About Gifts of Gaia

"I could make that..."  Those very words are what started me on the path to creating my own jewelry.  It began simply enough - with beaded necklaces, bracelets, and earrings using ready made findings and the most basic of tools from the local craft store.  I found I really enjoyed it so I picked up a few books, bought some more tools, and gradually began bezel setting stones and making my own findings.   Much to my surprise, I found I was good at it and that I could create something of beauty from so may disparate parts.  Once I began, I couldn't get enough, and spent hours every day with my new love, dedicating myself as a new devotee of the craft.  I studied cold forming, casting, and filigree.  Bought more tools, more books.  Friends began asking me to make them jewelry.  Strangers would ask about pieces I wore.  And so Gifts of Gaia was born.  I am continuously learning and growing as an artist and am always eager to pick up some new tool or technique.  As in life, there are exciting successes and depressing failures, but at the end of the day the best kind of happy is saying to myself "I made that".

Gaia was the Greek goddess associated with earth and considered to be the great mother of all.  Precious metals, crystals, and gemstones are her gifts to us and it was important to me to recognize and honor those gifts both for their beauty and their energy, which they give freely to anyone that seeks them out.  The Gifts of Gaia logo image is a stylized representation of “Bird Lady”, an Egyptian goddess statue c. 3500-3400 BCE, and other ancient goddess imagery often associated with Gaia and earth mother traditions.  The color purple was chosen to symbolize our connection as earthly beings to spirit and the spiritual realm.  The unbroken circle formed by the arms reminds us of the never-ending cycle of creation, life, and death and the importance of celebrating each in their turn.