I am still an active professional in this field, but now are able to devote more time to creating. I live in a small town on a small island in the Gulf of Mexico where a gentle sea breeze nourishes our spirit. I created Brezza Marina Designs (sea breeze in Italian) as a nod to my heritage and this beautiful place. As a little girl I loved to make things, all kinds of things. I never outgrew my lov
e for creating, although in the past it had to take a back seat to my professional career. In creating jewelry I work with different materials – e.g. glass, wood, wire, fiber, metal, glass, shells, whatever speaks to me. I especially like working with beads, combining them in interesting ways in unique designs. My love of beads is long standing, learned watching my beloved and gifted godmother Zi’Beta work her magic on a crochet beading frame. How I Create:
Designers go about their craft in different ways. I purchase or make beautiful components that strike my fancy and organize them in a way that I can locate them in my studio. For example, I fabricate a variety of Kumihimo braids with fiber and colors that interest me without knowing what will become of the braid. On a given day I might start out with one of those braids, beads, or a pendant that calls out to me as wanting attention. Some of these components can get very insistent! I love incorporating the work of other creators into my pieces; for example, the artisans from Soul of Somanya who make the Krobo beads I use in my African-inspired pieces. I then gather other materials of complementary colors, textures, shapes and composition. I let it all sit on my work table until I start forming an image in my mind of the general shape a piece might take. Sometimes components speak right up as to what they wish to become and sometimes they percolate for a few days. I don’t sketch anything on paper. I form visual images that evolve in an organic process of becoming the final product as I work. When I am in that creative zone, the sea breeze wafts through my studio and all the world’s craziness falls away. My Jewelry:
I am at the stage in my life that I only do what I LOVE and I do LOVE designing and making jewelry. I also love language (recall my profession in language/literacy) so I have combined these passions. Playing with words is great fun, so I have generated different collections for my necklace sets, centered around specific themes. I also name each set within the collections. The collection names are Italian but the set names are English – I didn’t want to get too crazy reflecting my heritage! When I design necklaces, I design earrings to go with them, because it is always a challenge to assemble the right combination of neck and ear fashion to go with an outfit. You don’t have to purchase both, but it’s a good deal if you do. The pieces I create are mostly those I would wear. I do on occasion design pieces for others with different tastes, but most of what you see here are pieces that I had a hard time releasing, because I know just the outfits I would wear them with or sometimes the outfits I would make to go with them. Every piece is one of a kind. So if you admire one of my necklaces that someone is wearing and you say, “I would like one just like that,” I will have to kindly say, “Unfortunately that is not possible, because that is the one and only.” An exception is that I will infrequently design a piece for a group, like the signature necklace for the Lonestar Belles, my daughter-in-law’s riding group, or the bridesmaids’ bracelets I made for my niece Sara’s wedding. I can't wait for you to join me on my journey of jewelry creation!
