Lisa Bruns

Jewelry Making

Twenty years ago I came to western North Carolina to take a two month class at the Penland School of Crafts. It was my hope then to someday live and work in the area as an artist. It took awhile - ten years in the restaurant business in Atlanta, ten years with a studio by the sea in Folly Beach, South Carolina - but my dream of being a full-time craftsperson in the Blue Ridge Mountains came true in 2006.

Lisa's ornaments come directly from her 12 years of bench work as a jeweler.  They start as simple line drawings and are then reworked in wire and shaped and texture by hammer and anvil.  Not only do they reflect images from the story of The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree, but come as well from Lisa’s own childhood love of holiday decorations and family celebrations.