“I just love to play and experiment,” exclaimed jewelry designer and mixed media artist Joy Fiordalisi Fine. “And I also want to make art accessible to everyone. To not take it too seriously. Anyone can be an artist – it’s fun! If I can make someone feel something (pretty, confident, etc.) in return, that is an extra bonus.”
As her name suggests, Fine infuses this “joyful” spirit in her Joy Fiordalisi Fine jewelry designs. She uses natural and semi-precious stones, glass beads and silver links to create fashionable and affordable necklaces, bracelets and earrings. “My favorite pieces are the more minimal designs. I love working with river rocks. They feel very zen,” she shared. “And I have just started to get back into precious metal clay. It is fine silver powder mixed into a binding agent. You can make anything that you could with clay and after you fire it, the binder burns away and you are left with a higher grade silver than sterling.” I think there is such beauty in the simplicity, particularly when it comes to jewelry. Fine draws inspiration from everywhere. “I carry a sketchbook with me and will write things down that I find. I also surf Pinterest often for some new techniques.”
Fine opened up her Etsy shop in 2011, focusing primarily on handmade beaded jewelry. “I had been taking new jewelry making classes and living in a small town in Wyoming, but I didn’t have a lot of outlets to sell my work.” With diverse design interests, she dabbled in various art forms first before landing on jewelry. In fact, many of Fine’s mixed media and original photography prints are still available at online shops like Society6. “I always wanted to be an artist, but it took me a long time to find my ‘thing.’ I took every art class in high school and was terrible at all of them. I made beaded and hemp jewelry with a friend in my teens, but I never considered it an art,” Fine recalled. “Then after high school, I took a photography class at the community college and I was hooked. And since then, I have taken classes in so many things, like jewelry making, printmaking, and mixed media painting. I think that I finally let go of comparing my artwork to others and just played. If it made me happy, then it usually made others smile as well.”
Come smile and check out all of the “fine” jewelry on the Joy Fiordalisi Fine Etsy shop or on Instagram here.
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