My love, mi artista

You have spoken and I have heard. Enough about me, time to see what Gloria has been up to. 

Her artistic talent goes way back. In school she had done paintings that we now have displayed in the apartment. Her sewing skills supported her for many years as she could gather ideas from a magazine or store display allowing her to create unique designs for many friends and prospective buyers. She also decorated and painted her house very creatively to keep it looking very nice.

So after we met and then when she met my kids she loved what they did with the beautiful stones and wire wrapping to display them so well. She got some supplies and advice from them and started her new journey. Now in our apartment she has a room dedicated to sewing and jewelry, in full disclosure I did claim a corner for a faceting machine which I will discuss later. We customized it with a sewing cabinet I made and some shelves. But she has all her supplies and tools well organized and loves to create. She has sold items in the USA and here in Colombia and has increased her personal collection substantially. 

She has a Facebook page called "The Beautiful Treasures of Colombia" where she displays many of the things she makes. In the beginning she started with rough emeralds from Colombia. We went to Bogota and found a seller who has kept her in supply. Colombian emeralds are well respected around the world for being of the highest quality. Of course with the beauty of so many other stones that nature provides she has now worked with so many others as well. So please check out her page but I will post a number of examples of her work here:

This is a stitching exercise she did as a kid 

Sanding down a rock to rough shape for a cabachon

The necklace we found in Mexico but she made the lapis pendant

One of her latest from titanium quartz

A couple years ago on a dig with the kids in Iowa, she used the quartz pieces in many projects

The ring she had but added an emerald

Childhood paintings

With material bought in Mexico she made a warm sarape for those occasional cool Wisconsin nights 

Her display in her project room

Emerald projects

This is what she was sanding, some lapis sent up from her friend in Chili

One more painting from her youth