Goldsmith Bodil Lund Talks Shop

Bodil Lund is an entrepreneur at heart. For 19 years, Lund worked in the travel industry and even owned her own travel agency. But when her daughter Emily was born, she sold the business to a larger agency and switched her focus to being a full-time mom. Seven years ago, the professional bug bit her again and Lund dove into a new vocation at full-throttle.

In 2007, Lund founded Annandale Artisans, a group of friends and neighbors who showcase their artwork at two open houses a year. Lund often plays host at the two-day shows, inviting neighbors and art lovers into her Annandale home to peruse original art. “I definitely feel a connection with the other artists,” she said. “We all had careers before and now we’re mostly stay-at-home moms so this has been such a nice creative outlet for us.”

The jewelry designer and goldsmith developed an interest in becoming an artist at an early age, mostly because she was surrounded by artists in her family. Her mother is a weaver, her sister is a sculptor and her grandfather was a famous painter in Norway. When her daughter started the first grade, Lund began taking a painting class at the Torpedo Factory. She quickly realized that she did not want to paint and instead fell in love with a jewelry-making class.

Lund has been taking a jewelry class at the Art League for seven years. She also meets monthly with a female metalsmith group in Northern Virginia called The Ladysmiths. “Everyone has a different technique,” Lund said. “We recently set a challenge for each other to take a moment every day to share something creative on our blog – from a quote that inspires us to a picture of our newest piece. We also challenge ourselves to create one new piece a week.”

Lund also sells her work at Artisans United’s craft gallery in Annandale and at a jewelry shop in Del Ray. She participates in the Art League School’s ArtFest at the Madison Annex in Alexandria and has been in juried shows at the Torpedo Factory and at the Mansion at the Strathmore in Bethesda. “Shops always want new things,” she said. “It helps me stay motivated to create new pieces.”

The jewelry artist hosts solo shows at home and sells her work through her website. She handcrafts original designs using gold, silver and natural gemstones. Her pieces are feminine and contemporary, with fine attention to detail. “I like using things that have motion in my pieces, like tassels or baubles,” she said. “But I think it’s the color combinations that really strike a chord with me.”

Lund loves anything to do with the ocean. She frequently uses sea glass and aquamarine in her pieces. One of her favorite collections is of naturally heart-shaped stones that she finds at beaches in all of her travels. She also does etchings with shell designs and adds little multi-color sapphires.

Friend and customer Tina Jordan owns several of Bodil’s pieces, including one with blue sea glass that reminds her of summer days spent on the beach. “My current favorite is a solid silver heart pendant,” Jordan said. “It is fabulous. The weight of it feels great in my hand and around my neck. And I love the unique shape of the heart. Isn't everyone's heart unique? Bodil reflects that in this piece of silver. She has a way of capturing emotions in her artwork that is really special.”

Custom pieces are the artist’s forte. “I love the whole process of re-melting metals so I often recycle materials into new pieces,” she said. “People have given me bags of broken chains and missing earrings and just say, ‘Here, I have all of this old jewelry and I would really like a ring.’ So we figure out what kind of ring they would like and even if the piece is hiccupped or imperfect, that’s part of the charm of it because you have the old memories in what you’re wearing. That’s really what I love to do.”

Lund also loves to help her friends. Her friend and fellow jewelry artist Patti Hardy was diagnosed with aggressive brain cancer last summer and her family has set up a foundation in her honor. PattiStrong provides funding, training and support globally for women to achieve entrepreneurial success. Lund created a charm as a fundraiser for the foundation, which she sells on her website. “I was so honored,” she said. “It gave Patti and her family something else to concentrate on.”

She may have a knack for custom design, but underneath the artist is a shrewd businesswoman. “I do enjoy the business side of it,” Lund said. “I put together a budget and a business plan every year. I look at things on a monthly and even a weekly basis to see what I need to accomplish. I’ve got a daughter, a family, a house, two cats and I like to volunteer at school, but this is my part-time job. I love it and I can’t imagine not doing it.”