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Dottie Arnao is the wire artist and the entrepreneur behind Tuttles’ Trinkets. Her pieces have since been sold and worn by many, throughout the United States and Europe.
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 Dottie’s mother, Betty Arnao was a strong influence in her life. "Tuttles’" was her nickname when she was growing up. Though she is no longer with Dottie, she will always be in her heart and at the heart of her creativity.
Dottie has fond memories of watching her mother's creativity emerge in her sewing, crocheting and knitting. Her Mom would often give Dottie "supplies" so that she could make something on her own. Her Mom taught her that if she kept her hands and mind busy, she would never fear idle time.
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Dottie's formal education is in the area of special education. She has worked with a large spectrum of the special education population in the last 31 years. She continues to explore techniques and strategies to help the students with reading. Her goal is to be able to help the dyslexic reader unravel the mystery of reading. |
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In the last ten years, Dottie’s "artistic" skills have emerged. She had spent many years doing tole painting with Nancy Gilbert. It was through tole painting, she began to make her first pieces of jewelry. Eventually, she got the urge to take a silversmith course with Bob Edgar, but after some uneasy battles with the soldering torch, she stumbled upon wire sculpting. Dottie found she could combine her creativity and her love of jewelry making when she did wire sculpting, not having to use a torch to solder. (Wire Sculpting is a solderless way to set stones and create jewelry. It dates back to the age of the Pharaohs.)
Dottie’s journey into the wonderful world of wire, metal, lapidary (the cutting of the cabochon) and PMC (Precious Metal Clay) has allowed her to explore options in New Jersey as well as taken her to Louisiana, Tennessee, California and Pennsylvania to expand her knowledge. On this journey, she has met some wonderful “masters of the craft”. Here are just a few: Bob Edgar; Preston Reuther, Dale “Cougar” Armstrong; Connie Fox, Lisa Niven Kelly, Celie Fago and Alice Alper-Rein.
Each piece of unique jewelry is totally hand-crafted without the use of high-tech machinery. If you have a favorite loose stone or "trinket", that you would like to have sculpted into a ring, bracelet, earrings, or pendant, please contact Dottie via e-mail for an estimate. She’d be more than happy to create a unique setting for your one of a kind piece.
Under her studio name of Tuttles’ Trinkets, Dottie displays her works at juried art shows, home shows and on the website www.tuttlestrinkets.com.
Dottie resides in New Jersey with her two “young adult” children – Chad and Amy.
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| To receive more information by email click
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Dottie hope’s you've enjoyed browsing through the many unique handcrafted pieces on her website. Before you leave, take a moment to sign up for her newsletter so you can stay in touch.
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Thanks for stopping by.
Ciao'
Dottie |
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| Contact me by email me at dottie@tuttlestrinkets.com or call
1-609-499-1867. |
Tuttles Trinkets
Roebling, NJ 08554 |
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