My name is Amber Irsik, I was born in 1980 in St. Cloud MN. After my father passed away in a boating accident, my mom and I packed up and moved to CO. My mother met and married my step father when I was about 4 years old, they had 3 more children after me and we moved around CO for the next 10 years before settling in Fort Lupton. I attended high school there and started making little seed bead necklaces and bracelets for fun and sold a few to friends and family. I graduated in 1998 and attended the University of Northern Colorado for 2 years. I enjoyed taking art classes and even jewelry making classes there. I transferred to Western State College in Gunnison (yes, for a guy) where I finished my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in graphic design in 2002. I married said guy the following August and we had our first daughter in 2005. I got a job in 2004 as a designer/prepress tech at a billboard printing company called Circle Graphics where I was able to continue freelance graphic design and marketing my own business in my free time.
It was after Nevaeh was born that I started making jewelry again, as gifts, for fun and for a creative outlet. My mother challenged me to make enough jewelry to hold an open house party, and put together a catalog. I did all of that and had a successful $400 show!!! I continued making jewelry on request and passed my catalog around. I started my website in 2007 and have uploaded over 400 different products to my site since! My son Olsen came in 2009 and after a brief break in my business I picked it back up with a passion.
For the last 5 years I have managed jewelry booths at various festivals and craft fairs, held many open houses and displayed at 3 shops and countless home parties. My jewelry was featured in a fashion show in Denver where I was able to accessorize models with my creations and watch them walk the runway like it was a “fashion week in Paris” dream!!!
I have participated in many charity events donating favorite pieces for auction and learning the value they were sold for in honor of the cause.
I have discovered that custom jewelry and new challenging ideas are an area that I am pretty good at. I have custom designed everything from a simple everyday necklace to elaborate wedding jewelry for the bride and all her attendants, to a custom cuff bracelet for a mermaid at the Denver Aquarium. I have taken pieces from old jewelry and up-cycled it into wearable pieces for today. I have consulted women on how to accessorize jewelry with their wardrobes and even constructed new necklaces for myself on our way to church. 🙂
At this time I have been employed with Circle Graphics and I continue to remain busy with designing logos, wedding invitations and all things wedding, banners for all topics, and sell my jewelry on the side. I enjoy exercising when I can and spending as much time as I can with my husband and kids. The one question I hear all the time is “how do you find the time to make all this jewelry?” Well the secret is…elves. No not really, unless you count my daughter stringing a couple beads for me every now and then? 🙂 I look back and don’t really know how I am able to manage building all my jewelry…until I look at my floors and see dust bunnies. 😉 I learned in high school that by keeping my schedule full, I am able to budget my time wisely. Give me a 4-5 hour chunk of time and I can rock and roll on constructing jewelry. As artists we are always more critical of our own works than anyone else, so pricing has been one of the biggest challenges. I have always thought that if I won the lottery (which I should probably start playing) than I would love to make jewelry and give it away. I choose to keep my prices very reasonable to make it easier for everyone to enjoy decorating themselves.
I consider myself very fortunate to have so many friends and family support my business, but most of all I feel blessed to be molded by the Lords hands, and be given a talent that I can use to share with people around me.