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Kimberly D. B. Johnson

Kimberly D. B. Johnson started making jewelry at the young age of eight when she discovered an older schoolmate wearing the same outfit as her. She began to think of ways she could make sure that would never happen again. She had this intense need to be uniquely different. She went home and started creating jewelry out of her grandmother’s broken jewelry and the rest was history.

She started making jewelry professionally in 1999 with Nomadic Notions in San Antonio, TX while finishing up her Bachelors Degree in Business Management with a concentration in Entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at San Antonio. While she was busy taking business courses she was able to fit in one art course per semester, which helped her drawing and design skills as a jewelry Artist.

After one year, at Nomadic Notions she was asked to open Z Bead in Houston’s premier shopping center Rice Village and was promoted to manager. She was the manager and jewelry instructor for seven and a half years. In this position she encouraged herself and her employees to educate themselves in new jewelry techniques to teach their client hobbyist and new jewelry designers.

In 2002 she took a basic jewelry making class where she learned techniques like soldering and bezeling stones. She also took a class from George Blair, The founder of the Houston Pearl Society, in which she learned how to grade diamonds, identify colored gemstones and appreciate pearls and cultured pearls.

Kimberly gets her inspiration from different Asian cultures, Celtic culture, nature, art, friends, Art Nouveau jewelry, just about anywhere the moment of inspiration can strike. She keeps her sketching journal handy.

“Jewelry should make a statement and express the wearer’s individuality.” Says Johnson Therefore, each jewelry piece is created differently, made by the artist’s hand and no two pieces are ever the same. “Just like us as people we are all created differently, made by the art’s hand, and no two individual are ever the same.”