Gypsy Jewels grew
naturally from my career as a fibre artist (Knotty Bits)
in the Queen
Charlotte Islands, a beautiful and isolated string of islands 90 miles out
in the ocean, off the coast of British Columbia. From the northern tip of Graham
Island, on a clear day you can see the Alaska Panhandle.
Far from being frigid, though, the islands are known as the Hawaii of the North, due to the Japanese Gulf Stream, a warm ocean current which keeps the weather so mild that snow comes for Christmas and is replaced in late January by the daffodils.
I worked with many of the natural materials at hand, gathered from the beaches and the rain forest. I created wall hangings, weavings and furniture, incorporating jute fibre, driftwood, rocks, shells, jawbones of sea lions, whale bones, deer antler, raw wool and my favourite, the thick glass floats which drifted in from the fishing nets of Japanese trawlers.
I so loved the beautiful stained-glass look of the hangings I built using the glass balls, that I began to use glass beads as well, for the wonderful variety of colours available. Making jewelry seemed a natural progression. Very soon I was making hemp and bead jewelry, working with wire and learning metalsmithing techniques.
The island life is long behind me, though I still visit my two sisters there, to recharge my creative energy and comb the wild and windy beaches for unique 'components' for my jewelry. I now live in Winnipeg's North End, in the oldest and most unique part of the city, surrounded by friends and family and happily playing with colours in my workshop.