J.D. Hallowell has been making jewelry since 1980, following in a family tradition of metal  smithing that goes back generations to his family's roots in Ireland and England. He started out working with lost wax casting in Colorado, and then studied soldered construction and fabrication techniques with Dietrich Dohrman in Gainesville, Florida. He moved into wire-wrapping beginning in 1995, as this spontaneous, fluid, and versatile technique allowed him a greater range of freedom to use irregularly-shaped natural and tumbled stones, and encouraged a dynamic spontaneity and expressiveness that was missing from heat-worked forms. In addition to his jewelry crafting, he has studied and practiced bodywork  therapies and metaphysical healing with crystals.

When creating his unique pieces, he listens to the stones and uses the wire to enhance and direct the natural energies and forms present there to generate unique, original and magical works of art that are in harmony with the meanings and properties of the individual gemstones.

He aspires to enhance both the inner and outer beauty of all those who wear his work, and to embody his Craft in such a way that people might one day describe his work as J.R.R. Tolkein  described the work of the Dwarvish smiths: 

"On silver necklaces they strung 

the flowering stars; on crowns they hung 

the dragon's fire; in twisted wire,

 they meshed the light of Moon and Sun."

J.D. lives and works with his wife and 9-year-old son in  Melbourne, Florida, where the land, sea, and sky are a continual source of inspiration.