Presents

September Featured  Jewelry Designer

Patricia miller

by lisa lilla

“I believe that everything we do throughout our lives contributes to our present level of creativity.”

"I believe that everything we do throughout our lives contributes to our present level of creativity," lampwork artist and jewelry designer Patricia Miller declares.  Always involved in art itself, she claims no single art form led her to her present artistic articulation.  Though she doesn't recall when she began making jewelry, Patricia does remember when she recognized her talent for making jewelry, "My friends at work began to ask to purchase piece[s] I made, and that challenged me to continue designing and to try new things."   In addition to making beads and designing jewelry with them, she also does wire wrapping, glass-fusing, metal-smithing, and also works with precious metal clay.   "I love it all!"  Patricia exclaims.

All types of beads are utilized in Patricia's designs: freshwater pearls, Czech glass, semi-precious beads, crystals, sterling silver, gold-filled…   She has even used paper beads!  She selects elements that fit her design to give them "the feel [she is] looking for in a piece."   Patricia tells us, "At this point I would like to use more precious metal clay in my pieces. I love the fact that PMC can be made into anything or used to sculpt a special piece for a design."

Sometimes she gets an idea for a jewelry design from a lampwork bead itself and designs around the bead; other times, she is inspired by a color group or a shape pattern and will select beads to make the design she has in mind "come to life."  When it comes to her own lampwork beads, Patricia makes them first without regard to a future jewelry design.  She describes her bead-making process as "flow[ing] with the muse."

Multi-strand necklaces and bracelets with wire are amongst Patricia's favorite types of designs, but she does "make a variety of styles to try to please every taste."  When asked to describe her favorite piece, she replies, "Presently my favorite piece is one that I am still working on - a bracelet.  I have used freshwater pearls of various pinks, lavenders, purples, golds and greens on head pins to make a caterpillar style bracelet.  I am using my lampwork, green jasper and ocean jasper as accents.  I am changing the center focal from a heavy green jasper piece to a vintage shell piece because the weight of the jasper made the bracelet unbalanced.  The weight of a piece must be balanced so it will hang properly. I love this piece because it has elements of earth and sea, is multi-colored and is chunky which is my current love for style."


 

While no other jewelry designers stand out in her mind as "influential," Patricia does enjoy viewing other artists' pieces, paying close attention to how they were made.  Patricia finds inspiration in "colors, shapes, feelings, weather, seasons…  everything."

Though she has not taken any courses, Patricia has grown by studying designs and doing them  -- and she's been "doing them" for the past 12 or 13 years now.  "Learning something new, then getting lost in the creativity and letting the piece build itself as [she] go[es] along" is what endows her with the most satisfaction in the process of jewelry-making.

"I have a best friend who is a glass worker that I share my ideas and designs with and we bounce ideas off each other.  My daughter frequently announces that a piece I have made must be hers which makes me feel great."

Right now, jewelry design is more of a hobby for Patricia, but she does sell her pieces on her website and at local shows.  Typically, her pieces are priced between $50 and $70; the prices are based upon the amount of material involved, and how complex the design is.  She would eventually like to see them on auction sites, and in galleries and boutiques.

When asked to recommend tools to a newcomer to jewelry design, Patricia suggests both a good pair of flat-nose pliers without teeth and a good pair of round-nose pliers.

Born and raised in upstate New York, Patricia now resides in Knoxville, Tennessee.  A