About Donna

I've been artistic all my life. I can't remember a time when

I didn't have a pencil and paper in my hand, but I had to put

it aside for more practical things.

 

Perhaps you've faced that dilemma, too, in your life.

I gave up a love of art for a more practical pursuit (professional nursing), which wasn't a bad thing, but I really missed the art I put aside.

So, now I have the opportunity to pursue what

I love full time. I have a small studio at my home

in Morro Bay, California. Yes, I live at the beach.

 

My little studio sits in a Zen garden with a koi pond that gets the morning sun and cool breeze. I'm surrounded by an array of hand tools, my kiln,

a couple of torches, and shelves of enamels and containers

of jewelry components.

What inspires my work? I use a lifetime of experience, skills, education, travel, and the influences of nature, light and dark, heat and pressure

to come up with design ideas that I believe reflect my personal

idea of harmony and balance, beauty and earthiness.

 

I draw from years as an art student and the foundation of good training

to take raw materials: enamels, metals, glass and often fiber and

leather to form creations of wearable art.

 

I enjoy inserting quirky pieces of unexpected oddities: colored beads, rings with dangling metal cubes, and definite asymmetry in the mix to produce truly one of a kind, interesting and pleasing pieces.

 

I want my creation to invite a person to look further...to touch, feel the weight, the texture of surface detail, to see reflected light bounce off facets cut in glass or off hammered craters in metal.

 

This is not a quick production line process. There are multiple steps involved, requiring repeated applications, (and often corrections to remove the results from imperfect firing). This can often result

in hours poured into the development of a piece.

I hope you will follow along with me in this journey of
discovery and expression. I will gladly share my processes

with those who wish to know the details.

It pleases me greatly when someone loves one
of my creations enough to wear it.

 

I hope to add more about my studio, my life here

on the Central California Coast, about art and nature.

We'll see. It's all a work in progress...

​

~ Donna Matchette

"Beach Made By Donna"