Bermuda's sun, sand and surf are all inspiration to Bermudian jeweller Alexandra Mosher.

Miss Mosher, 29, operates a jewellery studio out of Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation (KAF) on Jubilee Road in Devonshire.

She has just launched a new line of affordable jewellery called 'Isla Bermuda'.

"It has Bermuda sand set in a jewellery grade resin," she said. "When it dries it looks like beach glass. It is really quite cool. People are buying them as gifts and for themselves."

In August, she was commissioned by the Kardias Club to create a special piece to commemorate Spirit of Bermuda, a local sail training and educational vessel run by the Bermuda Sloop Foundation.

"That piece is still available," she said. "All the proceeds are going to Spirit of Bermuda."

Miss Mosher started in jewellery by simply taking apart and refashioning pieces that she already had.

"Then I thought, I can only do that so many times," she said.

In early 2005, she started purchasing the raw materials for jewellery including beads, stones and sterling silver and 14 carat gold-filled wire, and started to fabricate her own pieces.

"I never wanted to just see beads on a strand," she said. "I wanted to do something sculptural and artistic. So I started playing with the wire, and attaching different things in different ways."

At first, she just wore what she made, or gave it as gifts, but people started asking where she got her pieces. So she decided to start making pieces to sell.

"Jewellery making has become quite popular in Bermuda," she said. "You go down to Harbour Nights and there are many people doing different things with jewellery.

"When I got back from school last summer, I contacted a couple of different artists to find where they found supplies in Bermuda.

"I asked them whether they had studio space here. A few wrote back and others didn't write back at all. It would be great to have some kind of community of jewellers here."

She often travels to the Diamond District in New York for supplies, including special stones and metal work.

Miss Mosher is partly influenced by the work of jeweller Alexander Calder.

Mr. Calder was an American artist and sculptor most famous for creating the mobile. He also dabbled in jewellery.

"He only did one-offs," said Miss Mosher. "So his pieces are really collectable now. I was fascinated with the way he played with metal. He made fish, and characters and different curly cues and shapes."

She is also influenced by the art nouveau style of art made popular at the turn of the 20th century.

"There is this very specific curvy line that runs through the art nouveau style," said Miss Mosher. "I have that line going through some of my jewellery."

A few years ago, she left Tucker's Point Club where she was working in event planning. She travelled for a while, and then decided to take her jewellery to the next level.

In 2008 she took six months of jewellery-making classes in New York at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and the Jewish Community Centre (JCC).

"I didn't know about the JCC until I called one of my metal supply stores," she said. "They suggested the JCC.

"They were amazing. There was a syllabus in some of the classes, but others you worked on your own projects. You would bring your projects in to the instructor and ask questions.

"The instructor would make suggestions. There were so many people there who were involved in their community. I learned so many Jewish phrases."

She said unlike painting or photography — which she also does a jeweller has to contend with physics.

"When you make an earring, it has to balance properly," she said. "It has to function and wear well. It can't be sharp. I have cursed physics, many many times. But it is all a learning process."

She said that jewellery making also has its hazards.

"I was averaging a couple of burns a day," she said. "I had a strand of hot silver brand my elbow. It is a hazardous job. There are lots of grinders and sanding sticks.

"The flex shaft is a foot-operated tool. It has a hand-held dentist drill and you put different attachments in it.

"It is the left hand that gets mangled with this the most because you are holding on to the piece with that hand if the implement slips."

She said some metal pieces have to be exactly a millimetre or so wide. Too thin and they come out of the mold with holes; too thick and they look unsightly.

"It is a matter of getting your hands to do what your brain wants them to do," she said.

She originally studied studio art and French at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts.

"I loved French," she said. "I was a Rotary Club exchange student in 1997. This programme sends teenagers to spend a year living with a host family in another country.

"I was in Brussels, Belgium and lived with two families. I loved Europe. I would recommend the Rotary Club exchange experience to any parent.

"If you can get through something like that you can do just about anything."

Miss Mosher currently has some of her pieces on show in a combined exhibition in the Elliot Gallery at KAF with photographer Amanda Temple called 'Through The Looking Glass'. It is on until December 15.

In addition to her jewellery, Miss Mosher works in sales and marketing at the Newstead Belmont Hills resort.

To make an appointment to visit her studio, E-mail alexandrabermuda.com or visit http://www.alexandramosher.com