My name is Julia (or Jules) and I'm a silversmith based in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal). 

My jewellery journey began at 10 years old. Growing up I would beg my mum to bring me along to her art gallery on the weekends, helping out any way I could in order to earn a little bit of money so that I could run to the local bead store to put my creative hands to work. Inspired by all the beautiful art around me, I wanted to create beautiful things too.

Jump to 2021, known as the "crafter" in my circle of friends, I wanted to level up my skills and felt the only option I hadn’t exhausted was working with metal. That’s when my silversmithing journey began. It all started with a jewellery class in Vancouver (more of a mission to figure out what tools I needed to get started) and I set up a little studio in my bedroom. I realized very quickly (after many failed attempts of trying to create what was in my head with my hands) that I needed to learn from a Master. So, I travelled to Mexico to study under Billy King at Sterling Quest School of Silver Jewellery and Design and Creation. I attended Sterling Quest in 2021 and 2022, and learned far more than just silversmithing there. It was cowboy, it was chaotic, it was glorious. Learning under Billy was a formative experience for me, and it has shaped the way I learn and create.

Fast forward to 2023 and a move across the country to Montreal. Desperate to find somewhere I could keep working, I started taking classes at the Montreal Academy of Metal Arts, while also working away in my home studio. To not bother my neighbours with the banging of hammers, I started playing with wax. What fun, I felt as though I was a child again sculpting little treasures. My tiny apartment became a full blown workshop, and I decided that I needed to get a proper studio. I’m now located in the Grover Building and share a studio with 6 other multidisciplinary artists.

Outside of silversmithing, I have spent the last 12 years as a treeplanter and foreman. These experiences have shaped me greatly as an artist. My jewellery is heavily inspired by the natural world. The birds, the trees, the butterflies and the flowers. But it’s not only the beautiful things and connections I’ve made in that world that motivate and drive me as an artist. It’s the resilience, grit, problem solving and failures that come with it. Those experiences have allowed me to thrive and be comfortable in the long hours, the trial and errors, and the laborious and wonderful work of being a silversmith because like treeplanting, you gotta work your ass off to plant a forest.

That’s what I want to do here. I want to create beautiful, tangible things for people to enjoy, to feel, to wear. My jewellery is an expression of myself, a creative outlet, and I strive to make pieces that are not only beautiful but durable, and built to last the test of time.