Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lindsey Glass. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Lindsey thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

It all started when I found my first agate on the beach in Malibu, CA. It had a cave of crystals that grabbed my full attention as I rinsed the sand out of it. I had no idea what I was looking at besides the absolute beauty of it. I joined Facebook groups about rock identification, bought books about agates and jaspers and about rockhounding in Southern California, and bought my first rock tumbler. I started tumble polishing small pieces of quartz, agate, and jasper I found on beaches and soon had so many beautiful rocks that I needed to learn how to turn the most beautiful ones into jewelry. My background as a microbiologist sure didn’t help with this. I had no idea where to begin. I looked up silversmithing classes near me only to find out that they were either a little too far or just didn’t fit into my schedule. I turned to YouTube. I found a great little video on how to do the most basic of a silver solder joint and watched it several times until I felt that I knew it well enough to buy some of the essentials and give it a try. I dove in and completely fell in love with silversmithing. I learned more and more through trial and error (a lot of error) and created pieces I was so proud of. As time went on and I progressed, I purchased my first rock saw and eventually a cabbing machine. Rockhounding and silversmithing had become my passions and I had never been this happy working a day to day “normal” job. I decided to make this my full time career. During the pandemic is when I truly started to feel like a professional. Everything had slowed down and everyone was forced to stay home. This gave my husband, dogs, and me ample opportunities to explore new areas and go camping most weekends. Looking at our world in a different way, being out in nature as often as I could, and being able to spend as much time as I wanted in my studio, whenever I wanted, caused me to have a creative boom. I tried new things without fear and started to really consider myself an artist.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Growing up in Southern California and being just a short drive from the beaches, mountains, and deserts made me extremely passionate about nature from a very young age. I loved learning about every animal, plant, or bug I came across. As life went on I moved to Oahu to further my education, completing a BS in Biology, and became a microbiologist. I loved working in a lab, but not 5 days a week, and not for the companies that I was working for. After 9 years I made the move back to Southern California for more job opportunities and to be closer to my family. I just wasn’t as happy as I could be in my current line of work. I had always wanted to do something that brought me closer to nature. I loved the technical side of silversmithing (so similar to the tedious tasks of working in a lab!) and I loved how my newly found passion for rock hounding brought me into nature. I soon let my creativity take over and brought nature into my studio; making my pieces reflect the beauty of nature with both incredible local semi precious minerals that I find around California as well as creating parts of nature in sterling silver. I feel guided by the passion and excitement I feel for the natural world around me when I sit down and create my jewelry. Every time I go to the beach, or go camping, or go on an adventure I come back home with so many ideas that I can’t wait to sit down and create. Essentially, I turn what seem like ordinary rocks that I find and turn them into one-of-a-kind, nature inspired, wearble artwork.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Being an artist has been incredibly rewarding. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of unknowns that still give me nervous butterflies, but the ups greatly outweigh the downs. Being able to actually be creative for a living is something I’ll never give up now that I understand how amazing it is. I get to create things that I am so passionate about, that I put my whole heart into, everyday and it’s just the most amazing feeling bringing them to completion. Being able to see my pieces go from basically nothing to a finished product, looking at them with pride and saying, “I did this” with a big smile on my face before I nervously show it to the public is a feeling like no other. The beautiful feelings of passion and pride, and being able to call them my career, are the most rewarding parts of being an artist to me.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

As a society we need to get past the poor struggling artist image. Artists are all different; using their past and present experiences, passions, and viewpoints to bring such a wonderful thing to the public- art. It takes guts to be an artist. It takes guts to put your feelings out there for all to see and for everyone to essentially criticize. Art is one of those weird grey areas that you can have ample training in or can be self taught and neither describe your success, passion, or how good you are at what you do. I think people, in general, struggle to grasp that concept. In a lot of careers, how good you are at your job is first described by how many degrees you have, what universities they’re from, who you’ve worked for, and what your accomplishments within those companies have been and art is nothing like that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.SilverandSlag.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/Silver_and_Slag
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/silverandslag
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@silver_and_slag