The charmed life of jewelry designer Coreen Cordova

Perched on a hillside in Marin, jewelry designer Coreen Cordova's terra-cotta-colored house looks more like a Mexican hacienda in an enclave of ranch houses. Serapes drape the outdoor dining tables, and flanking the front door are cobbler's shoe forms covered in silver milagros, the religious Mexican folk charms. African wedding dolls, drums made in Sierra Madre, pillows covered with embroidered Mexican blouses, and hundreds of wooden Oaxacan carvings. Thirteen years ago, while living in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, she took an apprentice silversmith program and began crafting charms and grouping them in necklaces much the same way as her art collections - by color, theme and shape. The one cool spot in Cordova's otherwise hot-colored house is her bedroom, with its collections of blue glass bottles and silver framed family photos. Delicate balance: "Here the eye is drawn to yellow," said Cordova, pointing out a path of pieces that do make the mass of art seemingly calm. Huh?: The skirt is strung with found objects, including crayons, toys, jewelry, a fork and even a miniature Michael Jackson album.