Rachel M Dow...Born and raised in Southern California, Rachel began her love of art when she was a young girl. She has been designing and creating for over 30 years. She currently resides in Riverside County, California.  Education...Rachel graduated from California State University of Northridge with a Bachelors degree in Photography and a Masters degree in Art Education. She has a fully rounded art background in Art History, Fiber, Pottery, Painting, Drawing, and Jewelry fabrication.  Materials...Rachel found creating jewelry as a beautiful process to express her inner soul.  She loves to create unique, one of a kind jewelry; mixing different forms of textures and colors. She incorporates Sterling Silver, Fine Silver, Gold, natural gemstones, hand made lampworking glass beads, and found objects in her jewelry designs.  



Process...Rachel uses traditional metalsmithing techniques to create her jewelry: soldering, sawing, cold connections, and forging. All of her chains, ear wires and posts, head pins, bezels, and clasps are hand made. Each link, ear post and wire are soldered and shaped from solid wire. Attention to detail and quality is very important to Rachel. Her freeform gemstone pendants are exquisite front and back. Each pendant is hand cut on the backside so you can also view the stone. She uses nature as the subject matter for her pendants. "Nature is always evolving. Constantly changing and becoming reborn."

Metal Clay...She has also incorporates Precious Metal Clay in her jewelry. The ingredients of PMC are micro-particles of pure silver suspended in a form of clay consisting of water and an organic plant-based binder. The binder or clay is non-toxic in both its raw and fired form and it completely evaporates in the firing process leaving a pure silver content of .999. She applies her education and love of stoneware pottery to this new art form to create wonderful organic creations in pure silver. Rachel became a certified PMC artist as of May 2004; Instructed by J. Fred Woell.

Instill...Her inspirations come from the Modernist period and Navajo and Pueblo jewelry from the Southwest. She is also inspired by the simplistic and organic elements of nature. She surrounds herself with natural principles to create a balance between the busy lives we are all a part of and the world she dreams about.  

Handspun...When Rachel's fingers become sore from bending and sawing metal, she dyes soft, Merino, Tencel, and Blue Face Leicester fiber and spins fabulous yarn. Rachel strives to create truly one of a kind yarn that can be knitted, crocheted, felted, or woven into beautiful wearable's.  

A special thank you...J. Fred Woell- a wonderful artist and instructor who shared his life experiences with found objects, PMC, cold connections, and of course his political view points.

Thank you to all the wonderful editors and assistants that I have worked with from Lark Books.