Meet Holly Stringer | CAD/CAM Jewelery Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Holly Stringer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Holly, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
Growing up in Phoenix, I struggled in school. I was a poor test taker, I had trouble memorizing facts and struggled in reading. Fortunately, I had creative parents who were able to share their skills and help encourage me to find crafts that I enjoyed. My Dad was a machinist and my mom, a stay at home parent. My Dad would help my sister’s and I tinker in the garage with different projects. My mom taught me to sew and encouraged many other art and science projects. I excelled in all the art classes I ever took and loved drawing, crafting, sewing, etc. Later as a teenager, my family moved to Prescott and decided to purchase a Native American jewelry store. Again, my sister’s and I tinkered with anything and everything we could get our hands on. After high school I was attending a community college to pursue graphic design while working at my parents jewelry store. We had a need at the store for someone to do repairs and my father encouraged me to take a jewelry course that was being offered. After only a few classes, I was absolutely in love with the idea of making jewelry. I had begun to sketch designs that I wasn’t even capable of making at the time, but knew I would learn.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
After several months at the Artful Eye, I was presented with the opportunity to head to Illinois to train as a computer aided designer. At the time, CAD was still very new to the jewelry industry, but the Artful Eye has always loved staying ahead with new technology and equipment. After returning from the training course in Illinois, I was hooked. It was as if they had created a career just for me and the skills I possessed. The artful Eye invested in the new technology, computers, milling machines and my future. Without this technology, we were limited to carving custom jewelry from wax to create models. With CAD we are able to create jewelry with no limitations and include incredible detail down to the tenth of a millimeter. There was definitely a learning curve to this technology, but I got better at it with every piece a created. After 17 years of jewelry CAD, technology continues to increase and so do my skills. Every piece I make, hones my skills and makes me better and more efficient. Today, we use 3D printers to create our wax models that I create. We are able to show our customers exactly what they will get before we make it using renderings and wax examples. We are able to use customer’s stones and gold from their families heirlooms.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well, of course, I would bring them to the Artful Eye to see all of the amazing things that we have made and won awards for! I love Prescott and I love being outdoors, so I would definitely spend time kayaking Watson Lake, hiking Thumb Butte mountain and mountain biking around Goldwater Lake. We would visit the World’s Oldest Rodeo in July and eat tapas at El Gato Azul. We would head downtown and have a drink at Founding Fathers or maybe get a burger at Brown Bag burger.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
As I mentioned before, my father was the one who ultimately encouraged me to take my first jewelry class. He even took the class with me and could see I had a knack for the design and execution. After that first class, I took more jewelry making and stone cutting classes on my own and continued to learn. I started making jewelry in my families small shop at our Native American Jewelry store, but our equipment and supplies were limited. At that time I visited the Tucson Gem Show and ran into some family friends, The Rabellino’s. Dave and Sherrie Rabellino own the Artful Eye Jewelry store, which is known for custom designed jewelry and repairs. I ended up spending the whole afternoon with Dave at the Gem show as we talked about designs, casting, soldering. Dave is a wealth of knowledge and he was just thrilled to see my excitement in the industry. Dave and Sherrie loved that I had such a passion for jewelry and given that I had a graphic design background, they thought I maybe able to help them with some of their marketing. A few weeks later, (in 2006) they offered me a job as an apprentice to their jeweler Kevin. They have always been able to find our hidden talents and help bring them to the surface. Along with apprenticing, I was able to begin photographing jewelry, working on marketing and our website.

Website: www.ArtfulEyeJewelers.com

Facebook: Artful Eye Jewelers

Image Credits
Holly Stringer