Chelsey Bartrum had an concept that jewellery would play an vital function in her life—and it began with a blowtorch.

That after-school program when Bartrum was in junior excessive was impactful. To start with, holding that fireside and controlling its results? That was life altering, Bartrum says. However understanding learn how to be part of steel collectively was one thing she couldn’t neglect.

“How was it that these items mix they usually make one thing?” Bartrum says, trying again with awe even right now. “I’ve some clear, particular reminiscences of fireplace.”

Add in her love for a close-by bead store, her mom’s affect as a working artist, and Bartrum’s curiosity in making issues along with her arms, and you’ve got the seeds of a future jeweler. However the path wasn’t that straightforward—like many inside the jewellery trade, Bartrum took a couple of twists and turns to finally get there.

Bartrum first channeled her curiosity into science, one thing she pursued when she was an undergraduate in school.

“I used to be going to do one thing within the medical area. I appreciated serving to individuals. I appreciated speaking them by issues. I had a very good bedside method, and I had some experiences the place I knew how vital that was in care,” Bartrum says. “I had lots of completely different concepts in school, like dentist or a health care provider or a psychologist. My grandfather was a dentist—I beloved the instruments, however I didn’t like working in individuals’s mouths.”

Throughout these years, Bartrum says she labored with some superb nurses, and she or he describes nurse practitioners as “all the time my favourite individuals.” So, she began towards nursing as a profession path. Bartrum utilized to a grasp’s program in nursing and bought in. Life was set, proper?

Round that point, Bartrum and her future husband took a visit to Chetumal, Mexico. Seeing the artistry there reignited the need to work along with her arms, however deep inside craft reasonably than inside drugs, Bartrum says.

“We had been residing in Chetumal, on the backside of the Yucatán. My godparents additionally had been residing there, instructing English, so I realized Spanish and began instructing English in an elementary faculty,” Bartrum says. “I had lots of time with my future husband and my godparents, they usually began asking me questions. What are you doing, actually? Why? Why are you on this path in the event you’re unsure?… They instructed I give myself a yr and simply attempt one thing I felt actually enthusiastic about.”

The couple went dwelling to Vermont, and Bartrum began taking jewellery lessons. “I beloved it. I beloved the native jewelers and goldsmiths and the workshops,” Bartrum says.

They finally settled in Santa Fe, N.M., and Bartrum discovered a grasp goldsmith keen to take her on as an apprentice. That have together with lessons at a commerce faculty for jewellery and Gemological Institute of America lessons had been subsequent. With that GIA diploma in hand, Bartrum apprenticed with a number of influential designers, together with Loree Rodkin, shifting lastly to Los Angeles, all whereas her jewellery information and observe continued to develop.

In 2016, Bartrum debuted Starling, her model that focuses on creating accessible advantageous jewellery for on a regular basis put on. A few of her prospects’ favourite items are the mother-and-daughter units and mini heirloom bracelets, designed partially after the delivery of Bartrum’s daughter in 2019.

Not too long ago, Bartrum created her subsequent large undertaking: Heirloom Revival. This sister model to Starling serves as a solution to increase jewellery’s sustainability in addition to assist individuals recycle the gems, metals, and treasured supplies they already personal however maybe by no means put on, Bartrum says.

Bartrum has created these sorts of customized items all through her jewellery profession, even for herself. However doing it for different individuals by Heirloom Revival has given new spark to her work and the hope that she may also help others fall in love with their classic or household jewellery once more.

“It’s extra labor, however that’s what I really like about it,” Bartrum says. “It’s sustainable and mawkish. It additionally places goldsmithing on the forefront, and that’s so vital to me. It’s taking the artwork, talent, and craft of creating jewellery and conserving it alive.”

High: Chelsey Bartrum not too long ago launched her second jewellery model, Heirloom Revival, to assist individuals take jewellery that has that means to them and switch it into recent designs that they like to put on (pictures courtesy of Chelsey Bartrum). 

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