At the age of eleven Yvonne began sketching portraits of everyone in the neighborhood, until her technical illustrator father discovered his pencils were disappearing at an alarming rate.

Her early childhood also involved rearranging the stones in her mother's costume jewelry, so that they were aesthetically and energetically more harmonic for the wearer. Not a surprise  - as mom came from seven generations of Austrian crystal merchants.

Now at her peak as an artist, Yvonne has merged these two disciplines and divides her time between commissioned portraits in oil and red chalk, to designing jewelry with precious and semi-precious stones, Swarovski crystals and metal.

Her creative explorations have expanded to include lampworking classes with local glass masters Nadia Tasci, Isaac Levy, and metalsmithing workshops with the glorious Tosca Teran of naaopodstudios.