✨ Meet the Artist! ✨ . It’s been a long time since I’ve formally introduced myself! Hi!!! My name is Danielle and I’m the metalsmith behind Star Strung. 🌙✨ . 6 years ago today I was preparing my first Etsy listings for what has now become my full time job and passion. Star Strung probably would have never come to be if my partner and fiancé hadn’t battled and survived cancer in 2014-2015. Life was never more precious and I had always dreamed of creating something of meaning and artistic value. Watching someone fight for their life taught me never to let dreams go unfulfilled. I had actually been toying with the idea of creating jewelry three years earlier but needed that impetus to start weaving a new way of living. Shaun himself was also instrumental in pushing me and believing in what I could accomplish. . My metalsmithing journey began in a high school classroom in 2002, funded completely by the art teacher who brought his own gemstones to class for students to use and take home. I even still have a few of my original pieces I’ll show you sometime that include stones I cut myself! I knew when I worked with silver and stone I had found my “thing”! I’d always been fascinated and enamored with the idea of jewelry, in its ability to hold memory, sentiment, and how it gave life to the beauty found within earth so it can be appreciated and treasured. . My grandmother was instrumental in my upbringing and encouraged and inspired my love of horror (I was way too young to be watching 🤣), science fiction, and fantasy. I began reading Victorian era poetry and fiction also at an early age and I think you can see how those early influences thrive in my current creations. . A few other fun facts - I’m left handed, an only child, verbally dyslexic, put sriracha or red chili flakes on everything, majored in English Literature (1800’s and modern focus) suffer from endometriosis, was born and have lived around the same area of Washington state my entire life, and used to play violin and dance throughout school. . I’d love to chat with more of you, so if you have any questions about me or my art please post them in the comments, I’d love to hear from you!