BEHIND THE BENCH
Hi, I'm Nina. I make jewelry for people who want something a little less expected.
I'm the designer and formally trained bench jeweler behind Twistful Thinking. From my little home studio in Michigan, I create sculptural jewelry with lots of personality. Pieces that are designed to feel distinctive now and worth keeping for years to come.
THIS WASN'T EXACTLY THE PLAN.
Twistful Thinking started in 2015 as a creative outlet and slowly turned into something I never could have planned.
I started by teaching myself the basics, working with wire and natural stones at home. The more I learned, the more completely obsessed I became with jewelry making. What started as a way to create and express myself eventually became my full-time business. And somewhere along the way, I realized I didn’t just want to make jewelry. I wanted to understand how to really make jewelry.
So at 30, after nearly a decade in business, I packed up and headed to Tennessee for an intensive bench jeweler certification program.
And that changed everything.
NEARLY A DECADE LATER...
These days you’ll usually find me at my bench carving wax, soldering tiny pieces of metal together, setting stones, obsessing over a finish, or convincing myself that yes, moving something half a millimeter absolutely makes a huge difference.
I work in sterling silver and solid gold using traditional metalsmithing, fabrication, lost wax casting, and stone setting techniques. My cast pieces begin with my designs at the bench and are cast locally here in Michigan before coming back to my studio where each piece is individually finished by hand.
I also create custom and heirloom jewelry, teach metalsmithing, and design my growing Signature Collection.
I'm probably watching a crappy horror movie, hanging out with Stella Luna, cooking something absolutely delicious, reading a smutty book, or dreaming up the next design I absolutely need to make.