Ann Jenkins and her husband are are enthusiastic gardeners, and live in an idyllic-sounding spot on an island off the coast of Maine. There, they tend their organic vegetable and ornamental garden, as well as working as estate gardeners for others in the summer season. Ann is also a skilled enameller and jeweller.

She says that gardening is an enormous inspiration for her work, and it’s easy to spot sweet pod and flower shapes as a recurring theme in her work. A wonderful sense of colour is also evident – her enamels are bright and fresh, with delectable textures like sugar coating.

 

tuizui - caribbean water totem necklace

tuizui – caribbean water totem necklace

 

“Ever since I first experienced enamelling I’ve loved the color intensity and texture it provides. So I decided to blend the two materials and developed this method of enameling on precious metal clay after much experimentation. It is still exciting to open the kiln door and see what awaits inside!”

She grew up surrounded by handmade clothes, embroidered tablecloths and hand-decorated trays made her mother and grandmother. And apart from a brief stint at wanting to be a veterinarian (“we had loads of pets – birds, fish, cats, dogs, turtles, ponies”), she says she never wanted to be anything but a maker and artist.

“When I was nine, I made a four tiered layer cake iced in white that I decorated with lots of tiny garlands made of tin foil beads and tubes strung on thread. There were rosettes too I think. It was bejewelled. I loved doing it even though it took a great deal of time and would be destroyed in short order. I don’t remember what the occasion was but a teacher friend was there and told me she was certain I could make anything I wanted because I was patient! I never forgot.”

 

tuizui - cuttlefish swish necklace

tuizui – cuttlefish swish necklace

 

Ann attended a small art school in Memphis, where she studied metalsmithing and sculpture. “After graduating I began doing local fairs and within a few years was working full time along with my sculptor husband filling orders we took at ACC Baltimore. Our jewelry lines were in craft galleries across the US for twenty five years. My husband is now involved in other projects, but I named my Etsy shop tuizui in honor of our long partnership and the years of kind of crazy fun work and way of working we had. That,  and because we are fond of tui birds.”

“Ideas come in a free form way, I try to sketch them before forgetting. Sometimes I dream of a gallery or store and make up everything in it. I always forget it all by the time I wake up! It’s probably just as well, it seems difficult enough to find the time to make the ideas in my sketchbook.

 

tuizui - kiwi ring

tuizui – kiwi ring

 

“There have been many studios over the years. I specialize in temporary ones because we travel most winters away from our home on the beautiful but cold coast of Maine.

“Everything needed goes in a bin or two and is set up ready to work in a couple of hours: kiln, drill press, flex shaft, mini torch, hand tools. Once it was a cousin’s beach house garage. I used a picnic table and was kept company by a life size dolphin float, bikes and surf boards. It was hard to keep working with all the toys around!

“My at home studio has a shelf above the counter lined with favorite tiny things and above the upper cabinets are larger natural objects like cactus skeletons and birch bark and huge pine cones. I’m remodeling it now, (whole house actually, its a little barn from 1890) and there will be more windows looking out on the garden. I may paint it my favorite ocean turquoise.”

 

tuizui - pod earrings

tuizui – pod earrings

 

Her best words of advice she says are nothing original, but true and powerful nonetheless. “Make what is in your soul. Figure out a way to do what you want/live how you want. Keep at it. Keep improving. Love what you do. Share.”

 

You can find Ann’s work in her Etsy shop, tuizui, and more images of her work on flickr.