ST. GEORGE —What started as a “fluke” resulted in a stone-cold family business, and they’re rocking it.
Audra Thompson, owner of Dandelion Wishes Studio, a silversmithing and lapidary business, said she’s loved jewelry for as long as she can remember. As a little girl, she constantly snuck jewelry out of her mother’s jewelry box and wore it.
“But that’s every little girl, right?” Thompson said.
In the fourth grade, she began selling handmade items at craft shows such as collected seashells she made into earrings. She went on to own her own gift shop in the Ohio Amish country, then made collectible teddy bears on eBay, which she sold all over the world.
“It just fills me,” Thompson said about the art of creation. “Everybody has a thing they love. It’s what keeps me alive.”
A medical worker of 20 years, Thompson said the pandemic impacted the clinic she worked at, resulting in a loss of employment. With additional time on her hands, her friend asked her to go rock-hounding. Together, they joined a rock club in Cedar City, which offered a jewelry-making class.
And, just like that, she found her passion.
“Mother Nature, man, genius,” she said. “Utah has a lot of really cool rocks and you just have to wonder what was going on in the earth, under the ground, when those things were created. The patterns and the colors – it’s just shocking to me.”
She has her husband’s full support. He used his Christmas bonus to buy her everything she needed to get started in the silversmithing and lapidary business.
She jumped in head first three years ago by selling her handmade jewelry at the artisan co-op MoFACo along with local markets. The family added online lapidary sales and spent two full years working 10-hour days in order to build their business.
Her husband has since quit his job and the family runs Dandelion Wishes Studio together full-time, with her daughter cutting the majority of the stones. Thompson said stones for sale come directly from miners or the family gets permission to obtain stones from specific properties and lands.
“When you can dig something out of the earth and watch it go through all those steps to create something, it’s exciting and super fun,” Thompson said.
From cancer diagnosis to wedding rings, she said the most rewarding part is the sentimental pieces they’ve been able to create. Whether a piece represents miracles or heartbreaking times, they’re creating heirlooms that will be shared for generations to come.
“It just makes me happy and I love creating,” she said. “That is the biggest joy for me – to watch people love what I do.”
Pieces by Dandelion Wishes also represent milestones, such as an Ironman competitor who commissioned a jewelry piece to illustrate her bike ride through Snow Canyon State Park last year. Other milestones include celebrations of sobriety as well as bridal pendants worn close to the bride’s heart.
But the pieces aren’t just for women. She’s been commissioned for a variety of biker jewelry, as well.
“I like something different than what everybody else does or has,” Thompson said. “I’ve cut just about everything out there, and I love, love, love it. I’m always pushing myself to do new and different things.”
Alongside unique stone offerings, the business also creates pieces from glass and even paint. Their marble glass, for example, comes from a factory in West Virginia that closed during World War II. When the marble factory was operational, smelted glass left over at the end of a work day was dumped on the ground, creating cullet glass. Later, the glass was dug out near the factory’s furnaces, sliced, and sold – which she makes into custom jewelry.
Pieces made from paint layers come from Ford Motor Company’s manufacturing locations, which are created when extra paint drips off the cars during the painting process. Each color added results in unique layers, which are cut and sold.
“I love attention to detail and I’m super picky about what I do,” Thompson said. “I feel like this is what I’ve looked for my whole life.”
As for future plans, Thompson would love to take on an apprentice each year, allowing youth to try new things in order to find their individual passions.
Dandelion Wishes Studio sells rocks and other standalone pieces as well as custom sterling silver rings, necklaces, pendants, earrings, cuffs, old spoon ring jewelry and more. For more information visit their website or follow @dandelionwishesstudio on Instagram. Purchase Dandelion Wishes Studio jewelry inside the downtown Modern Farm and Artisan Co-op (MoFACo).
“I feel so blessed,” Thompson said. “ I love the interaction I have with people and the friendships that are created. Watching people be excited about the things that I create – that is my favorite part.”
Photo Gallery
Audra Thompson, owner of Dandelion Wishes Studio, a silversmithing and lapidary company, poses in front of her home fireplace in St. George, Utah, Oct. 31, 2022 | Photo by Jessi Bang, St. George News
A wooden box with a variety of stones and glass is seen inside Audra Thompson's home in St. George, Utah, Oct. 31, 2022 | Photo by Jessi Bang, St. George News
A custom ring by Dandelion Wishes Studio is shown, location and date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Audra Thompson, St. George News
A display inside MoFACo features jewelry by Dandelion Wishes Studio in downtown St. George, Utah, Oct. 31, 2022 | Photo by Jessi Bang, St. George News
A custom pendant and earring set by Dandelion Wishes Studio is shown, location and date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Audra Thompson, St. George News
A wooden box with a variety of stones and glass is seen inside Audra Thompson's home in St. George, Utah, Oct. 31, 2022 | Photo by Jessi Bang, St. George News
A display inside MoFACo features jewelry by Dandelion Wishes Studio in downtown St. George, Utah, Oct. 31, 2022 | Photo by Jessi Bang, St. George News
A custom ring by Dandelion Wishes Studio is shown, location and date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Audra Thompson, St. George News
A display inside MoFACo features jewelry by Dandelion Wishes Studio in downtown St. George, Utah, Oct. 31, 2022 | Photo by Jessi Bang, St. George News
A custom ring by Dandelion Wishes Studio is shown, location and date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Audra Thompson, St. George News
A display inside MoFACo features jewelry by Dandelion Wishes Studio in downtown St. George, Utah, Oct. 31, 2022 | Photo by Jessi Bang, St. George News
A display inside MoFACo features jewelry by Dandelion Wishes Studio in downtown St. George, Utah, Oct. 31, 2022 | Photo by Jessi Bang, St. George News
A custom necklace pendant by Dandelion Wishes Studio is shown, location and date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Audra Thompson, St. George News
A custom ring by Dandelion Wishes Studio is shown, location and date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Audra Thompson, St. George News
A custom ring by Dandelion Wishes Studio is shown, location and date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Audra Thompson, St. George News
A custom ring by Dandelion Wishes Studio is shown, location and date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Audra Thompson, St. George News
A custom ring by Dandelion Wishes Studio is shown, location and date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Audra Thompson, St. George News
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