JRstudioworks

Mexican and western. My experience in architecture had always been a little unconventional (including furniture design and extensive custom housing design in Loreto Bay, Mexico) until I moved back to Canada in 2010 and started working for my father’s architecture firm, W. Here, I took responsibility for industrial and commercial work—a huge learning curve in technology and application. While it was great for business development and professional growth, I longed to get back to raw expressive output with my hands. I’ve always harboured a side-passion for jewelry design beginning with my first silver-smithing course when I was 23 (gifts for friends and family!) so this past fall, with the economy in Alberta in a tailspin, suddenly I had time in spades to create and curate these long-awaited collections. A friend was willing to host an intimate evening where I could showcase my debut work to a small group—it was a collection of 25 pieces, which centres around sterling silver, quartz crystals and an intentional meaning and message for each piece. In these uncertain times, intentionality is important: we need to take the time to reflect about life and what’s truly important despite the unknown—focussing on the downturn of the economy can consume you so I found that by unleashing positivity and unbridled passion, my creative side was rebooted. I couldn’t stop making, creating and designing!