Small business owner Amanda Harms started creating jewelry as a hobby to keep her busy while working from home with her one year old son. After giving her work out as gifts to friends and family, she was encouraged to start her business, Wild Skies Jewelry.
Harms creates handmade jewelry utilizing materials like porcupine quills, seed beads, antler, and stones. She stitches each bead by hand, with each earring taking about 4 to 8 hours to complete. Harms explains, “I have always wanted to make jewelry. I also have chronic health issues so it was also something I could do no matter how I felt that day”.
- Woman dies after being hit by car
- Montana Millionaire: changes for 2024
- The Montana Club is shutting down
- Recent Obituaries on KRTV
The deer antler used for her rings and pendants come donated from friends or family, and her porcupine quills also come locally donated. Harms stated, “The porcupine quills are actually donated from my sister’s vet. They are able to collect quills if dogs get a little too curious and get hit by a porcupine, they are able to take any of the quills that are still in great shape and intact and I am able to clean them up and use them”.
She credits the inspiration for her jewelry’s western style from her family’s ranch in Denton, Montana, as well as drawing from her father’s previous work with seed bead jewelry. “He actually made seed bead jewelry when he was younger and used quills as well, and my mom was a geology major, so we always had crystals and stones lying around the house. Kind of combining those two things between my mom and my dad kind of created my love for jewelry”.
For more about Wild Skies Jewelry, click here.
FOLLOW KRTV: Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | X (Twitter)