Tekla Taylor grew up outdoors. Her parents were homesteaders in Anchorage, Alaska. She spent her time fishing, bobsledding and exploring the surrounding nature. Throughout childhood, she curated quite the impressive collection of rocks, fossils and gems. “I was probably destined to be a geologist,” she says.

She’s had a successful career in geology, but a few years ago she started looking for something else. “I was always living in my left brain,” she says. “I wanted to explore something creative.”

About six years ago, she started making copper and silver jewelry, using gemstones as centerpieces in the work. Tekla Taylor Designs now has a studio in the Naples Art District.

She started out taking silversmithing and coppersmithing classes in Colorado, where she spends her summers. It was a little intimidating at first—these artforms do require an intense amount of heat to shape the materials—but once she got comfortable, she started experimenting more. An instructor encouraged her to look to nature for inspiration, so she started mimicking the bends and flows of a river in her work. She also started incorporating gems, traveling the Southwest to meet turquoise miners in person. “Some of these mines had been in their families for generations,” Taylor says. “It’s like each stone tells a story.”

The turquoise pieces have become best-sellers, but she’ll also incorporate jasper, rosarita and other vibrant stones. She’s focused on making bracelets, earrings, rings and the like, and most recently she has teamed with hatmakers to create custom hat bands.

The geology career is rewarding, but the ability to take copper, turquoise, silver and other materials and create something new has been like a tribute to her life’s work of studying the Earth. “It’s been really fun,” she says. “It really sparked my creativity.”