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

Scott, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I’ve always enjoyed working with my hands and creating. In high school i had a really great teacher and mentor Sue Villella. She instilled a love of metalsmithing within me. After high school i worked at a custom jewelry store in Park City Utah continuing my education and learning the craft. Being able to work hard is easily my greatest skillset, there is no way around learning and getting better at what you do than repeating different processes over and over and perfecting the craft through time. Youtube wasnt around when i first entered the craft so i was limited to the knowledge i had from those around me, with social media and other forms of video content, there is so much knowledge at our fingertips now.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Oh, where to begin… haha. While in college, my wife and I started a family (3 boys) we also thought it would be a good idea to build a home. I had one year left in school and needless to say it was a lot of late nights and early mornings but we managed and made it through.

We purchased the store in 2006 right before the crash and that was definitely a challenging time for our business and it forced us to look at different avenues for revenue. We started a wholesale line, got into making jewelry for race series across the united states, and also ran our little store… Challenging but good memories.

My work consists of Fabrication, casting, lapidary and other forms of the metalsmithing process. A love for the outdoors has driven a theme in my work over the last few years.

\Working with my hands over the last 20 years in this industry has given me a beautiful connection to the work and the people around me who help make this process of creating possible.

Have you ever had to pivot?

After 18 years in the retail side of jewelry i decided to sell our store and focus solely on online sales. this was a big shift for my family and i but one that i felt needed to happen to grow and progress into the type of maker i wanted to become.

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

Being able to use my hands to provide for my family has been a gift. Using our experiences in the outdoors and bringing that spirit that we experience in them back into the studio to inspire and create with has been a beautiful thing

Contact Info:

• Website: www.scottjamesjewelry.com
• Instagram: scottjamesjewelry

Image Credits
shot of me by Steve Olpin