When it comes to artistic creativity, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
“My mom was an artist,” jewelry artist Christina Glidden said during an interview at her Chattanooga home. Her living room is adorned with several paintings on the wall. “And a lot of the art that you see is her work,” she said adding some were also done by her daughter.
“I've been making jewelry since I was probably about 13,” she said. Christina made jewelry for herself to wear on the school bus. Soon her fellow bus riders requested jewelry for themselves, and she sold her jewelry using the money to buy more supplies.
Her designs embrace bold colors, influenced by her younger years with family. Her father was German, her mother American. She was born in Lahore, Pakistan. Christina said she grew up traveling the world. She said she and her family would immerse themselves in a variety of different native cultures.
“I grew up speaking two languages, German to my dad, and English to my mom,” she said. “We lived in Pakistan and then we moved to Tehran, Iran. And that's where my brother was born. From there we then moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where I went to middle school, and then moved to Mexico City where I did my middle school and high school.”
Fluent in three languages she came to the United States and attended the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga becoming a Spanish Teacher. During her time as an educator, Christina poured every ounce of her creativity and passion into shaping the minds of her students, placing her jewelry making on hold.
After retirement the colors and abstract designs popular in the early 2000s reignited her creative spark.
“It was back in 2005,” she said. “There was sort of that vibe of very ethnic chunky tribal kind of stuff coming out and, off and on throughout the years, I've been making these things for myself. I kept looking and thought I could do that. I started gathering supplies and I started making things.”
Her sister-in-law noticed the uniqueness of her jewelry and convinced her to create some more pieces they could showcase to a group of friends.
“I think maybe 15 people showed up,” she said. “And after three hours, I had $2,000. I was so completely floored, and just appreciative.”
Christina set up her company and launched Jewelry by Christina in 2006. She sold her creations at local markets and artist shows and soon her works were catching the eyes of gallery owners and other artists.
“One thing that led to another,” she said. “I got the invitation to display some of my jewelry at the Hunter Museum. And through the years, my work has been out in Hollywood. It's been in all these different venues. It’s been out west. It was in Buckhead.
She said she is drawn to bold red and green colors reminding her of her time in places like Pakistan, Mexico and Brazil. She also loves using bells.
“I love the sound of them, that's very Pakistani, she said. And she likes using distinctly shaped stones.
“Generally, what grabs me is the strangeness of the composition of the stone,” she said. “Whether it's the way it's cut or the way it's shaped. My work is all just a bit abstract and different. And anything that I make or anything that I sell, it’s something that I would wear, unless it is something I’ve been commissioned to make.”
But, as sometimes happens in life, Christina paused her artistic endeavors, shifting her attention and devotion into becoming a full-time caregiver to her aging mother.
She stopped making and selling her jewelry and had her museum collection brought back home.
“I went on hiatus for about three years,” she said.
These days Christina is back at her craft. The folks at the Hunter Museum were excited about putting her work back into exhibit and she started to expand her work at different venues and in different ways.
Her daughter has a friend who is a model who she said helped her after her mother’s passing.
“I absolutely love Asriel,” Christina said. “She fell in love with my work, and she takes my jewelry on photoshoots all the time. I'm so grateful for her because losing my mom was a very difficult time. She has been so dedicated to pulling me out of that dark space and saying get back to it, you have something to say, and you are still relevant. She kept pushing and pushing and she got me involved in fashion shows and things I had never done before. She is one of my biggest supporters here locally, and I just love her to death.”
She said it was like starting all over again.
“Because you become very irrelevant, at least in my mind, very quickly because everything moves so fast these days,” she said. “So, I'm very appreciative of the Hunter Museum saying yes as well as the folks at Plum Nelly who carry my jewelry. I just find it incredible that somebody would want to wear my jewelry. When I was a teacher, I knew I was making a difference. But I started making jewelry and I thought what difference am I making with this? What I didn't realize in doing shows and stuff is that when you see that you're making somebody happy and they come back and they start collecting your work and they start telling you about how they wore it, then it has purpose and that brings me joy.”
Christina is scheduled to be a vendor at the Mayor’s Council for Women Policy Conference this February 6-7 at the Westin Hotel.
Find Jewelry by Christina on Instagram at nstagram.com/jewelry.by.christina/