Christine Tourino, founder of Passion for Pearls, has had a love for jewelry her entire life. She has been actively collecting fine vintage jewelry for more than two decades. Her love and appreciation of beautifully designed, well-crafted jewelry led her to start, her own jewelry design business, and in 1999 "Passion for Pearls and More" was born.

 

Armed with a passion for jewelry and head full of her own designs she set out to create a line of wearable art. Since then Christine has been honing her craft and developing her own unique style of mixed medium beaded jewelry. Not satisfied to produce a single style of jewelry, Christine is always experimenting with new design concepts and combinations of color, texture and techniques, creating an ever-broadening pallet of styles.

 

It's Christine's attention to detail and practicality that sets her designs apart from other beaded jewelry. Every one of Christine's creations is a one-of-a-kind work of art. She strives to use only the very best materials available, believing that her pieces must not only be beautiful but durable as well. She personally hand picks all of the components used in her pieces, ensuring they have the right feel and look for her unique eye. Dealing with traders and importers from around the world, she's able to mix and match semi-precious stone, glass and silver beads from such places as Turkey, India, China and the U.S. to give her pieces a truly international flair.

 

A slave to her art, she only makes pieces that speak to her, never accepting requests for "custom" designs or commissioned work. Christine's love of her craft and her ability to bring her vision to life has brought her great joy and happiness. She genuinely hopes her jewelry brings as much joy to their owners as they brought to her creating them.