BACK STORY: My name is Diana Ferguson. Long story short, I was born in Tucson, Arizona, grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago and after a short stint in Minneapolis, ended up in Phoenix. Which may or may not be the final destination. After doing the corporate gig (secretary, proposal writer, marketeer) for a number of years, I’m now [much] more appropriately situated as a self-representing artisanal jeweler. I also love to write and do some of that on the side. I have a background in studio art and art history ([alumni, Northern Illinois University (NIU), DeKalb, Illinois], but I never did much with it until a few years ago when I had that aha moment about, “it’s now or never.” Which leads me to…
MY BUSINESS: My business is Artemis Designs and I started it in 2005. I named my business Artemis Designs to honor my Greek heritage; in Greek, Diana is Artemis. I consider myself an artisanal jeweler, meaning I make all my jewelry by hand, in small quantities. As anyone who looks at my website, www.artemis-weaves.com, can tell, I spend A LOT of time weaving chain, out of which I make gorgeous, maybe even sumptuous, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. Although many folks assume the doing of my work is tedious; the fact is, for me, it’s peaceful and meditative. I find it good for the soul and it gives me a lot of time to think and ponder, for which I’m grateful. Besides all that weaving, I also create pendants and other embellishments out of fine silver, plus I love to do off loom beading with Delica seed beeds; these efforts usually turn into amulet bags or bookmarks. Purely for fun, I will occasionally pick up the knitting needles – having been seduced by numerous skeins of yarn over the years, I’ve started many a project but have probably only FINISHED only two or three.
A FEW COOL THINGS ABOUT MY LIFE:
My husband, Ken Ferguson, who is an accomplished painter and my life partner.
Our two kitties, Henry and Lucy. And the kitties that have come before… Clara, Sam, Benjamin, Stanley and Belinda. Love you babies…
Our family and friends, who put up with all our weirdnesses and foibles.
Coming to the realization that it’s never to late to pursue your dreams.
WHAT MAKES ME WELL …ME: In thinking about how to answer this self-posed question, I realize that [chain] weaving is my perfect avocation. Because, I am someone who is all about repetition. For example, I love reading the same books over and over again (well, with breaks in between), like Days and Nights in Calcutta by Clark Blaise and Bharati Mukherjee, or Georgia O’Keeffe biographies. I have been know to play Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark in my car’s CD player for weeks at a time. If I was not accomodating my sweet husband’s need for meal variety, I could probably eat the same thing every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When I run, I have a mantra that goes something like, “one, two, three, four; one, two, three, four…” ok, you get the picture. When I was a little girl, I counted all the cracks in the sidwalk. My initial endeavors in painting were grid structures. Etc. Go figure; I guess if we’re lucky, we end up doing that which exactly matches our nature.
I try to explain all the little confusions and dichotomies in my life (of which there are many) by noting the fact that I’m a Scorpio on the cusp of Sagittarius (Nov. 21).
