Hello, everyone! Welcome to my web site. As a jewelry designer, one of my greatest joys is making pieces that people will buy and wear and call their own—pieces that will, ultimately, define their own signature style. Whenever people ask me about my jewelry, I tell them, "I want each piece to find a good home."

Speaking of home, I live and work in Albuquerque. My husband Jeff and I have been here since 1998, but I grew up in Philadelphia, went to school in New York, and lived in Atlanta for 23 years before settling in New Mexico. After college I worked as an audiologist. It was a rewarding job, but not an especially creative one for me. All my life, however, I've had a love affair with fashion, art and great design - I'm inspired by everything from an Armani dress to a Matisse painting to the humble paper clip - and have passionately pursued numerous crafts including working with textiles, knitting and crocheting, and paper collage. One of my projects has been hand making and painting ultrasuede pillows and yoga bags. And from a very young age I adored visiting museums and galleries. I'm attracted to a wide variety of art and design, for example 20th century painting and sculpture as well as African and pre-Columbian art. You can see all these influences in my line of necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and rings.

I began Nina Forrest jewelry designs here in the southwest in 2005. Initially, I was inspired by visiting the many bead stores in this area. Many times, I'd go in and walk around for hours and be mesmerized by the colors, shapes, and materials. Then I'd return home energized and read all the books I could find on jewelry-making techniques. That led to my taking some basic lessons from jewelers. And, finally, I bought some jewelry making equipment and started designing.

Wood with jade? Rhinestones with recycled glass? Shell with smoky quartz? Why not, I thought? Why make jewelry that's safe and traditional? I decided to let everyone else do that. So, I begun a journey to create jewelry that boldly mixed natural and manmade materials, and learned to hammer and reticulate surfaces, to wire-wrap and create chain maille, and to fuse gold on silver, which is an ancient Japanese process known as kum bo. (For an explanation of these and other special finishing techniques that I use, click on the Customer care link.)

And so it goes: One piece at a time, driven by a craving for color, quality design, and a strong desire to provide women with jewelry with a fresh perspective, I created the Nina Forrest jewelry collection. And with each day, as the sun rises over the New Mexico mountains, I continue to be inspired and create new one-of-a-kind designs--for women like myself, who want to journey through life boldly and colorfully.