About Me
Hi, and thank you for being here!
My name is Jovy Rockey, and I'm the person behind Jovy Rockey Jewelry. I'm a self-taught jewelry artist who started their creative journey with metals in 2012. As someone who has enjoyed a variety of arts from a young age and was raised by parents who were crafty DIY-ers and small business owners, it only seemed inevitable that I ended up making a living as a creative. I've always loved and collected jewelry. I love how it can pull an outfit together and make me feel beautiful, enhancing my features and expressing my personality. Our relationship with jewelry is profoundly intimate, but it is also something you wear to share a little bit about who you are with the world. It's a form of connection to ourselves and others.
My inspiration has always been mid-century design, with geometric shapes, lines, curves, and negative space always shining throughout my work. Artists such as Art Smith and Alexander Caulder have heavily influenced my work. When I began this journey, I started crafting by cold forging wire. I honed that technique after several years and found a way for my voice to resonate in my jewelry. I built my brand with that signature style, but I had always wanted to expand my knowledge and technical skills in jewelry fabrication.
In 2019, I finally decided to take a weekend-long intensive workshop for beginners in metalsmithing, and it was incredible. It opened me up to so many new techniques, and my mind was on fire with possibilities. Later that year, I applied for my first-ever arts grant (shout out to Southeast MN Arts Council for the Individual Artists Grant!!), and my application was selected! I used the funding from that grant to purchase my first torch, fume extractor, and a handful of other tools and supplies to produce 24 pieces of jewelry using the new techniques I had learned and eight visual art pieces using some of the same jewelry fabrication methods. It was exactly what I needed to enhance my craft and my business and push me into a new direction.
So here we are, years after that first class, and I'm continuing that journey. I am still finding ways to explore this craft I love and have been so grateful to have made it my career. I'm fortunate to experience more creative joy than ever, and yet occasionally, some frustration as I challenge myself to master this craft. I'm only human.
Most days, you'll find me happily working in my studio in beautiful downtown Winona, MN. If I'm not behind the bench, I might be teaching a workshop or spending time with my lovely family.
Past Interviews
Minnesota Monthly : At the Maker's Table : 2021
La Crosse Local Podcast : Ep 160 : 2021
