Don Lyon
I started my journey in jewelry making in the early 1970s making wax models when freeform jewelry was popular. I started out as a hobby, using soft sheet wax and wax wire to design models of rings and pendants. After that, I integrated using the hard carving wax to make more classic designs. I was taking the models to a caster to cast in gold and silver. At that time gold was only $35.00 an oz. I would take my castings to a jeweler to do the finishing and setting for me. Over time I wasn't satisfied with the results I was getting so I started buying tools and equipment and began doing some of the work myself. After a while, I learned to do fabrication with gold and silver and setting stones.
People were commenting on the pieces I was wearing and when I told them that I made them. some would ask me to make them something. That's when my hobby became a sideline.
Six years later I opened a shop in the Seybold Bldg. in downtown Miami, the jewelry center of Miami.
I was serving my clients and taking on trade work from other jewelers.
Now I am now renting Studio space at Jewelry Creations Workshop where I am happy and grateful to be around artists who are practicing and expanding their jewelry skills that I may be able to contribute to and also learn from. I enjoy sharing the skills I have and I can't imagine not being able to express my creativity.