Mary Merchant Tinkle

Jewelry

Jewelry and passion
go hand in hand
 From taking her first jewelry class at age 15 at Broad Ripple High School, to teaching basic and intermediate jewelry making for IU-PUI Continuing Studies in Indianapolis, this artist still enjoys dreaming up designs and manifesting them in sterling silver, copper and gold. She continues her education by attending classes at the William Holland School in Georgia, and the Indianapolis Art Center.

She enjoys working with raw stone as well (known as lapidary art). "I feel a lot of freedom to let the stone do what it wants to do. When you take a slab of stone and cut it to make a piece of jewelry, it can be magic."

In 2004, she received one of the Governors' Choice awards from the Indiana State Fair for her jewelry design.

Her studio is nestled at home, where she finds a great deal of inspiration. Mary admist that her first passion is raising her two sons, Dean and Sam, with her husband, Eric.