Autochthonous Evolved - Lampwork Glass Beads and Jewelry

Autochthonous Evolved - Jewelry and Lampwork Glass Beads by Julie Bowen

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According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

autochthonous
Main Entry: au·toch·tho·nous
Pronunciation: \o?-'täk-th?-n?s\

Function: adjective
Date: 1805
1 : indigenous, native [an autochthonous people]
2 : formed or originating in the place where found [autochthonous rock] [an autochthonous infection]
— au·toch·tho·nous·ly adverb

About Me: I have been interested in crafts since I was a little girl. I began making jewelry in high school and began working as a designer after I graduated from college. I focus on lampwork and silversmithing, but I am interested in multi-media and am always developing new skills.
I turned 34 in September 2010 and have been happily married to my amazing husband, Sean - a software developer, since October 2006. We have one amazing little boy, Sawyer, who was born in March 2009. I am a licensed 5-12 Social Studies teacher and have been worked as a substitute teacher in the Minnetonka, Wayzata, and Saint Paul school districts.

I started designing and creating jewelry when I was little. I loved the contrast between the fashion and color sense needed to design a piece and the technical skill needed to make it. After years of experiment and experience, I created Autochthonous Evolved in April 2004.

Autochthonous Evolved is a strange name, true, but I wanted something unusual that would stand out, and something that really represented my philosophy of art:

to take inspiration from everything, use natural materials, and transform them into something beautiful so they complement a wearer's natural beauty. Autochthonous means found in the place where formed. I think that its meaning is significant, not only because it stands for the materials used to make my jewelery, but it also reminds us that we are all beautiful the way we were made, but that doesn't mean that we can't tweak our natural assets once in a while!