author of The Art of Jewelry: Plastic and Resin

On Shelves This Month!

Editor: Plastic jewelry seems so inventive and unusual! How were you introduced to plastic as a medium for making jewelry and what intrigues you about this material?

Debra: At Tyler School of Art, where I majored in jewelry design and metalsmithing, I was encouraged to experiment with many types of techniques and materials. I was originally drawn to working with acrylic because of its versatility: it’s light, durable, and capable of being shaped and formed. It also gives me the ability to use vivid colors that I can control. I find inspiration for making plastic jewelry everywhere: I love form, color and composition.

Editor: Tell us about authoring a book! What was the most enjoyable or surprising part of the process?

Debra: The book was a difficult undertaking because I am not a writer, so organizing my thoughts and putting them on paper was a challenge. The most enjoyable part of writing the book was opening my mind to other processes that I normally do not use in my current body of work. In order to write about something, I needed to actually do that process, and it really forced me to explore techniques that were out of my comfort zone. Doing this opened up the floodgates of my imagination!

Editor: Besides beautiful jewelry, you also design tableware! How did that come about and are these two categories more similar than they seem?

Debra: At Tyler I made more tableware than jewelry, even though I was in the jewelry program. I am a natural object maker, and tend to think of designs for objects that function. For years I only exhibited objects (tableware, Judaica, baby gifts, etc.) in my booth at shows, but was really encouraged by my customers to make jewelry.

Editor: What about the actual design process? It seems that shifting from wearables to utensils would be pretty challenging.

Debra: I go about designing my jewelry in much of the same way I do when designing an object: the materials help guide me in my design choices. I first decide some key elements, most importantly how the materials will be attached together. When using materials that need to be cold-joined like sterling silver and acrylic, determining how the pieces will be attached together is an important decision. I prefer to make all of my design elements such as rivets or bolts part of the aesthetic of the piece.