JEFF GRANIT staff Artist Dori Daus shows some of the jewelry creations on display in her Monroe home. MONROE — The universe has brought her wonderful gifts.

That's how Dori Daus described her artistic talents and her loving, supportive family. The universe has been especially generous to her lately. She was the featured artisan on the website artfire.com from last week to this week. ArtFire is an online marketplace where artisans from around the globe display and sell their handmade crafts and artwork.

Closer to home, Daus' work will be displayed at the Spotswood Public Library in March.

"It's a big honor to be chosen by Artfire," Daus said. Entrants are judged by their work, the quality of their materials and their story, and those selected have their profiles featured on the front page.

Daus, who graduated from Ocean Township High School and received her bachelor's degree from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and her master's from New Jersey City University, Jersey City, has a husband Jonathan, sons Adam, 10, Jacob, 5, and daughter Sara, 8. They moved to Monroe six years ago.

The back porch on the family's house has been converted into Daus's studio, and the family living room includes a gallery of her artwork. She often works on commissioned pieces, such as the pendant an owner of a taekwondo studio ordered to award to black belt students.

Daus especially enjoys working jewelry, and likes "the material to speak to me," she said. Among the mediums she works in are fused glass, silver clay and metal clay. New mediums intrigue her, and she just completed 12 hours of learning how to work with blow glass art. A torch in her home studio allows her to blow little glass beads and balls. Future goals include working with enamel and new brass clay, and woodworking.

Daus' favorite artists include Degas, and she especially likes M.C. Escher for his ideas about space.

"[Salvador] Dali has been a big inspiration," she said, citing his make-believe world with things that look real, such as bent clocks, "which make solid concepts fluid." She added, "I love art based on mythology … anything that tells a story."

In her own work, she likes to take materials and really stretch them, "to see how far I can push it," she said.

Art isn't her only career. Daus accompanies her children to the Mill Lake Elementary School just a block away every morning, where she works part time as a teacher's aide in kindergarten. When asked how she manages the roles of wife, mother and artist, Daus said she does her commissioned work after the kids go to bed. Besides balancing work and family, Daus also finds time to volunteer. She is a Brownie troop leader, coaches third-grade girls basketball, and helps out at her synagogue.

Daus' work is available at Buying Style, New Hope, Pa., as well as on her website, http://faceofcontentment.tripod.com. She is tentatively scheduled to appear at the Not Yo Mamas Craft Fair in Jersey City on March 28; Jersey City Craft Fair, May 16; West Orange Craft Fair, May 24; Westfield Craft Fair, June 6; and Fair Lawn Craft Fair, June 7.

Daus will teach crafts for the Monroe Township Adult Education program on Tuesday and Thursday evenings in March and April. She also teaches private classes by appointment. For more information, visit Daus' website or call 732-771-4006.