Meet the Artist
A native of Athens Georgia, I was submersed in a youthful artsy society that truly inspired my work. It's such a wonderful town with an interesting mix of old and new. As a child, I remember going ruby mining in the fall every year with my family in the Carolinas. The beautiful colors and variations in the rocks I found always fascinated me. Growing more and more fascinated with the gems I found as the years passed. I could stare at a rock intensely for hours memorizing every detail of its rough surface and imaging how it would look polished or what I could make it into. As I grew up, I found it hard to walk past an old creek bed or gravel road without searching the ground for little treasures. Upon a visit to a relatives house one year, I found a new, but related interest - BEADS! She had been making beautiful beaded lanyards for eye glasses and selling them locally. She was so inspirational. She gave me some of her bead magazines to look at and even filled out some of the mail-ins for the magazines to come to my address. In the magazines I was most fascinated with all the gemstone beads that were available. I was amazed at the natural beauty a polished drilled rock could have. Having an eye for design and a desire to make beautiful pieces of art that I could wear I could not go wrong. And that's where Sparkle by Jen got its roots. I later refined my visual interests in the beautiful stones with a gemology course at the University. It filled me with the majority of the gemstone knowledge that I have today. I now reside along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and I am eager to share my art with you. I truly treasure every piece of jewelry I make and sometimes find it hard to give them up, but I can only hope you will enjoy wearing them as much as I enjoy making them.
