Artist Statement
Jewelry
A few years ago, I took an old clarinet into a repair shop and was told that it was not worth overhauling. Having been a jeweler my entire life, I thought, “Mmm, beautiful dense black wood already machined into a tube, the circle is the perfect shape, and everything looks good in black,” and Clarinet Jewelry was born. At the time I was still running Grimball Jewelers in Chapel Hill, NC. After thirty-three years we closed it and I am having fun getting back to my roots of designing and creating pieces using recycled grenadilla wood from no longer playable clarinets.
When I first started making jewelry in college my roommate and I had three tools and two techniques we used to make simple wire pieces, but I found that I was able to access my creativity within that very limited 'box'. Now, I love creating in the 'box' of only making pieces with wood from recycled clarinets and love that the wood that once made beautiful music is now making art. If a piece sings to you, I hope you’ll enjoy wearing it as much as I did creating it.