Featured Artist Tuesday!

Hello Everyone and Good Morning!

I bet I don't even have to tell you what today is....

Yep!

Sharon Harris of Gypsy Jewels!!

I've been  a confirmed "Jewelry Junkie" for seven or eight years,  but I made my first necklace as a young child when my Grandma gave me wooden spools, buttons and string for play.  

Long after I had forgotten about those early creations in favor of pursuing education and career,  I  was walking down the hall  at work and a co-worker came from the opposite direction.  Immediately, I spied her gorgeous necklace of blue and green stones and I stopped her to ask where she had gotten it.  When she told me she made it herself, I had the thought, "I could do that."   It took me about 25 years more years to get around to "doing that" but it was worth the wait.  

Like many people, my Gypsy Jewels are most frequently  inspired by something I've seen in nature.  My goal is to come home from a vacation with a variety of natural "found" things in my pockets.  When I'm near the water, I can't resist picking up pebbles, wave washed glass, shells or fish bones.  If I'm visiting the mountains, it's rocks to tumble and flowers to press.  A walk on the prairie produces milk weed pods or Indian tobacco,  and in the woods, it's acorns and leaves. 

These natural treasures, hidden away in my jeans pockets, have clogged up my washing machine more than once after I arrived home.

Living in the land of 10,000 lakes (Minnesota) all of my life provides endless creative idea.   We all need to find out own  "special place" where we go for renewal and peace.    Mine is Lake Superior or "Gichigami" as it was named by the Ojibwe tribes.  This vast "inland sea"  has the largest surface of any fresh water lake in the world. 

It's many moods, unpredictable weather, rugged scenery and magnificent changing colors are all-consuming.  Over millions of years, this unpredictable  environment has produced the Lake Superior Agate,  one of the many natural stones I  use in my jewelry.

From the earth comes the great bounty of many gemstones for us to admire and treasure.    Finally, in retirement I have the gift of time, to create adornment for others that  express my  lifelong connection with the mystery  and enchantment of nature.  

You can find Sharon at:

www.rubylane.com/shops/gypsyjewels

What a wonderful story Sharon!