My First Collection

I'm so excited to have my first little line available just in time for the holidays at Angie Star Jewelry. Bold, fun and festive pieces inspired by nature and it's rich beautiful hues.

Sterling silver necklace with green onyx and Austrian crystals.

KH04 $68

Three tiered sterling silver hand formed leaf and pendants with Austrian crystal accents.

KH02 $168

Lightly hammered sterling silver earrings with wire wrapped green onyx and Austrian crystal.

KH08 $58

Lightly hammered sterling silver earrings with wire wrapped smokey topaz and Austrian crystal.

KH10 $42

Lightly hammered sterling silver earrings with wire wrapped smokey topaz and Austrian crystal.

KH09 $38

Lightly hammered sterling silver earrings with wire wrapped Chalcedony and Austrian crystal.

KH 11 $64

Lightly hammered sterling silver earrings with wire wrapped Chalcedony and Austrian crystal.

KH12 $68

Lightly hammered sterling silver pendant with wire wrapped Chalcedony and Austrian crystal.

KH03 $78

Sterling silver green onyx and quartz earrings.

KH07 $48

Sterling silver earrings with green onyx and Austrian crystal.

KH06 $46

Lightly hammered brass earrings with 14kt gold fill wire wrapped green onyx and 14kt gold fill ear wires.

KH05 $62

Hand cut brass leaf necklace with green onyx beads on 14kt gold filled chain.

KH01 $84

Outside of the shop

I finally got around to making some pieces of my own outside of the shop. My favorite color is green and I found some beautiful green onyx to start but then I found these great antiques brass sparrows and have been stocking up on all sorts of beautiful gems to go along with them.Chalcedony, tourmaline, aquamarine, citrine, peridot, rose quartz on sterling silver.

Garnet, aquamarine, citrine and smokey quartz on sterling silver.

Smokey quartz, aquamarine, citrine on sterling silver.

Green and black onyx on 14k gold fill chain.

Green onyx on 14k gold fill.

Under the guidance of Miranda, a very wonderful and talented designer at Angie Star, I worked on some original designs that helped me improve my cutting, wire wrapping and texturing skills while using sterling silver.

Personalized Pendants

I've been a busy little bee making many special orders for customers who just absolutely love personalizing these disk pendants. They come in sterling silver, copper and brass and are especially pretty with a wire wrapped stone to accompany the disk.

Turquoise, Coral, and Aquamarine

Matching silk cord necklace and bracelet with aquamarine and coral beads. Necklaces with turquoise, coral beads and a copper pendant.

Mistakes

My first weeks at Angie Star were full of many wonderful mistakes. The first thing they teach all of their apprentices is simple silk cord knotting. That basically means stringing beads onto silk cord and tying knots between them to hold them in place. Although it sounds easy, getting the knot to fit in just right next to the bead so it doesn't move is pretty tricky and there was definitely a learning curve.

It took me about 3 hours to make one necklace and by the time I finished my eyes were blurry, my hands shaky and I promptly proceeded to clip off the final piece, a metal component used to attach the clasp to. I stood their mouth open, eyes wide, as a look of horror flashed across my face. I thought all my hard work had been in vain due to one wrong snip of the pliers. Lindsey, my mentor, came to my rescue and eased my frayed nerves by explaining to me that jewelry is pretty forgiving. She then showed me how to bail, a wiring technique used to finish most pieces, and saved my necklace.

This was just the first of many mistakes I made. I clipped pieces, put things on in the wrong order, had to redo my bail's countless times but by the end of those first weeks had my knotting technique down, my eyes were adjusting to focusing in on the tiny components and my hands had stopped their pesky shaking.

The first two pieces I finished were a necklace with matching bracelet made out of pearls and aquamarine.

The Beginning

I have always loved unique and original jewelry and had always wanted to learn how to make my own pieces. I remember scouring through my mom's beautiful, old, wooden jewelry boxes looking for funky pieces to add to my, always well planned out, ensemble in high school. My favorite piece was a chunky silver necklace made out of a walnut shell and turquoise that my dad bought from an old native woman on a cross country trip many, many moons ago.

I moved to Boulder about a year ago and had seen a posting on Craigslist a couple of times for an apprenticeship with a wonderful jewelry boutique on Pearl Street. There were a several reasons why I never applied to the apprenticeship over that first year mostly revolving around work and time but last April the stars all seemed to align and I got the courage to bring in my resume.

The first time I set foot in Angie Star I knew I really wanted to be a part of this amazing community of talented woman artists. I was greeted warmly by Katherine and did my best to show my enthusiasm for getting the apprenticeship. However, I had very little hope of actually getting the position knowing there was always a huge response to these listings and after a month went by and I hadn't received word I thought I was out of the running.

Just when I had given up all hope I got an email from the lovely Miss Angie herself asking me to come in and meet with Lindsey, one of the store's designers. I started that same week.