StoneLink Design

This is the seventeenth article in a Vendor Profile Series intended to share the history and diversity of the Market through the stories of our vendors, as we celebrate our 25th Season. This article is written by journalist Barry Courter.

Art has nearly always been a part of Liz Long's life. She says she was fortunate to attend a high school in the Chicago area that had a strong art program and she learned to make jewelry there.

She studied painting and fine art at Illinois State and continued creating throughout her adult life, serving as the creative side of the family's sign business.

“We had it for 30 years and I was the graphic designer and the bookkeeper and customer service, that kind of thing,” she says. 

“Then when we got divorced, I had to switch.”

She moved to Chattanooga and started StoneLink Designs and began making jewelry in earnest and sold her work at a variety of events and festivals in the area before finding a permanent home at the Chattanooga Market.

Liz says she continued to study and master her craft, going so far as to take classes in Atlanta and France, “just to get me back on my feet and reintroduce me to my craft.”

Liz said her pieces are made from rare and unusual stones and gems and nearly pure silver that she forms from precious metal clay. 

“It's almost as much chemistry as it is art,” she says. 

It's a medium that was created in the early '90s that allows the artist to work the material into any shape they want and then when it's fired the binding agent melts away and the silver piece remains. 

“So in the end,” Liz says, “it ends up to be 0.999 silver, but it starts out as a kind of a clay.

“That's pretty much where my focus was because it's so interesting and you can do so many things with it.”

Liz designs and makes her own metalwork including ear wires and pendants, and especially enjoys finding more interesting stones to complete the piece. She sources the stones from around the world, but primarily from India.

Because of that, nearly every piece is unique, though she does repeat some patterns. She doesn't do custom pieces.

In addition to selling her works at the market, she sells on Etsy.

“Online, I probably sell more earrings and at the market I probably sell more necklaces, but that changes from year to year.”

Liz says her jewelry pieces sell for between $30 and $400, and that she has quite a few customers who come back looking for a gift for a granddaughter or a graduate. Or, for themselves, or a spouse will come back with a picture. 

“Sometimes they'll go home and they'll reach out to me online or come back.”

Liz says it would be difficult to do what she does without the Chattanooga Market.

“It's steady and it's consistent and you can build your brand and you can make your relationships with your customers. I mean, there's very few places where you can do that.”

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