Jewelry

The process involves wrapping wire – in Gentry’s case, forged of either gold or sterling silver – around a gem in a sparse frame that obscures as little of the gem as possible while holding it firmly in place and setting it in a ring or bracelet that she’ll make herself or attach to a chain or string to turn it into a necklace.

Around the time of her son’s graduation from high school in 2003, Gentry began making wire earrings, she said. “I just needed to create something different from everybody else,” she said.

Before long, she decided making earrings wasn’t enough. Gentry wanted to make pendants and bracelets and rings as well, but she needed to learn more about the craft from someone with more experience.

“I wanted more and I needed more knowledge,” she said.

For 10 years, starting in 2005, Gentry made a yearly trip to the Cleveland, Tenn., area to take wire jewelry classes from experienced wire jewelry maker Dale Armstrong, where she learned many of the basic techniques like how to measure out the amount of wire needed to wrap around the stone’s length and keep it from falling out of the wire frame.

For Gentry, wire jewelry is all about accentuating the stone – making it the centerpiece of the ring, bracelet or necklace. “For me, wire jewelry is celebrating the stone,” she said. “You pick up a stone ... and you set it but you don’t cover it up because it’s God’s handiwork.”

In about 2007, Gentry decided she needed to start selling her wares, so she started Blue Malibu Jewelry, named after her restored 1969 Chevrolet Malibu.

“It’s not really something I wanted to do,” she said. “I didn’t really want to be a business person or a business owner. What I wanted to do was be able to create, but for some reason when you make jewelry you can’t really not be a business owner because in order to sell it, you’ve got to promote yourself.”

When Gentry got started making jewelry, her workshop was confined to one crowded desk in her bedroom.

After years of working in one corner of the bedroom, Johnny Gentry, her husband, built a studio in the backyard, which he completed in 2012.

What looks at first glance like a simple shack from the gravel road leading to the house is well-lit and furnished on the inside, with a multitude of wire jewelry pieces on display and an array of tools. It contains more than a dozen wire cutters, rulers and a few specialty hammers that can be used to flatten or texture the wire.

“I love it,” she said. “It’s my getaway – my separateness from the house.”

For years, Gentry has been working on marketing herself through Facebook and by appearing at craft shows and featuring her work at local galleries, which have included 212 on the Main in Glasgow, Bowling Green’s Gallery 916 and Gallery on the Square in Franklin.

“I just try to find little craft shows where I can ... set up and make a little money and get my name out there with that,” she said.

– Follow Daily News reporter Jackson French on Twitter @Jackson_French or visit bgdaily news.com.