Carrick House

From a young age, Krista would spend hours on her family farm collecting and smashing open shiny rocks, sure that she’d struck gold.  In fact,  it was pyrite.  Regardless, a life-long passion for the beautiful treasures that Earth makes was born.

Krista had a full-time career in public service and a family, leaving little time for the pursuit of things that fed her creative side. Her career demanded pragmatism and structure, and her creative side slumbered.  When travelling, the number one thing on her souvenir list was to bring home a piece of jewelry featuring a stone native to the area.  That was as close as she came to indulging her passion for pretty rocks.

About five years ago, she discovered guided “rockhounding” tours that take place in the Haliburton Highlands, an area of Ontario that is rich in beautiful and interesting geology.  After her first mid-September rockhounding trip, on her hands and knees in hardwood bush digging for treasure, she was hooked.  She brought home gemmy green apatite, deep purple fluorite, pale blue amazonite, white calcite, smoky quartz, rose quartz, and Ontario peristerite (labradorite).  And a dream took hold – what followed was a lapidary and stone setting course provided by Jewel Envy in Toronto where she learned the art of creating a smooth shiny cabochon on a series of cutting, grinding and polishing equipment.  The course concluded with creating a sterling silver bezel for one of her favorite cabs – a piece she’s proud of and wears frequently.

Fast forward five years – she’s left her career behind and has a lakeside silversmith studio complete with a full suite of lapidary equipment. Krista creates settings for her pieces from scratch – sawing, filing, shaping, soldering and polishing.  Her designs are simple, clean and inspired by nature. Krista specializes in turning her self-collected Ontario treasures into wearable art – for you.