How I got my start

I spent 3 years of my childhood living in Oklahoma next door to a retired jeweler, George, who spent his afternoons out in his studio.  He was a collector of rocks and stones and he would use them to decorate their flower beds and gardens in their backyard.  I loved looking at them when I was a kid. One memory that still sticks with me is George always carried jawbreakers in his pockets and would tend to rattle the wrappers.  It was torture to kids who were not to be asking him for one to eat. 

Because we lived away from our family, he and his wife were our surrogant grandparents.  Three years later we moved back to Iowa and little did we know at the time we would never get to see George again.  I took the call at home that day several years later when a former worker of my dad's called from Oklahoma to tell us that George had passed away.  My parents went down to Oklahoma for his funeral and came home with two boxes of his tools.  These two boxes sat for over 20 years collecting dust and rust.  My curiosity and desire to learn his art has brought these tools back to life.  I know he is proud his little "Jeca" following in his footsteps.  I love that I have a story of how I got into silversmithing!