How I Became a Jewelry Designer (Copy)
Brenda Radford, Jewelry Designer
It started with a two decade career in secondary level education. My enthusiastic and innovative approaches were acknowledged with awards for teaching excellence which I gratefully received. Teaching and learning became lifelong passions. I happily devoted my creative energy to that.
That creative energy expanded to include modelling, acting and immersion in the fashion industry before those pursuits developed into a second career, where I thoroughly enjoyed fashion design, style and beauty projects.
Yes, that was a real leopard, and yes, I smoked back then!
As a working single mother of two energetic and delightful children I did encounter hard challenges that many women in that position can appreciate. When my daughter was finally launched and my son was preparing for university, I began to dream about what I wanted to do next. I knew that it would be related to art. Compelled to create, to design, to make art, I researched MA programs only to realize how out of touch I felt with what was going on in the art world. My beautiful compositions and sculptures were pretty to look at, but I lacked the desire to generate social change with my art, and among other things I wondered if I was too old.
In life’s beautiful serendipity my daughter invited me to the spa at Holt Renfrew where she worked. I noticed a magazine article there about three women designers who had gone to Jewelry School in Florence. It grabbed me forcefully. Within the week I was enrolled in the Three Year Jewellery Arts Program at George Brown College in Toronto, 6 blocks away from my son at U of T, and in a perfect triangle, 6 blocks from my daughter in Yorkville.
It wasn’t until I was well into my first year that I fully realized how perfectly suited I was for this career. My patience, perseverance and tendency to perfectionism were suddenly fundamental strengths.
By second year I was designing what would become award-winning Production Lines, thanks in part to my solid background in the elements and principles of design, which I applied to all of my work. I passionately revered the 19th Century Master Jewelers; Cartier, Lalique, Boucheron, Verdura. In third year I was creating wearable pieces in my own style, influenced by my background in fashion as much as by my thorough education in all aspects of jewelry techniques and gemstones at GBC. I was thrilled to receive recognition and awards for my work.
I believe that every path we take in life leads us towards something we are meant for. When I registered my company, Radford Studio, I was fortunate to have clients immediately in Stratford and Toronto. I used my skills in organization, writing, layout and marketing to develop the business and collaborate on my first website. I had studied CAD/CAM technology at GBC and loved it for providing me the ability to manufacture my production lines as well as to facilitate intricate wax models for the unique custom pieces I was designing. After purchasing the software in 2006 and my first CNC machine in 2007, I created the tag line, “Artistic Vision meets Computer Precision”. My vision continues to define my work and challenge me in my creative life.