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| Jewelry Artist Sheila Wissner |
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When I graduated from Western Michigan University in 1974, I hoped to get a job teaching art and use my off-duty hours making art. It didn’t happen quite that way. I did land jobs teaching art at the elementary, junior high and community college levels. But a downturn in the Michigan economy put an end to my art teaching career. So I became a journalist instead, spending over 25 years writing about everything from murder investigations to Al Gore’s failed bid for president. I had a great time as a reporter, but two years ago, I decided to put away my reporter’s notebook and get back full time to my first love: art. I already had been building toward an art inspired future. Five years before, I had received a small kiln for Christmas and began making simple ceramic beads in the kiln I set up in a corner of my dining room. From that point on, I was hooked on making jewelry, buying up all the equipment I could afford to hammer, cast and enamel jewelry pieces I hoped people would like enough to buy. The equipment required a larger space, so my husband built an art studio on the back of our house in Nashville, TN., where we lived for 20 years. Now we have moved back to our home in northern Michigan, where my husband once again built a studio for me. Isn't he a great guy? I enjoy the various processes involved in creating the jewelry you see on my web site. It’s fun watching a solid piece of silver turn into a shimmering pool as it succumbs to the intense heat of a torch, or seeing grains of enamel melt and fuse onto a piece of silver in a red hot kiln. The designing process also is fun and challenging. You won’t find me without a sketchbook to capture a design I see or imagine. I hope you enjoy wearing my jewelry as much as I enjoy making it. JewelryArte.com
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