E. Schappert Jewelry

This tool pouch from is my new favorite thing! It’s so pretty and perfect for holding my chain-assembly supplies, so I don’t have any excuse not to work on one while I’m at a show. 😋 Additional shoutout to .fisher for the twisted steel scribe, which is my second favorite thing!

We got so lucky with the weather today at ! It’s a great market, it’s free, and we are here until 4!

Working hard to prep for this show. Come see me on Sunday!

You honestly cannot ask for a better setting for a show than a gorgeous greenhouse! But it was no mean feat to get my whole setup on one table, hahaha. Looking forward to a great day.

Woke up at 5 AM this morning to finish this “complement necklace”! A new record in getting pieces done last minute. 🤪

Edited to add: It sold! So it was worth it! 🤣

Looking forward to this show! 🌿🌸🪴

Working on some new botanical beauties for the Winter Makers’ Market this weekend. I’m really looking forward to this one, because I get to spend the whole day in one of my favorite places, Barlow’s gorgeous greenhouse! Come in from the cold and see me on Saturday, January 27th!

What a fantastic market this will be! You can see me there on Saturday, 1/27, but it will definitely be worth your time to check out the other days as well!

Winter Market Held in our 10,000 square foot heated glass greenhouse, we'll be hosting local craftsfolk showing off everything from artisan foods to art from local photographers & creatives, candles to jewelry to home decor to bath & body goods & so much more! This year we'll be featuring a raffle with proceeds s...

*Sold* A popular style today at ! Quick inventory pics are all I have. 🤪

I’ve been hoarding this amazing from for a while, but just finished this necklace and am in love with it! Can you see the pattern in the stone?! Come see it up close at the here , Saturday, 10-4

I guess I was feeling blue this week!

Coming up this weekend! Great family event at a lovely park.

Oh, hi. I’m still here.

Just working on new pieces like a fiend, including a small collection of 100% handcrafted chains and bracelets.

My first spring show is the Creative Arts Festival at Thompson Park on May 13th!

And sometimes, I make goals. 🤣

Packing up some new pieces for the Winter Market today…

Jewelry for your garden! 😉
I whipped up* these stamped brass herb markers to donate to the gift basket raffle benefiting . To see all of the baskets and enter the raffle, stop by their Winter Market this weekend or next weekend and bring a non-perishable food item to donate. I’ll be there on Saturday, January 28th!

*and by “whipped up.” I mean, spent entirely too much time planning and executing 🤣

Some lovely botanical on the bench this weekend, on their way to becoming new pieces for the Winter Market . I’ll be there on Saturday, January 28th.

Two weeks from today, I’ll be at my first event of the year, and I’m so excited! is already one of my happy places, so I can’t think of a better way to spend a winter day than chilling in their gorgeous greenhouse. The market is running for two weekends, but if you want to see me, make sure you come on Saturday, January 28th, as that’s the day I’m scheduled!

Oh, and bring a non-perishable food item to donate to and get a raffle entry!

I was waiting to post these until they made it safely to their new home, but here were my last pieces of 2022: a pendant and ring in shining silver for a super nice client! I love doing custom pieces for people who adore gorgeous natural stones as much as I do. ❤️

Practice: stamped sterling silver hollow form ring

Releasing new butterflies is pretty fun, but they won’t go until they’re ready. They open and close their wings to dry them and, presumably, to test them out. Then off they go to start the cycle all over again.

I wanted a ring that captured the idea of flight, so I designed an abstract swallowtail shape, wings pitched as if opening and/or closing. I don’t usually work with a lot of texture, so I challenged myself to find a pattern that made sense for this ring. My oldest daughter and I had examined a part of a swallowtail wing under her microscope, and we had seen the outline of the scales that covered it, so I used that as inspiration. Darren helped me make my very first stamp, and I attempted to use it to create an overlapping pattern on the flat sheet for the sides of the ring. It took some practice, and I probably could have used more….

But in the end, she took flight.

Pause: pierced brass pendant with sterling accents

After a butterfly emerges from its chrysalis, its wings unfurl, and it hangs a while to let them dry and harden before taking flight.

This was the first piece I started in the fall 2021 semester, a sawing project. I wanted to capture the new butterfly in a slightly more abstract way, with its wings draped together like fabric and wing spots unsorted, pausing to figure itself out before attempting bigger things. The wings begin soft and pliable and oh-so-fragile, but the framework of veins within them give them structure and strength.

I used a saw to cut the shape and wing spots, then added silver wires to form the interior framework. This ended up being more of a soldering challenge than I expected, so it was a good learning experience. It needs a chain, of course, but that’s on my list for this semester…

Potential: brass chrysalis brooch with sterling accents

When a swallowtail butterfly is almost ready to emerge, its bright wing spots become visible through the walls of its chrysalis. This might have been my favorite moment, because it was so exciting to know they had survived and would soon be completely transformed. The spots reminded me of lights or stars shining through the dark, bright spots of beauty and potential beauty at the same time.

If I had to choose a favorite piece from the semester/collection, it might be this one. Darren wanted us to add rivets to a sawn sheet project. So I did. Only these silver rivets aren’t holding anything in place (other than themselves), and were filed and sanded flush with the surface, becoming more of an inlay.

In the process of creation, beauty and meaning inhabit all the steps along the way, not only the final product.

Preparation: brass wire link chain

Before a swallowtail caterpillar forms a chrysalis, it finds a branch or twig and curves its body into a “J” formation to prepare for the next stage. It can hang like that for days before it pupates.

When I was sketching ideas for our first class project, I drew a loopy thumbnail to try and represent the transition from caterpillar form to butterfly form, loosely combining the “J” shape with a wing shape. I couldn’t figure out a way to get that sense of movement in sheet metal, so I moved on to other ideas. But then we got to a link project, and that seemed like a perfect fit.

To form the links, I had to do some preparation of my own. I made a makeshift jig out of craft supplies. It worked well enough to get this chain made, but if I ever want to make another, I would put more time (and harder wood) into a new jig.

Prospects: sterling silver carrot-leaf earrings (fold-formed, sawn, and textured) with peridot and dark moonstone cabochons

Our swallowtail journey began when I saw a butterfly visiting the carrots in our garden. Since there were no flowers, I was curious. I investigated and discovered tiny yellow-green jewels hidden in the foliage. We brought some of them inside to observe. As they developed, the eggs darkened in color until they were ready to hatch.

Swallowtails don’t lay in clumps; each egg stands alone on its own leaf, glossy and precious, the prospect of a new generation with a 1% chance of survival.

So goes the process of creation. Each new idea holds the prospect of completion. Some develop further than others. Many don’t survive. But all are valuable in the process.

I’m not usually big on resolutions, but I’ve decided to try and post more, because I realized that the little flashes that show up here are not very representative of how much time and effort I actually spend creating.

So to kick off the new year, here’s a personal collection I competed in fall/winter 2021, but never managed to photograph! 😂

I’m calling this my Process Collection, inspired by the life cycle of the black swallowtail butterflies my daughters and I raised the previous summer. I made these pieces while following the curriculum of .fisher ‘s Jewelry I class at Brookdale. More than a decade after taking my first metalsmithing class, I thought it would be interesting to challenge myself to revisit some basic skills that I hadn’t practiced in a while or to use familiar techniques in different ways. So these six pieces came out of that process. And I’ll share one each day for the rest of this first week of 2023!

I couldn’t get the app to work, so I made my own , and it’s my top nine finished jewelry posts! I’m trying to focus on what I accomplished in 2022, so I can start 2023 off in the best way possible. Happy New Year!

So…if you had over 90 one-of-a-kind items to photograph and list on Etsy, where would you start? Asking for a friend. 🙈

My last show of the year is just around the corner, and I love the festive vibe of this one! I’m working on over two dozen new pieces for this show, so please come out to see them. And be sure to bundle up (I just ordered some new wool socks just for the show 😂)!