“I always find inspiration here in Gros Morne, it is a beautiful place in all seasons”

Walking along the tranquil beach in Gros Morne, Newfoundland, there is a soft crunch as you walk over the sand while the waves gently beat like the rhythm of a heart. Seagulls call out to each other as they play in the sweet, salty breeze. The sun glistens off the water like a thousand precious jewels on a sheet of blue velvet. This is the scene artist Denise Dollier experiences every day. It is no wonder she feels so inspired.

Denise has been crafting jewelry for about 12 years and feels that crafting is in her blood.

“My Dad was a crafts person, his medium was wood. My favourite piece is a solid cherry grandfather clock he made.”

Denise uses Japanese seed beads, Swarovski crystals, pearls and sea glass to devise her art. She forms works from a designer’s pattern and has also created work from her own designs based on learned techniques. She is a self-taught artist.

“I like to manipulate techniques to see how I can vary it to create a theme and then variations.”

The beaches and oceans of Gros Morne offer both peace and inspiration to Denise, so she walks the beach almost every day. During these walks she enjoys collecting beach glass, which she then turns into pieces of her work by combining it with seed beads and Swarovski crystals.

“To me it is a coming together of glass perfected by man, with glass perfected by the ocean and sand.”

Denise was not always so focused on her art; she tended to start pieces but never finish them. It wasn’t until after her study of theater that she developed her discipline to complete a piece.

“(I) was more accepting of something not turning out quite as planned, more accepting that ‘failure’ could be something positive.”

After traveling back and forth from her home in Nova Scotia to Newfoundland for years, in 2006 she decided to make Gros Morne her permanent home. She is the Company and Production manager for the Gros Morne Theater Festival and works full time for the festival eight very busy months of the year. The jewelry is what she does in her “down” time. Although the creation itself can be time consuming. The completion time of each piece of work depends on how complicated the piece is and can take between 12-15hrs.

With such a busy schedule it is no wonder Denise needs a place to find peace and take a breath.

“Walking the beach is my ‘meditation’”, she says. It is from that meditation that Denise derives the passion for her art. That could be why she finds that her favourite pieces are the beach glass pendants. She feels the beach glass in each piece to be a rare gem.

There is no doubt that the natural beauty of Gros Morne is incredibly inspirational, but one might wonder if that inspiration can fade. Denise feels that it does not.

“The beaches here are ever changing, so there is always something new to see. I always find inspiration here in Gros Morne, it is a beautiful place in all seasons.”

Denise does not actively sell her work but does showcase her work at the Gros Morne Fall Fest in Cow Head to support the Cow Head Conservation and Heritage Committee. Most of her work is donated to fundraisers and is used as gifts.

If you are interested in Denise’s jewelry pieces you can contact her at: ddolliver@hotmail.com. Or perhaps you could take a meditative walk along one of Gros Morne’s alluring beaches, where you may come across Denise collecting beach glass and inspiration.