Little Lake Metals Story

Thanks for stopping by and welcome. Little Lake Metals is a one-woman studio making rich, colorful, expressive enamel jewelry. My pieces are highly saturated and incredibly durable due to the many layers of hand-fired enamel. Each work begins with a copper shape and two layers of enamel on the back providing what’s called the counter-enamel, the enamel that keeps the piece from cracking under the intense heating and cooling process. From there I slowly hand sift up to seven layers of enamel (lead-free glass particles) on the top, hand firing after every sifting stage with a torch that easily reaches 3000 degrees. I like to push my enamels to a place I’m not sure they can go. Though time consuming, it’s always surprising and incredibly rewarding. This process takes a long time and, for good or ill, is impossible to create twice. That is the beauty of what I do, I hope you’ll agree and find something here that resonates with you.

I’ve been making things for as long as I can remember, I’m just lucky to now have a place to collect and offer them to you. I strive to find inspiration in as many places as possible; be it sparse Scandinavian architecture, remote frozen lakes or the unabashed radiance of a late summer bloom.

As for Little Lake, it’s a fictitious name for an actual place. I hope we all have a Little Lake to go to, even in our minds, where we can find solitude and strength.

I support non-profit organizations advocating for the protection of our
civil liberties and natural resources and, among others, donate monthly to
Save the Boundary Waters. Born and raised in Minnesota, all of my pieces are named after lakes in the state. I respectfully acknowledge that 11 nations of Native Americans belong to the land and waters of Minnesota. The Dakota tribe's word mnisota, means “cloudy, muddy water” or “sky-tinted water.”

~ Julie