Gloria Adams is a jewelry artist in Springville, Alabama.  She has always been a lover of jewelry and decided to begin crafting her own back in 2004.  Gloria attended the William Holland School of Lapidary Arts in Young Harris, Georgia, where she learned wire wrapping techniques for her own jewelry.  In 2005, she returned for an advanced class.  William Holland offers classes in a myriad of jewelry crafts.  It didn’t take long for Gloria to realize there was so much “out there” to add to her skill sets!  She has returned to William Holland every year since then to study chain making, enameling, cold connections, advanced silversmithing, stone intarsia, and most recently, channel inlay.

Wire jewelry gets about half of Gloria’s attention.  She says, “Semi-precious stones are among the most spectacular of God’s creations.  As found, many look like plain old rocks.  But cut and polished, they demand attention!  The stones in my pendants are the focus of the jewelry.  I wrap my cabochons in such a manner as to enhance the beauty of each stone.  Wire does not ‘make’ the jewelry: it’s the natural beauty of the stone that makes a pendant stunning.”

Gloria’s copper creations are her most recent.  She sees copper both as a real challenge to her creative skills and also as an opportunity for experimentation and growth.  She says, “With copper, you can beat it.  Fold it.  Drill holes in it.  Crush it.  Anneal it.  And beat it again!  Working with Copper is a real joy.  Copper allows me license to let my imagination flow freely.  My copper creations give you the opportunity to be close to me through the details in the copper.  You are wearing something into which I invested the entirety of my skills in order to transform a hunk of metal into something beautiful.”

Look to see stone intarsia (jewelry created with small pieces of stone) and channel inlay (stones set into intricate channels made from heavy Sterling Silver wire) in Gloria’s future!