Hear Tai Salisbury's Story

How did you get your start in jewelry making?

I’d had a dream of being a dog behavioralist trainer, like a relationship coach for people and their dogs so I was doing that. What I didn’t realize was how much people’s issues, baggage, and toxicity and mental health played into our relationships with our dogs. So even if I could identify “everytime you see X… you tense up”, I was really feeling helpless. So much of what I was seeing was something where the person needed therapy to be able to get around this issue. I’m not immune to this, I’m not throwing stones, but I was really frustrated and disheartened, so I took a wire-wrapping class and really really loved it.

Then I took another one, and started taking pieces with me when I’d go to dog training shows and things and I’d sell my jewelry there. Eventually my business just flipped over into being more based on jewelry. Then I wanted to be able to cut my own stones and at that time there was no place that you could go and try it. So I went to the one place in the city where you could get rock cutting equipment and bought an arbor on faith, assuming that I would like it, and they offered me a job. From there, I trained to be a full jeweler.

Why did you pick the medium of jewelry/metalsmithing?

When I got settled in, it dawned on me that there was no way I was ever really going to find the outer edge of this. There will always be something else to learn, and it won’t have to be a complete reinvention like dog training to jewelry making. There are so many layers of skillsets that build on each other that I can play on this playground till I die and not get bored. That, and I’ve always loved making things.

How is your studio practice versus teaching practice different?

I have my work hours, I have a goal of working 8 hours a day, and I pretty much stick to that. But within that it’s super fluid. If I’m teaching then I’m teaching, if I’m not teaching them I’m making. They are very mixed together. There is really not much time ever that I’m not working.

I just got a text from a woman who asked me probably about 3 months ago to design a ring for her, and that ring has been rattling around in my head this whole time. I was on a road trip recently, and on the drive home, the design came to me. I even design in my sleep. I think for most self-employed people there isn’t a big delineation between work and life, and I have none. I was also raised in a self-employed family so that is what is normal to me. .

What other artists inspire you the most?

There are a couple people who are very good jewelers but also are very very good educators, so I look up to them a lot for the teaching aspect of what I do. Tim McCreight and Charles Lewtin-Brain fall into this category. Someone that has definitely affected me is Michael Boyd. It’s funny because his jewelry isn’t something I’d wear and it’s not something I’d make, but elements of it have been incredibly formative for my design ideas. Also, Michael Good’s pieces are all made out of a sheet of metal. He uses a hammer and a surface to hammer on, and that’s all he uses to create these crazy shapes. He had a big impact on me. Another is Nicole Ringgold, she has a new book out. She fabricates organics- a lot of people will cast organics, but she’s actually making this out of sheet and wire and flame, hammering and forming it. It’s really quite insane what she’s able to do with metal. They’ve all been very formative for my designs.