Meet Patty Brezina, Mom to 4 beautiful children: Greg 16, MaryCallaway 14, Chip 10, and Mac 6 currently residing in Tyrone, Georgia. Patty is also an extremely talented local Jewelry Designer and the Founder of Metalworks by Patty. You can find her hand crafted Jewelry online and in local boutiques. In our Q&A, Patty shares where and how her torch for metal smithing began along with her favorite Mom hack!
Q&A
What is your background? Tell us about your career.
I have a degree in fine arts from the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia. When I was in school, I studied Jewelry and Metalworking. After college, I exercised my degree in a variety of ways. I first worked at a studio that crafted custom works in fine jewelry. Then, I transitioned to an international nonprofit called Rahab’s Rope. There, we rescued women involved in human trafficking and provided them with education in the arts.
In 2007, I began my journey into motherhood. At that time, I laid aside my metalworking torch and learned more domesticated creative arts like how to get babies to sleep through the night, what to do with a defiant two-year-old, hair bow making, sewing, baking, etc…
In 2023 my youngest child went off to kindergarten. That year, I opened my studio again and Metalworks by Patty Brezina was born. What a joy it has been, to get back into my creative niche after being away for so long!
What called you to become a Jewelry Designer?
From an early age, I have always wanted to enrich the lives of the people around me. When I was young, I wanted to become a doctor because I thought medicine was the only way I could help people. I saw myself living in a hut in the middle of the jungle, nursing the poor back to health. The only problem with a dream like that, is that my personal giftings lie more in the creative arts and not in the sciences. When I shifted my major from Pre-Medcine to Fine Art, I felt like a quitter. But I was tired of bucking up against nature.
During that time I took comfort in knowing that I had been created for a purpose–it was time for me to stop trying to carve a place out for myself in this world. I shifted my strategy from trying to make a life for myself to a strategy that involved more of an attitude of discovery. Who am I? What are my strengths? What are my weaknesses? What comes easy to me? etc… It became clear that my future would be found in art. Of all the things I have ever done, art is the only place I find myself getting lost in a different world. Everything comes together when I am creating and I lose track of time.
I learned quickly in art school that I am a 3-D girl. Classes like sculpture, stone carving , and metalworking were where I shined the brightest. I couldn’t see a future income-earning career with a general sculpture degree, but I could see lots of potential in metal, so I settled in.
What is the best thing about your job?
When I am working in my studio, I feel myself come alive with joy. When I conceive an idea, I get excited to bring it to life. Not all the time, but sometimes, I step back from my creation feeling humbled that such a beautiful thing could come from me.
What is your best “working mom” tip?
Learn to be open-handed with concepts like dinner. Get creative there. How can you feed your family a healthy dinner without standing in the kitchen for 4 hours? The dinner table can’t be the only place where your family finds meaningful connection. That’s an old paradigm. Learn to connect in other ways. Value and strive for quality over quantity. By the time your kids are in high school (if they are anything like mine), they will get home at 9 pm every night of the week starving and reheat the meal that the rest of us ate hours ago.
If we are idealizing family dinners, we run the risk of losing our kids in high school because we don’t know how to connect with them.
What is your favorite “mom hack”?
Teach your children to do things for themselves. Like laundry, a child as young as first grade can begin doing their laundry. And pay them for the work they do. It gives them a sense of confidence and ownership in life and that’s a good thing.
What do you love about Peachtree City and the surrounding areas?
I love living in a small town. And the big city of Atlanta is so close. We get the best of both worlds here!
In the last 10 years, I feel like our community has begun to develop a love for the arts. I am excited about this new creative movement in our community.
What TV show are you loving right now? Book? Movie? Podcast?
I don’t watch TV. I spend a lot of time in my car every day, so I listen to books on Audible. My favorite book from the summer has been “A Burning in my Bones” the biography of Eugene Peterson.
I have recently discovered the lectures of a brilliant Harvard professor and Therapist by the name of Jordan B. Peterson. His lecture series on the book of Genesis is particularly interesting to me.
To visit Patty’s Website to shop jewelry, click HERE!