Joan starting crafting after retiring from the legal field in 2007 and hasn’t stopped yet.  Her Prescott home has a full studio where she can be found most days.  She designs and crafts all of her pieces in sterling silver, copper and/or brass.   As evident in her creations, she loves stones, texture and patina.  She laughs when she tells us her favorite tool is a hammer.

Joan took classes in silversmithing in the Phoenix area and eventually progressed to teaching many specialty techniques.  Fold forming and texturing being favorites.  She is comfortable designing and crafting many styles of jewelry which she exhibits when finishing a funky, artsy copper piece or an elegant gem accented sterling silver creation.  Many of her pieces are simply metal but textured and patinated to bring out the beauty.

Joan purchases all of her unique stones and fossils for her works and designs them to be a focal point with little metal to take away from the beauty of the stone.  Many of the stones she chooses are found in the Southwestern United States and the gems are often American mined.  She takes pride in assuring that all of her stones are natural, although some may be stabilized or dyed to enhance color.  Much of her copper is recycled as it has been purchased from an industrial metal salvage yard in Phoenix.

Her works have been sold at shows or in galleries in Scottsdale, Prescott, Sedona and many other Phoenix locations.