For your creative listening pleasure! Michelle Pajak-Reynolds chats with Risa Dickens co-host of the Missing Witches podcast about gems, history, lore, and the ethics of her jewelry art in order to answer her daughter’s questions: “Who made it? How did it get here?”

Michelle Pajak-Reynolds chats with Jess Taylor and Natalie Ringeis, hosts of the Love the Green Life Podcast. In this episode they discuss exciting stories about how Michelle’s daughter has artwork at Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral, the inspiration for Michelle’s designs, how she’s shifted to making more sustainable choices in the raw materials and processes for creating her award-winning jewelry designs and tips for keeping your jewelry looking fabulous for years to come.

In this special Everyday Thin Places podcast episode, jewelry designer Michelle Pajak-Reynolds shares how she started making jewelry at 5 years old, her travel adventures, including mining some of the gems that will be in her future collection, the research that is inspiring her current work and much, much more. Listen here or on your favorite podcast platform.

Most preschoolers have trouble deciding between Play-Doh and finger paints. Not Michelle Pajak-Reynolds, though. Even at the age of five, the Cleveland native knew she wanted to create jewelry: powerful statement jewelry, not unlike the bracelets and tiara that Lynda Carter brandished on television's Wonder Woman. 

I’ve designed jewelry since I was 5 years old so my work has evolved a lot over the decades. My first pieces in the early 1980’s were made with pop-beads and jelly bracelets. As I got older I spent my babysitting money on beads and jewelry supplies from craft stores and taught myself how to make the pieces I wanted to wear.

The following interview by Beth Anderson was originally published on Chic Galleria on August 1, 2016.

Michelle Pajak Reynolds is on a mission to dress us up in her jewellery of armour, so that we too can change the world. This comes from Michelle’s childhood, as she sat and played with her pop-beads and jelly bracelets, Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman was showing in the background on the television. “Wonder Woman’s jewellery gave her super powers, confidence and enabled her to change the world. "

I’ve designed jewelry since I was 5 years old and my art is my life.  I can’t remember a time when being an artist or creating jewelry wasn’t a major part of my day. I love the creative process and sharing my work with others. To do anything else doesn’t feel right.

Michelle’s pieces first crossed my desk, and caught my eye, a few years ago when she started getting involved at New York Fashion Week as an independent designer. But her history with jewelry stretches back decades.