I was forever imprinted as a little girl by the beautiful metal form one of my older sisters came home with from a jewelry class she took in school. Our small-town high school had a vocational wing that offered jewelry metalsmithing. She always had me beading and braiding little bracelets and such but when I saw the sterling and malachite necklace she designed for our mother with her own hands, I was in awe. Six years later I jumped at the opportunity to take that same class myself and began my introduction to piercing, sawing and torch soldering at 16 years old. I made a pretty little sterling silver and moonstone ring in that class, that I still have today, and I was hooked. A few years later I found myself living in NYC, enrolled in The Fashion Institute of Technology’s jewelry program, learning the industry fundamentals of design and fabrication, where I received my degree in Jewelry Design. Still hungry for more knowledge and skill after graduation, I did some apprentice work until I discovered the Jewelry Arts Institute, a non-degree program which fostered in me a more creative appreciation of the ancient art of jewelry making. Using high karat gold and fine silver, I was immersed in the timeless techniques of antiquity such as Byzantine enameling, fusing and granulation. 

Nearly two decades later, after focusing primarily on custom design work for my starter business, I finally launched J.FORD Jewelry, an independently owned line of long-lasting, designer-handmade pieces meant to beautify lovers of every kind with meaningful, transcendent jewelry that tells the love stories of their own lives. Symbolic reminders that align us with and connect us to the love that is always waiting.