Mutual Admiration Society

I know a blog is supposed to be all about the author, or the site, or whatever. But sometimes, you just want to give a shout out to artists whose work you personally admire. I've had the honor of meeting a number of truly brilliant talents, and a few have become my dear friends, & even collaborators.

Today, I'll focus on a person who is both a masterful artist AND a dear friend – as well as a member of my art gang (What? You didn't know I was in a gang?) – the one and only Julie Jernigan, of Jules' Jewels.

A few years ago, at one of our art gang weekends, I made a striped lenticular object. It wasn't a bead, since it didn't have a hole, but Jules took one look at it and claimed it for her own. It rode around in her toolbox for a few years, until a few weeks ago. In amongst the items for the NVBS bead sale was a green and gold mokume gane bead. Again, Jules took one look and knew immediately what it would be when it grew up. A little time spent matching the crystals for the cluster (who knew that the "gold" was really so orange?), some sterling chain, a hole drilled in the lens-now-bead, a few golden rutilated quartz pieces and chrome diopside briolettes later, et voilà!

Would you like a cosmo with that lariat?

To learn more about Jules' work, check out our Links page.