The Sea of Beads

Destiny is hard to avoid, that is what I have learned. All my life I have been surrounded by Artists, raised by Artists, and walked through life as an Artist. Yet, only now am I recognizing who and what I am. My name is Christine Arancio and I am an Artist.

I was born and raised in New England in a Sicilian-American environment surrounded by creative people. My grandparents made clothing, sold draperies, and were nationally recognized for building (without instructions or designs) and playing a large Church Organ. My aunt is a Graphics Designer and photographer. My brother plays guitar and creates amazing drawings. My mother is an accomplished pianist, creates her own clothing, and knits. Many of my family members are left handed, and I find myself using my left hand whenever I make jewelry.

 
During my late teens and early to mid-twenties I traveled Great Britain, Sicily, and all over Western Europe. I found an inherent appreciation of the history. I recognized the quality of craftsmanship and how those skills and talents were passed from generation to generation.

As long as I can remember I had an eye for detail, color, texture and quality of everything in life. Now that I make my own jewelry, I am taking my values and instilling them in my art. The quality of the material is important, but quality is not just the material. Quality is also the workmanship. I have been collecting beads and making jewelry for over 10 years.

Over the years, I have taken about 6 jewelry making classes, but I am mostly self taught. My (design) inspirations comes from life, happiness, texture, color, nature, dreams or just the aura from those around me. I also look at magazines for inspiration, but I will not copy another artists work and claim it as my idea. Thank you for taking the time to read about me. I hope you find my jewelry interesting, unique and consisting of quality pieces. Hopefully you will purchase a piece or two.