I am a retired computer specialist who began taking silversmithing classes at the University of New Mexico in Taos in 2006. I have taken several semesters of “Small Metals Construction” at the University, plus specialized classes from master goldsmiths Harold O’Conner of Colorado and David Anderson of New Mexico.

My love for nature has always drawn me outdoors hiking, backpacking, birding, rock hunting, etc. and I love to capture what I see with my digital camera. I get a lot of ideas for my work from nature--from the many brilliant colors of a field of flowers or from the lines and textures of weathered wood. I love to collect nature’s objects on my hikes such as leaves and pieces of bark from Ponderosa pine. The bark became the idea for the shape of a pendant with the perfect spot to display a stone. Rocks and stones are another part of nature that has always interested me.

My love of stones began as a child when my dad took me rock hunting, whether it was hiking through the woods or browsing through rock shops. My dad taught me lapidary when I was a teenager and I began making my cabochons, working mostly in opals and agates. My husband,Ronnie, and I enjoy rock hunting and spent two months in early 2011, digging and chiseling rocks out of the Arizona desert around Quartzsite. Today, I still make some of the cabochons that I use in my jewelry.

I love to “move” metal using several techniques including fold-forming, repousse’ and a 20-ton hydraulic press to create domed geometric shapes and hollow forms. I add texture to the metal by using various stamping tools, wire brushes, texture hammers and a rolling mill used with hand-made papers that include leaves, twigs and other fibers. I also use mokume-gane and reticulated silver to accent my jewelry.

My Jewelry Case at Tresa Vorenberg Goldsmiths on Canyon Road in Santa Fe.