About Barbara Kay Jewelry
My journey to this place started when I was a child. As most children do, I loved creating and crafting, something my mom encouraged. She was a weaver (and is now teaching my daughter her craft), but as a child and teenager I was more interested in smaller detailed crafts such as beading, wire-wrapping, embroidery and pen and ink drawing. As I got older, though I loved art and even took a few art classes in college, my real passion moved to writing and literature. I decided to follow in my dad’s footsteps and became a High School English teacher. I married and over the following years raised three daughters. Being a mom and teacher pretty much put a stop to my artistic life.
Something that never left me during this time was a love of rocks. This love is something I've passed on to my daughters and now grandchildren. Even as a child I had rocks everywhere: in my pockets, on my window sills, collected in boxes. I still do! There is such mystery in every stone, secrets waiting to be found. I think this is what drew me back to making jewelry when I realized I had to create with my hands again. I began with beading and wire-wrapping, mainly using semi-precious stones and beads.
Then I took a basic metal-smithing class and was totally hooked. I am now passionate about the process of metal-smithing, and about using my designs to unlock those secret stories that stones - and metals - have within.
My jewelry is created individually by hand. I start with sheet metal and wire - and most often cabochons (shaped and polished stones). The designs often start with the stones, but are sometimes ideas that come from my time in nature. I use basic jeweler's tools to saw, file, sand, solder and finish each piece of jewelry.
I have also discovered a way to connect my love for writing with my love for creating jewelry. Please visit my blog to enjoy short stories, possibly a poem or two, and a mixture of more traditional blog posts as well. The stories will all be inspired by or feature a piece of jewelry that I have created and that may be for sale in my shop. Or subscribe to my newsletter, where you'll get monthly information about my new jewelry, featured stones and a look into how I create.
As a final note, I am so fortunate to be living in the middle of nature, with wetlands, a pond and trees around me. You can see a bit of that in the picture below. They all provide me with so much inspiration as I design and create my jewelry.
I hope you enjoy browsing my shop, my gallery and my blog. I'd love to hear from you with any comments and feedback.
