About

She began her career on a rocky path, as some artists naturally do. But she got struck by the jewel bug almost immediately. Terricka’s original career path was meant to lean closer to the side of writing and filming but after graduation from film school the prospects ran dry and she re-evaluated how she wanted to spend her post graduate life and it wasn’t as a production assistant for a tireless slave driver. She tripped into many fields- in and out of various hats that she felt okay with but never satisfied by. Soon she began to flail and eventually gave up on any prospect of a real career or way to make money. Until she got sick. Then her whole perspective changed. Instead of giving up she surrendered and vowed to do something that would make her happy but always with that ambitious caveat… “Lets see if I could make a career out of this…”

As a filmmaker, each of her pieces has a story and like tattoos she could explain why she made those particular choices in leather and crystal or linen and stainless steel. Her jewelry reflects moments in her life, snippets of a day or an emotion she’s working out through the gentle manipulation of her hands and these materials. She finds that her pieces tend to be contradictions, opposites, yin and yang. She plays with masculine and feminine, hard and soft, edgy and frilly Punk Rock and Soul. “I love the combination of a glossy gemstone with an antiqued piece of metal, the combination of the two-in and of itself tells a story about their maker and possibly about the woman who wears them. The juxtaposition of old and new has always been a fascination of mine.” Terricka’s pieces are one of a kind with a urban edge that reflects her life and the people in it. “I think these pieces tell a story about the woman who wears them as much as they reflect my own, we’re not all that different you know.”

Terricka’s influences are vastly varied, much like her work. She loves art and great film even a few bad ones, the 60’s, irreverence, children laughing, contradictions, rock and roll, old school soul, rebellious artists searching for their voice, Korean horror films, literature, communal endeavors, cooking, lamenting, hoping and wishing…she loves seeing people try no matter how hard the circumstances, artists, poets, musicians, actors, writers, people who stand in their own truth.

Her passion for color, nature, texture and beauty are reflected in her jewelry. The more she learns the bigger her appetite grows for different techniques and more unusual elements. “Wanting the best for your customer used to mean at least to me, buying the finest silver and gold and gemstones and most expensive crystals to make a piece beautiful. But now I’m learning that pieces become more cohesive when I find something unique and use it as a focal piece or make something from other materials. Because I can’t always afford a lot of the expensive materials, its taught me how to be more creatively economical, that’s where polymer clay comes in.” Her favorite materials now have become ones where she can create her own signature, polymer clay, Art Clay in silver and bronze, a creamy pearly shell that she finds on the beach or a key that she’s been holding on to for years. Sometimes she’ll even use an old piece of jewelry cannibalize it and turn it into something completely new and original.

Terricka loves to create exciting narratives with her jewelry, her energy and spirit permeates through her work. Her love for all of these elements makes for a real interesting piece of art imbued with the influence of everything beautiful around her. She is a true artisan with a rock-steady lust for life and her jewelry somehow becomes the sum total of all that she sees, tastes, smells and feels. When she creates her pieces, she keeps the woman who might wear them in mind and hopes that they will take pleasure in wearing them as much as she does in making them.