Jessica Duke
About Jessica Duke
Jessica Duke is a retired computer specialist who began taking silversmithing classes at the University of New Mexico in Taos in 2006. She has taken several semesters of “Small Metals Construction” at the University, plus specialized classes from master goldsmiths Harold O’Conner of Colorado and David Anderson of New Mexico.
Jessica’s love for nature has always drawn her outdoors hiking, backpacking, birding, rock hunting, etc. and she loves to capture what she sees with her digital camera. Jessica gets a lot of ideas for her work from nature--from the many brilliant colors of a field of flowers or from the lines and textures of weathered wood. She also collects nature’s objects on her hikes such as leaves and pieces of bark from Ponderosa pine. The bark became the idea for the shape of a pendant with the perfect spot to display a stone, which is another part of nature that has always interested Jessica.
Jessica’s love of stones began as a child when her dad took her rock hunting, whether it was hiking through the woods or browsing through rock shops. She began making her own cabochons as a teenager, working mostly in opals and agates. She and her husband, Ronnie, enjoy rock hunting and spent two months in early 2011, digging and chiseling rocks out of the Arizona desert around Quartzsite. Today, Jessica still makes some of the cabochons used in her jewelry or modifies purchased ones to fit a specific design.
Jessica likes to “move” metal using several techniques including fold-forming, repousse’ and a 20-ton hydraulic press to create domed geometric shapes and hollow forms. She adds texture to the metal by using various stamping tools, wire brushes, texture hammers and a rolling mill used with hand-made papers that include leaves, twigs and other fibers. Other favorites that Jessica uses to accent her jewelry are mokume-gane and reticulated silver, which simulates weathered wood or tiny replicas of the mountains that surround the area where Jessica lives.
Jessica reflects, “I enjoy creating wearable pieces of art, but the true reward for me is when I see the smile on a person’s face as they put on one of my pieces of jewelry and a connection is made”.
Jessica’s love for nature has always drawn her outdoors hiking, backpacking, birding, rock hunting, etc. and she loves to capture what she sees with her digital camera. Jessica gets a lot of ideas for her work from nature--from the many brilliant colors of a field of flowers or from the lines and textures of weathered wood. She also collects nature’s objects on her hikes such as leaves and pieces of bark from Ponderosa pine. The bark became the idea for the shape of a pendant with the perfect spot to display a stone, which is another part of nature that has always interested Jessica.
Jessica’s love of stones began as a child when her dad took her rock hunting, whether it was hiking through the woods or browsing through rock shops. She began making her own cabochons as a teenager, working mostly in opals and agates. She and her husband, Ronnie, enjoy rock hunting and spent two months in early 2011, digging and chiseling rocks out of the Arizona desert around Quartzsite. Today, Jessica still makes some of the cabochons used in her jewelry or modifies purchased ones to fit a specific design.
Jessica likes to “move” metal using several techniques including fold-forming, repousse’ and a 20-ton hydraulic press to create domed geometric shapes and hollow forms. She adds texture to the metal by using various stamping tools, wire brushes, texture hammers and a rolling mill used with hand-made papers that include leaves, twigs and other fibers. Other favorites that Jessica uses to accent her jewelry are mokume-gane and reticulated silver, which simulates weathered wood or tiny replicas of the mountains that surround the area where Jessica lives.
Jessica reflects, “I enjoy creating wearable pieces of art, but the true reward for me is when I see the smile on a person’s face as they put on one of my pieces of jewelry and a connection is made”.