My journey into jewelry began 30 years ago when I wanted to repair a beaded necklace that broke. I ventured into a bead store and that was it, I was hooked. I first realized I could sell my work when a woman bought a bracelet off my wrist while on vacation. I shared my idea of starting a little jewelry business with a friend, and we brainstormed potential names. I wanted my name to be part of it, but also didn't want something generic. She had the great idea of "to die for", something you have to have. I decided to use numbers, and di, which is short for Dianna. 2di4 jewelry was born and I started selling at festivals & craft shows, as this was in the dark ages, before e-commerce.
I made & sold fine beaded jewelry until 2014 when I became creatively bored, and needed a new challenge. I decided to try silversmithing. Thanks to You Tube, I could teach myself at home. Turns out, it was not as easy as it looked in the videos. I had a love / hate relationship with it at first. I dreaded soldering, was intimidated by my torch, and shed tears of frustration when I melted stuff. Good times! Six years later, soldering is my favorite part of the process and there is no crying in my studio, just occasional bad language.
I'm a one woman show, all jewelry is hand fabricated by me, in my tiny San Diego studio. I'm a member of a local juried artist community, The Spanish Village Art Center.