ABOUT TESS

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 these familiar, yet never boring, sights. Over the course of her creative life, she has tried her hand, successfully, at many different careers: She’s been a competitive champion 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’s been the founder and proprietor of Treasure Bay Jewelry®, now Treasure Bay Collections, llc ®️, a company dedicated to creating unique, custom designs for discerning private clients and evaluating both private client and museum collections (she earned her BBA from the Gemological Institute of America and is a GIA Graduate Gemologist and CPAA Certified Pearl Specialist). She is also a dedicated and accomplished philanthropist with a focus on local non-profits.

Most recently, she’s added Published Poet to her resume, with three books released, A Sensational Journey, A Luminescent Soul, and Within The Mountains Cradle. No matter her medium, Tess strives to create work that celebrates that 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.