Michele Thomas

Michele Thomas

Michele Thomas (Del Gato Loco) is an artist living in Bergheim, Texas with her husband and menagerie of cats, dogs, horses and turkeys.  Having lived in Texas most of her life, she is inspired by the organic natural beauty that surrounds her Hill Country home.  Each piece of Michele’s hand-crafted, fine jewelry was inspired by nature: the hot winds of a south Texas summer; the cool water of the Guadalupe River; the fire and light of precious metals and natural stones.  She often uses wildlife as inspiration by duplicating the color combinations seen in nature. 

With a first glance of Michele’s jewelry, you may not know that Michele is not a metal smith.  She has a background in drawing and earthenware designs where she first started creating jewelry from clay before she turned to new materials.  She currently works in several mediums, including:  precious metals, genuine gemstones and metal clay.  Many of Michele’s pieces are created with cold connections by wire wrapping.  Other pieces are constructed from metal clay which is either fine silver and/or 22k gold.  She wants each of her pieces to have an intrinsic value as well as NATURAL beauty.

About the Jewelry:

Many of Michele’s pieces are created in a style called wire wrapping.  Wire wrapping is cold connected, not soldered; however, it is very secure.  Other pieces are constructed from METAL CLAY.  Michele often embeds gemstones or 24k gold accents in her metal clay pieces. 

Each jewelry piece is designed and constructed by Michele.  On most of the necklaces and bracelets, a garnet, Michele’s signature stone, is connected or Michele connects one of her logo charms to the piece.     

Metal Clay:

Metal clay is a play-doh© like medium for artists to create precious metal jewelry  Michele uses a brand known as Precious Metal Clay or PMC.  It was developed by Mitsubishi as a way to re-claim fine silver and pure gold particles.  Metal clay consists of fine silver or 22kt gold particles with an organic binder.  The pieces are sculpted out of the raw clay, dried, cleaned and fired in a kiln for two hours at 1650 degrees.  This firing process incinerates the organic binder and fuses the metal together.  What is left behind is nearly pure.  Due to the processing of the item, the gold has a color and hardness of approximately 18k but has fewer impurities, resulting in 22k.  The fine silver is 99.9% pure.  Because the silver is practically pure, it has no alloys to tarnish.  If you see any patina on metal clay pieces, it is because they were intentionally added. 

Each piece is handmade, therefore unique.  Please accept variations as part of the natural beauty of each piece. 

Some of Michele's jewelry may be seen here.