Learn About Theresa
Goldworks was a dream realized by goldsmith Theresa Parsons in 1978. Twenty-eight-year-old Parsons was a recent graduate of Bowman Technical School (the country’s oldest jewelers/watchmakers school), which was located in Lancaster, Pa. She went on to further her skills by taking classes at Millersville State College, Kulick-Stark Academy in NYC, New Approach School for Jewelers, Arrowmont in Tennessee, and various other workshops and classes. She also trained on her laser welder at Laserstar of Providence, Rhode Island, and was a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University.
Parsons began her career selling her original, hand-made fine jewelry at local and regional art shows. Her first years participating in these shows brought her numerous awards for her work, including several “Best in Show” awards. Most notable were the Ghent Craft Show and the Neptune Festival Art Show in 1992. She exhibited in the prestigious Boardwalk Art Show in Virginia Beach for 27 consecutive years.
Parsons’ most valuable training ground was her first Goldworks shop that she operated for 11 years until 1989. During that time she received hundreds of interesting and challenging commissions, including the design and execution of King Neptune’s Crown, which is still used by the City of Virginia Beach in its annual fall Neptune Festival.
Parsons’ work took her to foreign ports, in search of the unusual and exotic. She has been on gem-buying trips to Paris, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, England, Hong Kong, Mexico, Hawaii, and the Caribbean as well as many domestic trips to New York, Florida, and Arizona.
After owning and operating three additional shops over her 45 years of goldsmithing, Parsons has built her dream private studio and continues her custom design and repair service, meeting clients by appointment at her display inside Beach Gallery, 313 Laskin Rd., Virginia Beach, VA. 23451. Besides the services she offers, she has an interesting and eclectic inventory of her original work, estate and new jewelry at this location, which evolves and rotates, always showing something new.
Several specialties have emerged from Parsons’ 45 years on the work bench. Fabrication (building pieces using sheet and wire) is her strong suit, but she is also a wax carver (for casting). In 2005, she embraced new technology by buying a laser welder, to add to her old school techniques. She has done extensive work developing her own style and technique of sculpting gold under a flame, often using her clients old gold to make something new. She admires and emulates craftsmanship of the ancients, with an eye for what’s coming next. Her designs are both contemporary and classic.
“My mission, beyond just trying to make beautiful work”, says Parsons,”is to help my client identify and realize their jewelry dreams. I want to make pieces that express what the wearer wants to say, to themselves and the world.”