Meet the Maker

Hi, I'm Dianne and the face behind Divella Designs.

When I first started Divella Designs I had no idea it would take me to this place. I was working full time in a hospital by day and in the evenings & on weekends beadweaving, creating patterns, and teaching a variety of beading techniques. That was in 2007. Now I find myself in 2021 living in a with a house tucked into the woods of Vermont in the middle of a full metalsmithing studio and making jewelry full time. It’s just my husband David, our 2 pups and me here. The kids and grandkids are grown and gone and we’re even awaiting the birth of our first great grandson! Funny, I don’t feel old enough for that! 

Back in 2011 shortly after moving from Maine to Vermont, I bought my first small torch, a hammer, some copper sheet and a few other miscellaneous jewelry tools to learn fold-forming. 

Through the process of heating, bending, twisting, and hammering; that flat piece of copper sheet turned into a wearable piece of art. 

With the help of books, people on YouTube like Nancy LT Hamilton, Andrew Berry and a few online mentors I gradually learned (and am still learning) the details of working with metals. 

I was afraid of the price tag of silver so I used to practice with copper before attempting something in silver.  I’ve learned that not only is silver easier to work with, but I can melt down my mistakes with silver (much easier than copper) and make some really interesting pieces.

ADHD is something I’ve had to manage my entire life. I say managed because I don’t suffer with it, I’ve learned how to deal with it…mostly. That’s thanks to my pediatrician when I was young. He didn’t believe it required medication and said I would outgrow it. I’ll always be thankful for Dr. West and the decision he made, but I never did outgrow it.

I was plugging along at my workbench and thought there must be a way to add more color. I asked Mr. Google about it and he suggested enamels. Well, don’t ya know that good ole ADHD kicked into high gear and I bought everything I needed to get started! I began torch firing and finally bought a kiln, mostly because of my lack of patience. With a kiln I do more in a shorter time span and get some really cool effects much easier.

 So there you have it, my evolution thus far. Oh, except I’ve begun adding gold to my work, 24k gold (freaking emoji) Check out my Keum-Boo work…more on that later.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my trip down memory lane and the evolution of Divella Designs up to this point.