Gayle Schnell
Artful Expressions
Jewelry
Contact me:
About Gayle -
I began my jewelry journey after retirement, needing something to replace the sense of purpose that my nursing career gave me. I had dabbled in simple jewelry pieces, and thought that taking the deep dive would be a challenge, and boy, was it. I started with classes at the college, and from there it has led me to different parts of the world to learn from the experts. Most recently, I traveled to Viet Nam, Bali, and Thailand. I took classes in Bali, which were great, where they still use a foot pedal bellow to feed their torch. These artisans are truly talented as
they work with a few essential tools to create the most intricate jewelry. Thailand is a jewel itself. I visited the 51- story Jewelry Trade Center in Bangkok and dug in the pit mines of Chanthaburri for sapphires.
I keep it interesting by not repeating my jewelry pieces and learning new modalities. The modalities that I work in are traditional metalsmithing, electroforming, metal clay, and sandcasting. Learning new techniques keeps me challenged and happy.
This year, I'm taking on teaching metal clay and sandcasting at the college. So come and give it a try, it will be fun, I promise.
