Francesca Watson

Francesca Watson is a designer, maker and instructor who lives and works in the Texas Hill Country outside San Antonio. She is a Texas transplant who originally hails from upstate New York, but after stops along the way in Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, California, Hawaii, and the Philippines, she and her husband Nick, a painter, finally settled for good in the Hill Country outside San Antonio. In 2006, after years working in administrative jobs, she took a bead stringing class with some girlfriends - and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Today, Francesca and Nick operate The Makery, a working studio in the Old Village in Downtown Bulverde, Texas. Her work tends to be one-of-a-kind pieces or pieces that are part of limited series that grow out of her technical explorations, including non-traditional enamels, stone-setting, and keum boo, which is the ancient art of layering 24k gold over other metals. She has a singular wish for each and every piece: that its wearer would feel powerful and beautiful wearing it. Adornment is so personal, and so much of the time an expression, often unconscious, of what women believe about themselves. She hopes her pieces will be unique and evocative enough to amplify the best and most positive of those beliefs. 

In addition to creating and teaching at The Makery, Francesca teaches nationally at local studios and major venues including BeadFest events, the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee, the Tucson Gem Shows, and the Glass Craft and Bead Expo in Las Vegas. She also hosts an annual metals retreat featuring top national metalsmithing instructors. Francesca and Nick live on just over an acre of Texas dirt with a flock of chickens, two dogs, and a variety of wildlife that insists on eating everything. They have one grown daughter, Danica, who lives and works in nearby San Antonio.


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