing food and beauty. When not in my studio creating with my torch and jeweler’s saw, I’m out in my garden growing flowers for bouquets and contending with the omnipresent weed, including my favorite, thistle.