Life & Work with Rebekah Timlin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rebekah Timlin.  

Rebekah, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up with a Detroit artist for a father and a Canadian craftswoman/entrepreneur for a mother. So, creating and selling my work seemed second nature to me. I was homeschooled/unschooled along with 6 of my 7 siblings on a small farm in Lake, MI. Growing up, I spent a lot of time in my Dad’s studio, watching him work, asking a ton of questions, and getting to create some things myself. My dad was a stone carver, ceramicist, jeweler, woodworker, sculptor, blacksmith, along with many other talents. He had the tools for everything in his studio, and it felt like a little slice of heaven to me. This is where I first learned how to cut metal into shapes and make jewelry. We grew and made almost everything we needed to survive on our small farm. Carding, spinning, and weaving the wool from our sheep. (My parents even made and sold spinning wheels for a time). Growing and canning food. Chopping wood to heat our home and bringing water in from the well. It was a lifestyle from a different time period. I definitely didn’t have a typical 1980s childhood! Fast forward a few years, and I graduated from High school and moved to Detroit. I was busy with other things (mostly the amazing music concerts of the early ’90s) and didn’t make much art or jewelry. I was in college, studying psychology with the goal of becoming a child psychologist, going to concerts, and working. I married my best friend and the love of my life at age 22. He died of Cystic Fibrosis just over a year after our wedding. It was during this time of immense grief that I turned back to artwork and jewelry. I eventually moved to New Mexico to be closer to my sister Rachel and to go back to school at UNM. I had some amazing art professors and jumped fully into the fine arts department there. I first started my little jewelry business in New Mexico as a way to make extra money through college. I named my business Lunasa Designs after the Irish festival Lughnasadh – which falls right around my birthday. During my time at the University of New Mexico, I also became really interested in the mental/emotional process of making art and the way it was helping me through my grief… 25 years later, I not only run my jewelry business and make porcelain sculpture, I’m also an art therapist for young people in the foster care system. My jewelry business was really born out of necessity. First, to help me through college, then when I remarried a few years later and started having children, it was a way to help provide for my young family while still having the freedom to be home (or anywhere) with them. Raising my 3 boys has been the best thing in my life, and they have kept me going through many ups and downs. I wouldn’t trade my ability to be fully present for them for anything, and am thankful for my jewelry business for providing that. What started out as a necessity has become a way to connect to other people and the community I live in. I absolutely love making little trinkets that fit someone’s energy and personality so perfectly and will be a treasure for many years past me. I have become good friends with many of my customers over the years and love that my jewelry has connected me to people I might never have met otherwise. When my second marriage ended, I leaned pretty hard on my jewelry business to get me through the tough times of becoming a single parent for the first time. It once again helped me provide for my children. It has become a wonderful, beautiful thing to lean on, and walking into my studio every morning with my cup of coffee is the best feeling in the world. It’s like the comfort of coming home every time and is the same feeling of comfort I got when I walked into my dad’s studio as a kid. My children are almost grown now, I have a wonderful, supportive partner (Rick Partridge) in my life now, and I’m doing the things I love, working with foster kids and making jewelry. 

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
When I first started my jewelry business, the internet was very, very new. Not many people had small business or personal selling websites. I started one anyway. I had no idea what I was doing, really. I learned how to upload pictures and write a little code, and I was on my way. There have been many challenges. Navigating our new world of online selling was one major challenge, but at the time, it was a challenge for everyone. We all learned together. As a single parent, I often didn’t have the time or the resources to grow my business and always felt behind. I learned to create “made to order” items and would sometimes have to order supplies AFTER someone paid me for their item. This was a tough way to run a business… Especially a creative business. It’s hard to create and be truly expressive if you’re limited with your supplies. I kept pushing through, though. Nickle and diming it. I had to for my children. 

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I do a lot of different things, I make sculpture that deals with issues in society and our personal lives. I use my sculpture to work through grief and control and chaos, and the human condition (whatever that may be). I’m fascinated with our inner worlds and the things left unsaid. I’m proud of my sculpture, but I built a business from my jewelry. I love to create jewelry that complements the wearer, either in the space it occupies or the energy it embodies. I make jewelry with a particular person in mind… And it never fails that my jewelry always finds the right home with the right person. I love that. In my jewelry business, I’m most known for my “Tiny Stacking Rings.” These started with just ONE ring, made for a “ring a day” jewelry challenge I was doing with other jewelry artists from around the world. The challenge was to make at least one ring a day and post it on social media. The rings could be made out of anything. I made a very slender ring out of a piece of scrap sterling wire on my workbench. I hammered a texture on it (mostly just to work-harden it because I thought it was too thin for a ring), soldered a small bezel, and set a small spiny oyster shell in it. I blackened the band and listed it. It was a hit immediately! I quickly started making more and finding all kinds of different small gemstones I could set in them. Because the band was so thin, I could stack multiple rings on one finger, which was a fairly new concept back then… and they became a hit. I love the versatility of these rings – the amount of different colors, different meanings you can have for each stone… I do a lot of birthstones with these rings and sell a lot for Mother’s Day. 

How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
The biggest support to me and my small operation is to buy my jewelry. Or, to help with some of my bigger life goals, you could find a teenager in the foster system to mentor. The kids that I work with could always use healthy, caring, knowledgeable adults in their lives. It doesn’t take much to make a huge difference in a kid’s life. Find a foster home/residential – or even a Juvenile Justice center near you and contact them about volunteering or becoming a mentor. I am also currently working on some ideas to open up an after-school/summer program for rural kids in need of a place to hang out and experience art. I’d love help with funding an arts community center for the kids up here. 

Pricing:

• Stacking rings are $30 and up depending on the gemstones used.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lunasadesigns/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LunasaDesignsJewelry
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekah-timlin-38831a2/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lunasadesigns
• Other: www.etsy.com/shop/lunasadesigns

Image Credits
Rebekah Timlin