Making jewellery started out as a relaxing hobby for artist Heather McDonald. It wasn?t until her friends started saying they wanted her necklaces and earrings as special birthday presents that she realised she might be on to a good thing.

Now Miss McDonald is holding her first jewellery trunk show at Rock Island Coffee on Church Street on Thursday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

She wants people to understand, however, that she is no less committed to her art career, her jewellery making is just a promising summer sideline.

?It is just something I have been doing just for fun,? said Miss McDonald. ?I made pieces for myself and then my friends started liking them, so I started to make more on the side. I have never showed anything like this before.?

Although Miss McDonald is only 26 years old, she is already making a name for herself on the Bermuda art scene. She paints for a living and has had two shows so far that were well received.

?This is something completely different,? she said. ?I don?t know if I am going to go anywhere with it. My friends all liked it so I kept going with it.?

Miss McDonald?s jewellery ranges from chunky and fun, to fine and delicate to pieces with with an ethnic flair. Many of the pieces have a summer feel to them, with bits of faux coral as charms.

When it comes to my paintings, I am really loose and I slap so much paint on the canvas,? she said. ?This is different. You are using your eyes more. There is a lot of symmetry involved. The similarities are that I am using different combinations of colour and texture. I am also looking at how different shapes and sizes all work together.?

As I child she loved to string beads together. More recently, while living in Dallas, Texas, she decided to take a wire wrapping course.

?I was painting a lot, so I thought it would be nice to have some other creative outlet,? she said. ?Last fall everyone was wearing all of this funky jewellery. Dallas is a very fashionable city. You wouldn?t think it is, but it is. All the women are always dressed immaculately. I would see jewellery on the street and I thought, ?oh, I could make that?. I thought it would be fun to try. So I took this wire wrapping course and they taught you to wire all different kinds of beads together. I just went from there. Once you learn the basics you can make whatever you put your mind to.?

She started making jewellery for herself. Her style began to evolve and she got more adventurous with her creations. One of her necklaces uses African sculpture beads, for example. For another piece, she cut up pieces of black fabric chain and reattached bits of the chain to semi-precious stones, charms and beads. Her prices range from $45 to $200.

?I like to mix semi-precious stones and woods beads together so that you get an eclectic look,? she said. ?A lot of the beads I use are from all over the world.?

She buys most of her supplies from bead stores in New York City.

?The beads stores in the fashion district are overwhelming,? said Miss McDonald. ?I could spend three or four hours looking at supplies. But you have to narrow it down because it gets really expensive.?

She gets her inspiration from fashion magazines, and sometimes just watching people on the street.

?I guess I pick up inspiration from everywhere I go,? she said. ?I will also go to bead stores in New York City and have a look around. A lot of things I just pick up. I don?t necessarily have an idea in mind when I buy all my supplies.?

She often has to try different combinations before she finds a fit that suits her.

?It takes a bit of trial by error,? she said.

Over the last couple of months she has gotten more confident with her jewellery making hobby.

?The more you do the better you get,? she said. ?I have become more at ease using pliers and wire cutters.?

Miss McDonald said making the jewellery is a nice way to wind down after a long day of painting.

?Sometimes it is good to have a break and have something else to do,? she said. ?This is different from painting because there is craftsmanship. You have to be very careful making things or else it won?t hang properly. It is a great, almost relaxing thing. I do it everywhere. I do it sometimes while I am talking to my parents. It is great to do in front of the television, although I find I don?t watch much of the television, because I get so involved with the jewellery. It is almost like reading to me, I get so lost in it.?

She said her jewellery trunk show might be the tonic for the fashion doldrums that can sometimes settle over Bermuda in the summertime.

?I thought people might enjoy having somewhere else to get something new to wear,? she said. ?It is always fun in the summer to have something cute to put on. It is nice to wear something that not everyone else has, that is handmade. It is hard here. You look around in the jewellery stores and they bring in a lot of the same pieces to be affordable. That is great, but it is also really nice if you can have something that is unique.?

The first piece she made for someone else was a commission for her friend?s mother.

?My friend had seen my work and she said ?I love what you are making, would you make a Christmas present for my mother? She would like it to.? I knew her mother, so I tried to make something I thought she?d appreciate and could wear.

?That was really neat. My friends have been very supportive. Their birthdays and Christmas would come around and I?d ask them what they wanted and some of them would say, ?I really like your jewellery?.

?That was great, because it is one thing if you like it, but another thing if people are interested as well.?

She said the trunk show at Rock Island Coffee will be very laid back. People can go there, have a coffee and try on a few pieces. There will probably be about twenty necklaces and twenty earrings.

?I don?t know if the money I make will go back into my painting supplies,? she said. ?You can end up spending so much money on the actual materials. It will go to something creative, that is for sure.?

For more information contact Miss McDonald at hmmbdagmail.com .