After 25+ years of teaching post-secondary foundation art courses and portfolio development, I know and love playing with the elements of design.

I create multi-functional, sustainable jewellery and accessories, for those on the go and DIY MINI-KITS for those who also love the creative process of making at home or while travelling.

‘it is not down in any map; true places never are’ ~ Herman Melville

As someone thrown into having to live in relative isolation these past few+ years, I problem-solve to maintain a healthy lifestyle balance using what I know about the creative process. Isolation hasn’t stopped me from discovering some of my dearest friends online. Meet Joy. Rarely a day goes by the two of us don’t spill the day’s tea together! We’re on the Advisory Council of Journeywoman and got to know one another when we were asked to deliver an online presentation to the membership about solo woman travel.

As a member of Ethical Metalsmiths, I explored inspired responsible jewellery practices through on-line education, connections and action. I expanded my knowledge of slow stitching through textile art.

Beautiful product accessories needn’t bear human nor environmental tolls.

Join me down my rabbit hole of creativity and find fixes to bring our world(s) together … better than ever … we be … like Kintsugi, the Japanese process of repairing treasured goods with various glues and gold … just a little magical – right!

Before you go though … I live in Toronto. My name is Brenda.

I am an artist (drawing and painting), a multi-purpose jewellery and accessory designer, I slow stitch, I pot (mostly miniature teapots) and began because I pulled the wrong book off the shelf in a downtown bookstore, I thought I was in the poetry section, I’m a little dyslexic & ADHd, I write (poetry and short stories) and garden (mostly vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers). When I discovered metalsmithing, I quickly began working in silver and set up to make cloisonne pieces but lost access to the downtown studio so I’m presently in a long, slow process of setting up a home studio.

I was a foundation art professor for 25+ years at Sheridan College. It was a job I loved. I was seconded for a Semester at Nanyang Polytechnic in Singapore to teach figure drawing and portfolio development to animation students while studying computer animation. Later, I spent a 3-month Sabbatical exploring museums in Paris while writing a novel and returned home to spend a month on Toronto Island at Gibraltar Point finishing the first draft (it’s in a suitcase).   I retired in June 2017 and I’m sharing what life has been like after a career in teaching.

me then

me now

I was looking forward to having time to discover who I am without ‘the job’ to prop me up while continuing my art and writing practices. I studied creative writing at Ottawa University with Seymour Mayne, OCA (now OCADU) with George Miller and Humber College with Graeme Gibson and Margaret Atwood in a Summer Workshop (talk about a rare stereo experience with the two of them in a select class of seven). I did Margaret’s Masterclass online and took a writing course called Book on Fire with Donna Barker at the end of 2017. I am currently working on a collection of short stories … here are some illustrations I did for Sandra Dedrick of The Free Design for the song, Love You.

Friends nicknamed me Bre.

I planted some seeds once and blogged a bit about my garden for a decade afterwards using the avatar gardenbre, and I am on Twitter as such. The name has grown on me to the point that sometimes I have to remind myself I am not gardenbre.

 in Paris pretending to drink from a fountain spitting water from a statue’s orifice

acting like my favourite iris

I garden in the High Park Allotment and in containers on a South-facing roof deck in downtown Toronto, so there will be seedlings, garden notes, and recipes, some botanical drawings, a little calligraphy, and some DIY reno HOMEwork projects because my home’s screaming for some love.

here are some old garden posts …

I’ll be using a new twitter, setting up shop on etsy and using this Facebook business page and here’s my instagram …

I wanted to be a professional blogger when I was older. That time is nigh.

The plan is was to do 100 things in 1000 days and talk about it like there’s no tomorrow.

UPDATE – SO MUCH OF THE AFOREMENTIONED WENT BY THE WAYSIDE  …

Life took some quick turns left and then right

when

I took my first jewellery course

and then another and another and another and …

and soOoo

began thesterlingyears.com -ing soon – or not … no, let’s make that

XNtricities.com is coming soon

see some of what I’ve been up to in jewellery-making!

I’ve set up shop and a blog on oneseedwonders.ca and am in the process of writing posts for the new XNtricities.com thesterlingyears.com