Christina started out as an abstract collage artist. Her Mother, Carolyn, introduced her to the artist's world very early on, taking her on trips into the City, spending the day roaming the rooms of the Met and MOMA.
After establishing herself as an artist Christina found her way into jewelry design. As the story goes, "A fellow artist was late to a gallery opening and once it was revealed it was due to her having to design a necklace for the new dress that she had bought for the reception" Christina and Mom said "Sign us up!"
Her true passions are Mother Nature's Turquoise, Coral, Amber, Ocean Jasper, and various Agates and of course pairing these with the beautiful Thai and Tibetan Pendants she has carefully chosen to tell their stories.
For Christina designing is twofold, there is first the challenge of sitting down with the stones, and trying to bring forth the design that is in her mind. She may start out convinced that perhaps Mookaite is the stone to anchor the design, and then ends up switching it out for Ocean Jasper, then Brecciated Jasper, and so on. This can happen with so many components of the design, the cut of the bead, the translucency of the stone, the size of hole which was drilled through the end beads, all of these can bring the creation of a piece to a complete halt, and can lead to half designed pieces being filed away or just scrapping the piece all altogether and starting from scratch.
Then there are the times that the design comes together fluidly, the final crimp is crimped, the necklace goes around her neck with giddy anticipation, and it is then and only then does Christina get the true feel for the piece and whether it works. It is here that it is seen that due to briolette cut of the bead, the pendant does not fall correctly, or the shape of a bead that worked so beautifully on the design board just throws the design totally off. Then the challenge can once again come into play, with a reworking of the design, not once, not twice, but as many times as is needed. But my oh my, when the final restringing of the piece takes place, and the finished product is there, what a wonderful feeling of accomplishment, such pride and awe and gratefulness make it all worth it.
When it comes to Christina's designs, she draws from the colors of the Southwest, taking inspiration not only from the landscape but even more so from the Native American designs she grew up with and then re-visited on trips to Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. For both Christina and Mom, one of the greatest complements to be bestowed on them is for people to exclaim that the collection before them brings them back to the Southwest!!!
