Kris began making jewelry after taking a basic metalsmithing class four years ago.  “I had just finished a really difficult period of my life battling cancer and was looking for ways to slow down, to process a lot of what I had been through and practice a lot of what I had been convicted of. I instantly fell in love with the process of making jewelry.”  She began teaching herself and learning everything she could about the process.  “I felt a real symmetry between the craft and my struggle to heal, and just ordinaryliving, really.  I enjoyed the activity of making: the stroke of the hammer, the glide of the file, the flow of the solder. I think this really fueled my passion to learn more.”  She opened her Etsy shop not long after beginning her process, and in the spring of 2015, she launched her website.

Kris credits learning how to slow down and be present in her own life with being able to find inspiration for her craft.  “There’s a story in everything and soul everywhere but sometimes I’m too preoccupied to look or moving too quickly to notice….If I slow down, I see thatordinary things are not actually so simple or straightforward. I see that there is beauty even in the hard, dark corners. I see that contradictions can coexist. I see a lot that I did not expect to see.”  

Like we here at HDH, Kris knows the value of items made by hand.  “I find myself most inspired when I am in the act of making. There’s a presence of mind and body and a reverence for the moment there that really opens my eyes and guides my hands. I’m always pleasantly surprised by how my own ideas are altered and improved by the process of moving them from my head to metal.”  We love what Kris came up with when making something for Makers Alongside.  

Follow Kris on her website and on Instagram.  Shop the stacking ring set on our website, available today for $110.

Photographs by Colleen Eversman, 2nd Truth Photography.