What does it really mean to live a creative life that’s true — not tidy, not performative, but real?

In this conversation, jewelry artist Susan Wachler shares her journey from a multi-generational family of jewelers to her own late-in-life return to the bench after decades as a psychotherapist. Her work carries the weight of both lineage and lived experience — raw, textural, and deeply human.

We talk about redefining success, creating without proof, and how honesty — both emotional and artistic — can become a kind of freedom. Susan also reflects on what it means to make art in uncertain times, to let intuition lead, and to find joy in the alchemy of the studio.

It’s a conversation about resilience, honesty, and the quiet courage it takes to keep showing up for your craft simply because you love it.

Follow Susan...

Instagram: @susanwachlerjewelry

Website: susanwachlerjewelry.com

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Instagram: ⁠@christinemighion⁠

Jewelry Website: ⁠christinemighion.com⁠

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If you’ve ever felt that tug-of-war between creativity and business, or struggled with the balance of freedom and financial pressure, you’re going to feel so seen in this episode.

Julianne is a maker in the truest sense—her work is soulful, organic, and deeply connected to the natural world. We talk about her journey from teacher to metalsmith, the unexpected start she got thanks to her husband’s old silversmithing tools, and how her creative voice found its way through texture, form, and layers that reflect the landscapes of her life.

We also dive into the challenges of building a jewelry business in a rural setting, navigating the rollercoaster of sales, and the ever-present feeling of not doing it ‘right’—even when your heart knows it’s exactly what you’re meant to be doing. Julianne shares how she’s embraced the imperfections of her craft and found freedom in letting go of comparison and self-doubt.

If you’ve ever felt the pull to create simply for the joy of it, or if you’ve ever wrestled with the tension between art and livelihood, this conversation will resonate. You’ll walk away with a deeper appreciation for the slow, mindful process of making, and for the ways we can infuse care and intention into not just our work, but our lives.

Follow along with Julianne...

Instagram: @silverstruckstudio

Website: etsy.com/shop/silverstruckstudio

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Jewelry website: christinemighion.com

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In this episode of Slowmade, I’m joined by jewelry artist Dawna Gillespie, whose work is rooted in personal story, persistence, and a strong sense of artistic identity.

Dawna shares how she discovered metalsmithing almost by accident during her final semester at Texas Tech and immediately felt a connection to the process that she had never experienced with painting. After becoming a stay-at-home mom, she eventually found her way back to jewelry and began building a creative practice alongside family life.

We talk about how Dawna developed the visual language behind her work using a small group of shapes and motifs that represent pieces of her own story, and how she continues to manipulate those forms into completely one-of-a-kind adornments. She also shares why copper and brass became such important materials in her work, particularly because of the way they naturally change and develop character over time.

Dawna is wonderfully candid about the less glamorous parts of building a creative career too. She talks about being told early on that she was a “nobody,” learning to listen for the useful parts of difficult feedback, being waitlisted for exhibitions, hearing no from publications, and continuing to put herself and her work forward anyway. For Dawna, perseverance doesn’t mean forcing a particular timeline. It means continuing to grow, staying open to what can be improved, and trusting that a no today doesn’t necessarily mean no forever.

We also talk about comparison, feeling behind, the importance of setting goals without becoming rigid about them, what the creative process gives back to us, and why she believes the stories and experiences we carry are worthy of being expressed through our work.

Dawna’s reminder is a simple but powerful one: don’t be afraid to ask. If you never ask, the answer is already no.

Follow Dawna...

Instagram: @dawna_gillespie_adornments

Website: dawnagillespie.com

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Jewelry Website: ⁠christinemighion.com⁠

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David Forshee is the jewelry and lapidary artist behind David Forshee Jewelry.

In this episode, David and I talk about the early years of learning a craft and the many small decisions, experiments, tools, and mistakes that slowly shape a maker’s path. David works with mixed metals, opals, and gemstones, and much of his work begins with the stone itself.

David shares how jewelry making first found him after he and his wife began looking for a handmade engagement ring, and how that experience opened his eyes to the beauty and presence of handmade jewelry. From there, he started with a simple torch and a few basic tools, learning to set rose-cut stones and slowly building his skills one piece at a time.

We talk about working in a small garage studio, the reality of making jewelry without a large or perfect workspace, and the way tools slowly enter our lives as the work asks for them. David shares what led him into lapidary, from adjusting wonky cabochons to cutting opals, and we talk about the heartbreak and wonder that can come with working such delicate, beautiful stones.

Our conversation also moves into family, memory, and the tools we inherit. David shares how some of the tools he uses came from his father and grandfather, and how making has become a way of carrying those connections forward. We also talk about the fullness of family life, raising a young child, and finding creative time in the in-between moments.

This is a warm conversation about learning as you go, making do with the space you have, honoring the slow parts of the process, and allowing the craft to keep opening new doors.

Follow David...

David on Instagram: ⁠@davidforsheejewelry⁠

David’s Website: ⁠davidforsheejewelry.com⁠

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Jewelry Website: ⁠⁠christinemighion.com⁠⁠

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In this episode of Slowmade, I’m talking with Los Angeles jewelry artist Tzipora Hoynik.

Tzipora has been making and selling jewelry for around forty years, but her creative life began long before that. As a little girl, she told her father she wanted to be an artist, even though she didn’t yet know exactly what that meant. Over the years, that pull toward making has taken many forms, from drawing and painting to glass blowing, ceramics, weaving, beads, metalsmithing, and eventually the bold, colorful, deeply textured jewelry she creates today.

Tzipora’s work begins with stones. Color is her starting point, and her pieces often feel layered with pattern, texture, movement, and embellishment. In our conversation, she shares how gemstones guide her designs, why she doesn’t like to leave a surface blank, and how her love of color continues to keep the work exciting after so many years.

We also talk about the evolution of a long creative career, including her early years making beaded jewelry, her time doing wholesale shows, and the moment production work started to feel more like work than play. Tzipora now focuses mostly on one-of-a-kind pieces, allowing the stones, the process, and her own instincts to lead.

Along the way, we talk about her Los Angeles studio, her very practical relationship with tools, her longtime connection to Burning Man, the special jewelry pieces she has made for that community, and her Warrior Women series, a design she returned to after many years and reimagined with more detail, strength, and meaning.

This conversation is also about what it means to keep creating over the long arc of a life. Tzipora talks about the need to make things as something deeply innate, something that feeds her and feels woven into who she is. Even after decades of working as an artist, she still finds joy in coming into the studio, playing with stones, and seeing what wants to become.

We talk about creative devotion, staying true to your own voice, selling work through Instagram and shows, working with collectors, the reality of pricing handmade jewelry, and why the value of a piece is never only about the materials. It also carries the years of experience, the choices, the eye, the hands, and the voice of the artist who made it.

If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like to build a life around making, not for a season, but for decades, I think you’ll love this conversation with Tzipora.

Follow Tzipora...

Tzipora on Instagram: @opalgirl

Tzipora’s Website: spiraljewelry.etsy.com

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Marie Kappenman is the artist behind Notions of Lovely Jewelry, and she has built a creative business by gathering skills wherever she could find them, trusting her instincts, and refusing to accept the old idea that artists are somehow destined to struggle.

In this conversation, Marie shares how she first discovered metalsmithing as a teenager, what she learned from working throughout the jewelry industry, and why so much of her real business education happened outside the classroom. We talk about pricing, custom work, social media, motherhood, creative burnout, and the sometimes messy reality of building a business while continuing to make work that feels like your own.

Marie also speaks candidly about the fear of stepping away from a steady job, the moment she realized her jewelry could truly support her, and the importance of letting go of the belief that making art and making money are somehow at odds.

This is a thoughtful, funny, and deeply practical conversation about faith, risk, creative ambition, and building a life around the work you feel called to make.

Follow Marie...

Marie on Instagram: @notionsoflovely

Marie’s Website: notionsoflovely.com

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Jewelry Website: ⁠christinemighion.com⁠

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In this episode, I’m sitting down with Kathleen Wille, the artist behind High Five Lemon, for a warm and honest conversation about stones, perfectionism, custom work, and the deeply personal nature of making things by hand.

Kathleen shares the story behind the name High Five Lemon, which began with her beloved pug, Lemon, and grew into a meaningful reflection on imperfection, handmade work, and the beauty of loving what others might overlook. From there, we talk about Kathleen’s path to metalsmithing, which began with a class many years ago, paused while she built a career in advertising, and returned at exactly the right time in her life.

As a creative director by day and a metalsmith on nights and weekends, Kathleen speaks honestly about what jewelry gives her that her other creative work does not. Her work is rooted in stones, often simple and intentional so the stone can lead the design. We talk about trusting your eye, learning your own voice, and the insecurity that can come from comparing a more minimal style to the ornate work of other makers.

We also talk about the realities of custom work, including the joy of working with customers who trust the process, the emotional energy of long back-and-forth conversations, and the importance of learning where to set boundaries. We discuss pricing, the pressure of rising material costs, the pieces that don’t immediately find their person, and the vulnerability of sharing work that feels deeply tied to your heart.

This conversation is about almost-perfect things, creative trust, honoring the stones that call to us, and the way handmade work asks us to keep listening to what feels true.

Follow Kathleen...

Instagram: @high5lemon

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In this episode, I’m joined by jewelry artist Beth Judge for a conversation about the long and winding creative path, the seasons of life when our own dreams get placed on hold, and what it means to finally come back to the artist within.

Beth’s love of jewelry began in high school, where she was lucky enough to have access to a metalsmithing program that introduced her to soldering, sawing, stone setting, and even casting. She went on to study metalsmithing at Tyler School of Art and later became a graduate gemologist through GIA before spending many years working as a bench jeweler. Her path also includes teaching, motherhood, supporting a family restaurant business, opening a brick-and-mortar studio space in Hopewell, New Jersey, and finding her way back to her own creative voice in a deeper and more intentional way.

We talk about the pressure so many women feel to put everyone else first, and how easy it can be to move our own creative longings to the side while we take care of children, partners, work, finances, and all the responsibilities of life. Beth shares honestly about what it has meant to finally give herself more permission to play, experiment, and enjoy the process rather than always creating from a place of pressure or practicality.

Beth also shares about her beautiful shared studio space, her work as a full-time art teacher, her love of stones, her growing interest in enamel, and the way working in other mediums like fiber and ceramics has begun to cross-pollinate with her jewelry practice. We talk about slowmade as an invitation to enjoy the process, the courage it can take to call yourself an artist, and why making time for the work that feeds your soul matters at every stage of life.

This is a warm and honest conversation about creativity, identity, timing, and the part of us that never really disappears, even when life gets full.

Follow Beth...

Beth on Instagram: ⁠@bethanndesigns

Beth’s website: bethannjudge.com

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In this episode of the Slowmade Podcast, I’m talking with jewelry and lapidary artist Leora Coronel.

Leora lives in Northern California, where her work is deeply connected to the Yuba River. She collects stones from the river, cuts them herself, and transforms them into jewelry that carries a strong sense of place.

Our conversation begins with the long and winding path that led Leora into jewelry. From collecting rocks as a child, to making feather earrings while working at a yoga studio in Los Angeles, to slowly learning metalwork and eventually finding her way into lapidary, Leora shares how working with her hands has always filled a deep need to create.

We talk about what it means to work with materials from your own surroundings, and how powerful it can feel to turn something ordinary and often overlooked into something wearable and meaningful. Leora shares how learning to cut her own river stones opened up a whole new world in her work and became one of the most defining parts of her creative path.

We also talk about the push and pull so many independent artists feel between making what lights us up and making what sells. Leora speaks honestly about depending on her jewelry for income, the pressure that can put on the work, and the gratitude she feels that much of what she loves to make also connects with her customers.

This conversation also moves into teaching, imposter syndrome, and creative confidence. Leora shares how she slowly began offering private lessons and workshops, including lapidary classes, and how rewarding it has been to help other artists experience the excitement of cutting their own stones for the first time.

We also get into the current realities of being a working jewelry artist, including slow sales, rising silver prices, shifting away from depending solely on Instagram, and finding ways to diversify income while staying connected to the work.

What I loved most about this conversation is Leora’s honesty. She doesn’t make the creative path sound perfectly clear or easy. Instead, she speaks about following one step, then another, staying open to what the materials offer, and continuing to make because the work brings satisfaction, joy, and meaning.

Follow along...

Leora on Instagram: ⁠@leoracoroneljewelry

Leora’s website: leoracoronel.com

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Instagram: ⁠@christinemighion⁠

Jewelry Website: ⁠christinemighion.com⁠

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On this episode of the Slowmade Podcast, I’m joined by artist and jeweler Francesca Kennedy for a deeply thoughtful conversation about creativity, instinct, imagination, and making without rigid rules.

Francesca has spent decades creating, first in clothing design in the Bay Area and later in jewelry, and one of the things I loved most about this conversation was her willingness to stay open creatively. Rather than forcing herself into a formula or “brand,” she follows curiosity, experimentation, feeling, and play — allowing the work to evolve naturally over time.

Together we talk about growing up “semi-feral,” the importance of imagination and solitude in a creative life, the changing landscape of art and business, one-of-a-kind work, travel, beauty, community, and the freedom that comes from creating work that feels true to who you are.

This conversation felt especially meaningful to me because it also marks the 100th episode of the podcast. I walked away feeling inspired, creatively recharged, and reminded that some of the most interesting artists are the ones willing to keep exploring.

You can find Francesca’s work and follow along here:

Instagram: @flkjewelry

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