J and I Design is the creation of Mount Vernon couple Michelle and Jay Barshaw. The Barshaws started their own arts and crafts gallery, The Shop, in Conway in 2013. It featured work by many local artists, as well as their own woodworking and other pieces.
Michelle was painting and making jewelry, mostly earrings and bracelets made from cut tin or hammered metal, but a few years after The Shop closed in 2015, she got herself a jewelry torch.
Photo by Jessamyn Tuttle
“It was all the torch,” she says. “That was the changer. It opened so many avenues for metalsmithing.”
Jay had used a butane torch before and showed her the basics, but then she discovered how much more she could do with it. Now she uses the torch to create rings, bracelets, earrings and other pieces.
Michelle and Jay also have a construction business and often only get one or two months off in the winter, but this past year as their latest construction projects slowed down, she’s had more time to pour into her jewelry making and learning new techniques. While her early pieces were mostly wire or metal shapes, in the past six months she’s been focusing on bezels so she can incorporate more semiprecious stones. “It’s a lot of fun,” Michelle says. “It’s not easy but it’s fun.”
She likes using stones like prehnite and amazonite, for her favorite pale green color, or freshwater pearls. According to Michelle, every piece is different.
Photo by Jessamyn Tuttle
After meeting a talented hatmaker at a craft show, Michelle became inspired to make brooches to decorate hats. Many of these are made to mimic botanical shapes, from a gingko leaf to lily of the valley flower stems, or a maple seed. A dedicated gardener, she finds inspiration everywhere in her backyard; when her forsythia bush started to bloom she brought in a flowering branch and copied it in metal, likewise with a sprig of boxwood. She and Jay also love kayaking, and she recently made a small silver bull kelp that doesn’t lend itself to being worn but makes a cute desk ornament.
She works primarily with silver and brass but is starting to add gold here and there. Even as she becomes more skilled, she enjoys leaving some irregularities in her work, like little hammer marks, to give it personality.
“Nothing is perfect, that’s the way I like it,” she says. She likes the concept of the Greek word “meraki,” which means to put something of yourself in your work.
Photo by Jessamyn Tuttle
While Michelle’s jewelry is a feature, J and I Design’s collection includes work from both Michelle and Jay. Jay makes jewelry as well, but also creates a wide range of wood items, anything from furniture to vases or small wooden birds.
“He’s extremely creative,” says Michelle.
J and I Design’s work is available at Brazen Shop + Studio in Downtown Bellingham, and in the summer the Barshaws have a regular booth at the Christianson’s Nursery Sunday Farmer’s Market. Mount Vernon, jandidesign.com, @jandidesign
