About Us

Hi, I'm Elizabeth Plumb and I appreciate you visiting my website. I am from Sugarhouse, Utah and am the mother of a very busy 1 year old boy named Jonas. I have been blessed to have worked as full time artisan jeweler since 2003, although full time has taken on a whole new meaning since becoming a mom. The essence of artisan jewelry is that each piece is hand crafted by the artist. Fortunately, my enjoyment in making jewelry comes from looking at a bunch of loose stones and/or raw materials, and from that creating something unique to the world.

So my story is fairly simple. Ten years ago, I began making jewelry as a hobby.  Although I loved the process of creating the jewelry, I found myself stashing my finished pieces in the kitchen drawer.  Eventually, I gained enough confidence in my work and to wear some of my jewelry and even began giving pieces as gifts.  After a couple of phones calls from people offering to buy pieces they had seen my friends and family members, and even a lady at the grocery store requesting to buy a piece right off of my neck, I was ready to take the plunge.  Here in Salt Lake City, we have a wonderful art and farmers market that gives any serious artisan the opportunity to present their work in the open market.  Although I was terrified to open myself to the scrutiny , half way through my first market I was hooked.   By the next year I had quit my day job, was doing every market and art show that would have me, and was totally content with where my little business was at.  But natural progression and new opportunities required that I refocus my efforts.  So to make a long story short, my husband quit his day job to manage the business so that I could totally dedicate myself to making jewelry.  Although we still consider ourselves a "ma and pa operation," and continue to love doing art shows and markets, we now have pieces in galleries and shops throughout the country and have also had the opportunity to make a couple of pieces for the Sundance Catalog and a few smaller publications.

The techniques in my pieces such as wire wrapping, casting, and silversmithing are all done by hand. Typically, when starting a design I don't have any preconceived ideas of what the piece will become. However, I keep three standards in mind throughout the creation of all of my pieces: quality, uniqueness, and beauty. In my work, I try and incorporate limited quantities of very wearable jewelry along with some one of a kind sculptural art pieces.

I use a wide variety of exotic, precious, and semi precious materials. Many of my jewelry designs use semiprecious stones like turquoise, quartz, labradorite, citrine, amethyst, garnet, aqua marine, chalcedony, carnelian, coral, peridot, iolite, fluorite, onyx, jasper, and agate. Although I incorporate gold, brass, copper, and occasionally pewter into many of my pieces, sterling silver is definitely my preferred metal. I love the look and quality of Thai silver and I have made an annual trip to Thailand for the past 4 years to purchase their amazing hill tribe silver. I do the majority of my buying in a city called Chiang Mai because I am able to buy so close to the source (the small villages where it is actually made). Thus, most of my silver clasps, charms, pendants, beads, and even earring hooks and links are very unique and of the highest quality sterling silver.

I love to expand my jewelry making abilities.  I enjoy taking many silverersmithing, casting, and wire wrapping courses because I like for my work to be constantly evolving. Each year, one of my main goals is to reinvent a totally new and different line of jewelry within my own style.  Not only does this keep me excited about making jewelry, but I think my customers appreciate it as well.  I try and update the website with my new pieces every 2 months or so to reflect these evolving changes. 

As I mentioned, this past year I was given the opportunity to make a few pieces of jewelry for the Sundance Catalog.  Although my name is not cited with my particuar pieces, the "Olivetta Earrings" in the the current catalog as well as the "Bauble and Cross" necklace and the "Join the Fold" bracelet in the Fall 2008 catalog and on the Sundance website are my work.  I am also scheduled to make two other pieces for the Sundance Summer Catalog. Working with Sundance has basically been a dream becoming reality for me.

I try and have designs that everybody can enjoy. So whether you like very elegant jewelry or prefer a more natural piece, I hope that you'll find something that might catch your eye. A handmade necklace, bracelet, or pair of earrings makes a great gift for a friend or loved one, but especially yourself.

Elizabeth