Theresa N. Baybutt

Writer / Gemologist / Philanthropist

“I have a friend that always jokes, ‘Oh, there goes Tess, reinventing herself again.’ But that’s not really the point! I have always followed my passions, and that has led me to a lot of wonderful places. I still have so many things that I would like to do.”

As a child growing up in New England, Theresa “Tess” Baybutt was utterly captivated by the spectacle of the changing seasons: a backyard sugar maple bedecked in rich fall colors; an evergreen forest twinkling with crystalline icicles on a winter morning; and the blue skies of spring and summer, which often saw her spending hours riding her bicycle along country roads. Her grandmother called her “the little wanderer,” a nickname born of the innate curiosity that compelled the young Tess to such thorough observation and exploration of her surroundings.

She began her artistic career as a photographer, inspired by those familiar, yet never boring, sights. Over the course of her adult life, she has tried her hand, successfully, at many different careers: She’s been a competitive ballroom and Latin dancer and dance instructor; she’s worked her way up the corporate ladder at a large retail chain, eventually becoming Director of Human Resources and Training (and winning a couple of Telly Awards, for training videos, in the process); and since 1996 she has run Treasure Bay Jewelry®, a company dedicated to creating unique, custom jewelry for discerning private clients. She is the author of three poetry collections: A Sensational Journey, A Luminescent Soul, and Within the Mountain’s Cradle. She has long been a dedicated and accomplished philanthropist with a focus on local non-profits, including the Massachusetts Oyster Project.

No matter her medium, Tess strives to create work that celebrates her connection to the natural world, and that conveys to those who encounter it the same sense of wonder that has been so central to her own experiences.

“Maturity should never sever the inquisitiveness of an interested mind.”

WRITER

As a young woman, Tess wrote song lyrics, but she set her craft aside for many years while pursuing other paths. It was only in the last few years that she returned to writing, after a major life change: “I began waking up in the middle of the night with entire poems in my head,” she explains. “I was back to being who I authentically am, and I was happy.”

Her debut poetry collection, A Sensational Journey, was published in 2020, and her sophomore effort, A Luminescent Soul, was released in early 2023, followed by her third book, Within the Mountain’s Cradle, which came out later that year. “A lot of the poems in these books were written during the pandemic, and so they’re not always joyful. But I realized that even among all that darkness there was a luminescence, if you knew where to look for it.”

 

GEMOLOGIST

A GIA Graduate Gemologist and a CPAA Certified Pearl Specialist who earned her BBA from the Gemological Institute of America, Tess founded Treasure Bay Jewelry in 1996, and estimates she has since produced more than 15,000 pieces of handmade jewelry. In recent years, she has delved into the scientific side of gemology, specializing in evaluation and identification of gemstones for clients such as the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum.