About the Makers // Amy Waltz Designs

Hello… We are Amy Waltz, Dianna Santilli Young and Jocelyn Glatthaar, the girls behind Amy Waltz Designs (AWD). We all live and work in the lovely and quaint town of Chico, California. We make jewelry with intention, purpose and meaning … SOUL jewelry.

Interestingly enough, AWD was born from my (Amy’s) photography work. Photographing newborns, I wanted to make pendants for the new mamas with photos of their babies so that’s where all of this began. I also very strongly connect with and believe in the power of positive thought. All along, the jewelry has always had a very mindful and purposeful component to it. My heart space with it was to use it as a way of propelling goodness and light. With little hidden mantras and words and hand-written notes of inspiration with each order, I thought it could help people to breathe a little deeper, let go a little more and treat themselves and each other with a little more heart. This will always be the *intention* of AWD. As I have grown, though, it has grown and at the present I have never felt more at home with it as I do now. These beautiful girls, Dianna and Jocelyn, round it all out for me. I feel such truth with what we are doing. More than making jewelry, we are living life together. We laugh, dance, cry, create, sing, and share in this journey. We all bounce ideas off each other and each of us brings a beautiful uniqueness to the table, offering something totally different and inspiring to the process and all of it together just flows and feels right. I would not be where I am today without Dianna and Jocelyn (obviously!). They help to ground and center the journey and bring a greater depth and creativity to the designs and outcome. And our families are right by our sides. With total support, they help to carry us and allow us to spread our wings and fly.

It’s so interesting because all of us dwell in a very similar place with our art. There have been many times that I bring something up to Dianna that I want to do and she’ll say she was just thinking that or Joce brings something forward to me and I’ll have had a vision about it. It boggles my mind. I love where we are right now with our craft. We literally start with a blank canvas of sheet metal and allow it to form into something magnificent. So we listen. We are open and we allow it to work through us. Within one sheet of metal is everything and nothing all at once. It holds all the possibilities that we don’t even realize are there yet. I love that we can take this flat, sort of dull, sometimes scratched up surface and cut it, sand it, shape it, stamp it, hammer it, sand it some more, and bang away on it, add words of inspiration and possibly a patina until this magical, beautiful love-soaked piece of adornment is created. It’s amazingly inspiring! With 20 years of jewelry creating experience, Dianna is a force of creative brilliance and knowledge. We have just launched into the soldering arena and she’s made it happen and taught us along the way. She is so gentle and kind. I am thankful that it’s jewelry that has brought us together for she is now not only a teacher and creative partner but also a dear friend to me. Jocelyn blows me away with her intention. I say I want to make purses and she brings back amazingly thought out and creative designs with purpose. Our purse line is partially upcycled which we all love. We love taking something that would be discarded and making it new again. She has taken skirts, jackets and pieces of scrap leather and transformed them into the most amazing bags! Thank god she said yes when I begged her to come work with me! She is one of my oldest and dearest friends and she just gets me. It’s an unspoken, soul connection we share. Personally, much of my inspiration comes from these beautiful women for it is our collective spirits that intertwine and mix and collide, taking our artistic expression to even greater heights. It is not one, but all of us and that’s the most beautiful part. It’s letting go of ego, opening your heart, listening, respecting, appreciating, allowing …. It’s trusting; trusting the process of this journey, the process that is actually much bigger than me. And if we are open and put our intentions to work, there really is nothing that cannot be accomplished.

I’m always drawn to the pieces that hold a message, an inspiration, something that causes us to pause and think and respond with ourselves and each other with a lightness of heart and being …. I know Dianna likes the patina pieces a lot and I would guess she would say leather but I can’t ask her as she’s in Italy right now! Jocelyn likes all the metal pieces because they are grounding and she likes mixing them up!

We have just recently launched our spring 2013 line! It’s all about fabulous color – Lemon Zest, Spring Green, Dusk Blue, Mustard Yellow, and Hibiscus Red. It’s also bangles and ultra skinny stacking rings and purses!

(AWD chose to sell their designs at Three Sixty Ecotique) Because Three Sixty rules!!! Both Lorna and Crystena have to be the sweetest gals and they have created such a wonderful, welcoming vibe with their boutique! Our designs also have a boho flair to them so I think they are perfectly matched in their sweet shop!

Thank you for sharing with us and taking the time to read. And a big thank you to the beauties of Ecotique for wanting to feature us! How thrilling! And Briana, thank you; you’ve been darling. We loved having you come to our studio and share and document our journey! We are blessed to live in this community and feel so deeply loved by all of you!!

Blessings & Light, Amy, Dianna & Joce

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Photography by Briana Morrison