Amber wakes up every day at 6:15 a.m. She grabs a cup of coffee, takes the kids to school, and then heads off to work – at her kitchen table.
She doesn’t commute to an office or work under a manager like many other Americans. Instead, she gets to work at home and do something she really loves: make metalwork jewelry.
Amber Johnson, a resident of Coeur d’Alene and alumni of NIC, is an artist. She makes bold and wearable statement pieces out of metal and finds at local thrift stores.
Her career as an artist began at NIC several years ago as she tried to figure out what career path to go down. She took classes in most every field in order to find her calling.
“After I took my first ceramics class, I knew being an artist is what I wanted to do,” Johnson said. “After that, I never left Boswell Hall.”
Since graduating from NIC in 1998, she has done everything from graphic design to freelance painting to selling knit scarves at independent businesses in Spokane.
“Being a crafty person, I enjoy and experiment with all kinds of art,” Johnson said. “But, I find myself always coming back to jewelry making.”
Currently, she creates simple and unique metal jewelry from her own home. Without having a studio or an art room, she is able to create sellable jewelry with her own two hands and a few tools. Although, she wants her customers to know that metalwork also requires a lot of manual labor.
“With drawing, you have this blank piece of paper you make something on,” Johnson said. “And with metal, you hammer it, scratch it, bend it, manipulate it, and color it to make something beautiful and useful – turning it into something completely different than what it first started as.”
Johnson has experience selling her jewelry online on “Etsy”, a popular website for every kind of artist. Her latest collection is entitled “Coy” and contains pieces of varying styles and designs. They are being sold at a new store opening February seventh in Downtown Spokane called “Boulevard Mercantile.”
“You can like what you do, but then you also have to figure out how to make money,” Johnson said. “You can’t always live off of your doodles.”
She uses websites like Instagram and Facebook to get the message about her jewelry around to friends, family, and customers. In fact, a lot of her inspiration comes from surrounding herself with creative people and following artists on the social media she uses. She said it’s always important, as an artist, to keep creative people around and learn from them.
“Artists are needy people.” Johnson said. “We want to make art people will see and like.”
She finds she creates better jewelry when she doesn’t pressure herself with the idea of it ending up in a store. She admits her best art comes when she is making it for herself and letting herself go in the process.
“I always wanted to do things other people told me to do – create things other people would like,” Johnson said. “It’s a process learning how to make art that I like and being patient enough to watch the world come to me.”
You can find more of Amber Johnson’s jewelry and learn more about her by following her on Instagram at “coy.jewelry.”
If you would like to be a featured artist or know someone who would, please contact Lily Anderson at lily.r.anderson@gmail.com
All photos taken by Lily Anderson/Sentinel