Erin Heydenreich Creates Custom Jewelry – for Persons She Has Not Yet Met
A CNL2 VIDEO IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE
Erin Heydenreich creates beautiful wearable art.
“I think I have a unique design process,” she told CNL2 in a new video interview. “I don’t draw things out. I just start. It feels like something is coming through me — out of me.”
Erin says she feels she is creating a piece for a specific person not yet known. Days, weeks, or months later — the person meant to have it appears. (The new owner) feel like the piece speaks directly to them. The creations are their own things, and I am just the means that brings them into existence.”
The June 1st and 2nd 2024 Studio Tour will be Erin’s fifth. Erin will be a guest at Gretchen Allison‘s studio.
Erin came to San Juan Island in 2003 to study killer whales. She was a student and apprentice at Friday Harbor Labs in the Marine Mammals Field Studies Apprenticeship program. She befriended Ken Balcomb, founder of the Center for Whale Research, who offered her a job that lasted 15 years. She confessed she sometimes misses the whales, and being out on the boat.
But her love of jewelry-making kept calling. Erin has been a maker her whole life; jewelry was always a hobby. But in 2004 it seemed to take on a life of its own. Maybe it’s not a coincidence this happened within a year of arriving in the San Juans. It seems to bring out the latent artist in many new residents.
She followed a friend’s suggestion that she sell her jewelry at the Farmers Market. She said, “I just fell into it. I kept designing. Today, my jewelry business is 10 years old.
Erin’s jewelry is eclectic. She uses stones, turquoise, moonstones, and a variety of metals. For more than a year, Erin’s creations have been Art Deco-inspired — nesting geometric lines, and fluid designs at the same time. She learned traditional metalsmithing techniques, as well as beadwork, in Mexico.
Erin lives part-time in Sayultia, Mexico, north of Puerto Vallarta. Her father bought a property there in 1996 and it’s been her second home since.
“Sometimes I dream and think in Spanish,” she said. “Many Americans misunderstand Mexico. It’s not always easy. It’s not a vacation. It’s harder. Things don’t happen on the same schedule in Mexico. I just love how the Mexican culture is so ‘in the moment.’ They don’t think too far ahead, but in general living things in the moment. I see my neighbors are joyful, happy people. And they don’t have near as much stuff as Americans, and they don’t need that. And that inspires me.
This video is approximately 25 minutes in duration.