Sharon Jones is the owner and artist of SJ Studios, LLC.  She earned both her bachelors and masters degrees in Ceramic and Materials Science engineering from the University of Washington in her home town of Seattle, Washington. 

While working as an engineer specializing in research and development of high-tech ceramic substrate applications, Sharon’s hobbies included sports, music, painting, and ceramics.  After more than 15 years in high-tech defense and manufacturing industries she left her job as a Sr. Process Engineer at Corning’s optical fiber manufacturing plant to pursue her own interests.   

Sharon’s creativity benefited her both technically and artistically.  Her ideas as an engineer led to millions of dollars in process improvements and a US patent (#5,997,942 "Method of Forming Optical Fiber Coating") for Corning, Inc., and Invention Disclosure Awards at Hughes Aircraft, and now she applies that same creativity to her designs in tile and satisfying customers’ needs.

Being artistic and technical led to an interest in the decorative aspects of tile as well as with installation and construction issues.  In order to better understand the craft, she joined a construction crew and worked as a tile setter’s helper for one month followed by one and a half years in the Brick and Allied Craftworkers trade school learning how to install tile. 

For the next several years Sharon installed tile in homes in Florida, worked in a tile showroom, and continued to sell her handmade tiles to many satisfied customers from California to Pennsylvania.  While in Florida she met the Executive Director of the Tile Council of North America.  The combination of Sharon’s engineering and tile experience led to her being hired as Director of Research at the Tile Council of North America headquarters located in Anderson, SC.  After 3 years with TCNA Sharon left and currently runs SJ Studios full time.

SJ Studios is a member of the United States Green Building Council's Upstate Branch and Sharon is on the South Carolina Arts Commission's Roster of Approved Artists.