• About Me

    My obsession with the art of creating chainmaille jewelry began on a whim.  Always crafty and trying to spend time with my young daughter (about 4 at the time), one day I went to pick up a big box of plastic beads and accessories for me and my little girl to play with.  Those plastic beads sparked her creative senses and she decided that she might as well learn the “REAL THING” and the adventure began.  Of course, in those beginning days of jewelry design, I started accumulating beading magazines to learn and to experiment and often saw chainmaille projects.  I passed those by and figured chainmaille would not be the thing I wanted to try until one day…………… I tried.  I bought some ring kits and started with my cheap pliers.  My first project was a small celtic star and I made a key chain.  The key chain, years later and somewhat abused, is still on my key ring and I still enjoy making those little (and the big ones) celtic stars.

    Fast forward several years and my daughter still loves to be creative and often helps me in colour selection and I still love my pliers and the thousands and thousands of little rings I have kicking around the house.  Although I have a room devoted to my craft and with some time and effort, it could become a great studio, you will most likely find me creating my jewelry creations sitting at our kitchen table surrounded by my family.  Our kitchen/dining room is host to a book case that is there only to hold the many storage containers of rings that I need to access on a daily basis.  Rarely a day passes by where I don’t pick up my pair of pliers.  I have moved on from those beginner pliers from way back when.  My favourite brand of pliers now are my Xurons.

    I enjoy learning new weaves and trying out things with the tried and true standard chainmaille weaves.  I never get bored of creating yet another chain of Byzantine, one of my favourite weaves.  I don’t specialize in one metal.  I like to try them all as I enjoy the variety and I also like to offer my customers the alternatives of different price points.  Colour plays a big part in my life and I really enjoy incorporating colour into my work.

    I started my Etsy on-line shop back in late 2006 and I built it up slowly, one listing at a time.  Through my visibility on Etsy, early in 2008, I was contacted by the editors of Belle Armoire Jewelry magazine and I had the great pleasure of working with them on a great article on incorporating colour into chainmaille jewelry.

    In the spring of 2010, I had the pleasure of being a first time instructor at the Fraser Valley Bead show and I hope to be able to teach some classes at future shows.

    Check out my events calendar to see where I will be selling locally.  I have a big year planned and I always have my pliers and rings with me to demonstrate how chainmaille jewelry is made.

    In my non-chainmaille life, I am a wife and a Mom to two great kids.  They are highly spirited and energetic wonderful little angels (most of the time).  My daughter, almost 9, is the aspiring artist with lofty career goals of becoming and author/illustrator and has devoted her spare time, outside of school, to the world of dance.  My son, currently 4, is a bundle of energy.

    I went to school in the least art inspired field you could probably imagine and I ended up with a Bachelor of Commerce from UBC and Master’s of Business Administration from the University of Calgary.  My 9-5 job is all about numbers, each day, every day.

    Last but not least, when I don’t have pliers in my hands, am not playing with my kids or playing “Mom Taxi” or at the office, I sit in front of my spinning wheel creating beautiful works of fibery art or you can find me with my knitting needles.  My hands are never idle!!!