Rueben's Ramblings

Yavanna

Artist Spotlight:  Dawn Anton is a talented jewelry maker from Ocean Beach, California, who offers three distinctive styles in her collection, but her favorite and most creatively rewarding pieces are fashioned using natural brass filigree, vintage glass, Swarovski crystals, and gemstones.

Her artistic and creative inclinations began in childhood through painting, sketching and writing. Some of her other interests included geology, rocks and minerals, leading to a love of gemstones, and European and American history, which – in a round-about way – lead to a fascination with antique and estate jewelry, as well as a secret tiara fixation.

Thanks to several books she found at the library, her self-taught hobby of beading began around 2002-2003; she then took a wire-wrapping class at a local bead shop and in 2004 she narrowed her interest to making jewelry with sterling silver wire especially after finding a better supply of gemstones. Soon enough, friends and co-workers were requesting custom designs and Dawn was spending countless hours in the happy pursuit of designing and finishing pieces without getting tired.

Her inspiration comes from what she sees and reads and thanks to her love of movies and books, her jewelry is deeply influenced by those interests. One of her favorites is The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the books of J.R.R. Tolkien, including The Silmarillion, which was edited and published posthumously by Tolkien’s son Christopher in 1977. Her fascination with those characters and the important role jewelry and gemstones played in the history of Middle-earth gives valuable inspiration for much of her creations. Dawn’s featured piece is one of her favorite necklaces called Yavanna, which is inspired by a character from The Silmarillion.

You can contact Dawn at info@asilomarworks.com or via convo through her Etsy shop, which can be found at http://asilomarworks.etsy.com.