WYLIE TOAL, ANN

“I feel more like a sculptor than a jeweler,” says designer Ann Wylie-Toal. Ann’s award-winning jewelry, the first accepted into the National Art Gallery gift shop in Ottawa, is also inspired by the beauty and eccentricities of nature, architecture, drumming and creative dancing. You can see these influences in her work – jewelry that is colourfully expressive, a moving geometry of line and space, sometimes asymmetrical, but always rhythmic, ordered.
Ann fashions her jewelry from Niobium, Titanium, Sterling Silver and Gold, often in combination with brightly dyed coconut shell discs, or polished semi-precious stones, in designs that appeal to a range of tastes. Ann enjoys exploring new ways of colouring these materials using high voltage electricity, often creating her own tools to do this.
Ann has been working full time on her jewelry business since 1986 when she moved to Ontario from Winnipeg. She was fortunate to find the warm and creative community of Flesherton where she lives with her three sons.