Jewelry idea inspirations from nature and birds. Where Birds and Blossoms series came from.

Can you tell I'm a bird lover? So, I guess it is fitting that my name is Robin. While staying home this past year due to Covid-19, my husband, John, and I have become acquainted with our wildlife in the backyard.  Two precious little wrens took up residence in our Italian Cypress trees, so we named them Emma and Alistair.

Alistair has the most beautiful red crown and chest, and he sings his little heart out with the sweetest, lovely melody.

Most days for lunch, John and I would sit and watch this little couple fly in and out of these six towering trees as if they had some really important agenda going on, Alistair always following close behind Emma.

 What were they doing in there? I began to imagine a cozy little home, and intrigued by this secluded mystery, I even tried to look through the tightly snug branches to see if there was a magical secret tucked away inside. I feel like John and I were forced to slow the pace of our pre-Covid lives, and learn to calm down and enjoy the little things in life, much like the life of my childhood when there really didn't seem to be anything so terribly important to do that my mother and I couldn't find the time to just sit and swing under the branches of our tall East Texas pine trees. It was a time in my life when we didn't eat out, we didn't go to the movies, we just enjoyed the comfort of home. John and I both had to relearn that skill of relaxing and focusing on family.

These wrens represent true love, I believe, because they never seem to be out of each other's sight. And it makes me question our belief as humans that other species cannot possibly show and experience love as much as humans do.

Why I started making jewelry

In November of 2019, my best friend since first grade, Laura, and I went to Washington D.C. for a girls' trip. Both of us at the time felt a little tired of the routine we had fallen into with our careers of almost thirty years. Laura is a successful audiologist and I am a former high school English teacher. Although we were proud of our accomplishments in these careers, we longed for something new, so she began to pursue a new career in court reporting, and I still didn't know what I wanted to do...

We spent the days in DC together talking about this possibility of re-inventing ourselves in our fifties to enjoy a completely new beginning in a new and thrilling career. This idea that we called our "Second Act" was the shot in the arm of hope for our future, a new beginning, but what did I want to do?

It wasn't until COVID happened that I realized maybe it was indeed time for me to leave the teaching profession since it now required teachers to be very adept at technology, but I still had no idea what I wanted my second act to be...

Where I learned to create jewelry

August 2020 arrived, and it was time for Texas teachers and students to return to school, so feeling a little bummed because I had retired and left that part of my life behind, I decided to revisit a love for jewelry making that I had started 7 years ago and abandoned to focus on teaching. I took a class with a wonderful old man named Renato. I lovingly now refer to him as "The Master" because I feel like I learned so much from him in the two weeks that I spent in his jewelry class.

When I began the class, I really was just taking it to relieve my depression over leaving teaching, but as I started to work on beginning skills and talk to this outstanding young man named Matthew who was the only other student in the class, my enthusiasm began to grow. Matthew had so much energy and dreams/goals for his future as a jewelry designer, that I had a small epiphany. Why can't I become a jewelry designer as well? I had just signed up for the class thinking it was a hobby, but Matthew kept talking about having his own brand someday, and Renato kept mentioning  how most of his former students went on to become successful jewelry designers and metal smiths, so sitting there listening to this, my inner voice nervously said, "You need to up your game!"

Now I'm inspired and ready to try!

That is when I went home and dug out of a dust covered drawer in the garage my seven year old jeweler's torch that had not ever been used and said to my husband, John, "I need your help with this torch because I'm afraid to use it." I was really intimidated at that time to use a torch without help!

Thus began a new adventure for John and myself! He really became interested as well, and I taught him all of the skills that I was learning from Renato. We work so well together because my creative talents and design ideas combined with his engineering and mathematical skills work together to create the perfect combination. I like to think that we are the Andrew and Louise (from "At the Bench") of Texas, only on a much smaller scale!

As a team, John and I have come so far at this point, and I really look forward to a successful second act as a jewelry designer and metal smith. Maybe my husband has inadvertently found his second act as well!

The name of my business is a tribute to not only Lucy Burly Ellis and Agnes (Addie) Naomi Cole (pictured above), my great-grandmothers on my dad's side, but to all the women in our history who gave their lives due to childbirth so that we can all be here today.

After doing some research on Ancestry.com, I realized that many of our family stories have been lost to time, now nothing more than heresay. I had often heard bits and pieces of my Granny and Grandaddy Hill's story on my dad's side. Both of my grandparents had lost their mothers at age 8 due to childbirth, and I was always told how hard it hit Granddaddy Hill when he was a little boy. It wasn't until I did a bit of research that I realized the gravity of this. Both women died young, in their thirties, and before their own deaths, both women suffered the loss of at least one child due to the illnesses of the time period and the resilience that it took to survive. Because of this, neither of my grandparents really had the chance to know their mothers very well. My dad never met his grandmothers. So, I feel like we now take for granted what it took for our ancestors, especially the wives and mothers, to pave the way for us to thrive now. Thank you to all of the women who came before us and the sacrifices that they made for the success and longevity of our future generations.

So thanks Addie for giving me my chin, mouth, nose, and especially my dimple. 

Love,

Robin