jody lyle
Born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico Jody Lyle has been immersed in art throughout her lifetime. Jody’s grandmother was a well-known landscape painter in Northern New Mexico and inspired Jody from an early age. She earned her degree in Fine Art from the University of North Texas and later worked in a well-recognized sculpture foundry in Loveland, Colorado.
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She began drawing, painting, and sculpting at an early age and later enjoyed the challenge of expressing her ideas in metal. Egypt and Ancient Greece have been pivotal to her jewelry-making passion. Seeing their remarkable traditions in early metallurgy and sensual use of color and raw materials has had a lasting influence on her work. World travel continues to inspire Jody’s jewelry design and elements. “Each culture brings with it a variety of characteristics that interest me. Not just the collections in museums, but their natural scenes and formations, as well as their cultural richness and traditions.”
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Over the past seventeen years, her university study, experimentation, and apprenticing with masters, have honed her skills. Jody’s style of jewelry continues to evolve and always includes an element of invention. Jody says often the stones dictate the patterns and designs to her, so she is increasingly drawn to their organic stories. Using a mix of metals in each piece, her goal is to create something personal, and passionate with a hint of intimacy. Jody now lives in Washington state on Bainbridge Island.
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Artist Statement:
Jody’s work embodies a passion for invention, cultural heritage as well as a personal discovery and expression. Each piece reflects her commitment to art and the exploration of fusion jewelry.
Technical Process:
This body of work is all hand fabricated. The idea of this series is to design around the stones, so I have chosen stones that speak to me and then extend them with a metal element; to add structure or balance and sometimes to finish the thought that the stone provoked in me. This is a very fun and subjective series that allows me to pull from all my life experiences.
