“I have never been a great reader—I think because I was always using my hands to make things instead of to turn book pages,” explains the incredibly imaginative, wildly creative, almost uncategorizable jeweler Judy Geib when she is asked about her obsession with Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. “But, in 2011, I read a review of Nathaniel Philbrick’s Why Read Moby-Dick in The New York Times, in which he quoted the beautiful line ‘One serene and moonlight night, when all the waves rolled by like scrolls of silver,’ and my antennae went up.” She continues: “I thought to myself, maybe I can read this book.… The silvery scrolls got me started, and I read straight through the book slowly. ”
Geib, who was 40 years old when she started making jewelry, realized she would never be able to afford the antique pieces she coveted, so she decided to make things herself. “I bought two beautiful opals and jumped in. I never expected to make a business out of it or sell my work, but I felt I had truly, finally, found what I should be doing, and I just kept going.”
