About ME

I have had a few requests to talk about how I got started and developed my skills. So here goes a start.
It really all began with my grandfather, Bob Thomas. He owned a small jewelry in Rockport IN, a town close to here where he was a jeweler himself. Since I could sit up I was setting at his workbench doing something at it, which was usually making a mess for him.
At 8 years old he taught me how to carve wood and that is truely what gave my feel for making jewelry. You couldn't hardly pry a pocket knife from me when I was young carving everything in site, it drove my parents crazy. I started making small jewelry items at 12 years old and my grandfather gave me my first jewelry bench at 13 years old.
When I started high school I knew what I wanted to do for a career and I focused on that. In high school I took a lot of art classes like Jewelry, Drawing, Lettering and Design and a few others. I won my first contest at the local museum in Evansville my junior year for a scrolled bracelet. That same year I started working for Brinker's Jewelers where I have been for 16 years. Working for them has been the best experience I could have ever got.
In the last 16 years I have constantly tried to learn as much about this industry as possible. I have went to classes in Florida at Stewarts International School for Jewelers, got my Graduate Gemologist diploma from The Gemological Institute of America a ton of seminars and went to many shows. I have been sent to Lima Peru to do seminars on Wax carving and Jewelry design, and have read piles of books which has been a lot of help. Every day is a constant learning.
I hope this did not get to lengthy. Its just a bit about me.