ARTIST PROFILE

My jewelry interests and subsequent, though sometimes detoured, jewelry career started in High School in Denver in the early seventies. Following High School I took some college classes in jewelry design and fabrication at Red Rocks Community College, west Denver, but would still give the credit for my basic training, design and jewelry making skills to Larry Hase, my High School art teacher; beyond that, I am mostly self-taught. I believe trial and error ingrains more lessons than formal instruction.

My work has taken many diverse and interesting turns but has finally led me to what I have always wanted to do, my jewelry. When I married in 1978, my husband formed an excavation company so I learned to operate all types of heavy equipment; backhoes, excavators and loaders plus I drove the trucks, both dump trucks and the truck with the lowboy hauling equipment around. I could estimate jobs, supervise the crew and shovel dirt in the trenches beside them; plus handle all the accounting and related paperwork. We lived in the country and as I became friends with the owners of all the neighboring cattle ranches my horse Sadie and I helped with their cattle operations herding cattle in violent thunderstorms, through sudden blizzards and on the most amazing sunny days, through thick heavy timber, streams and high mountain meadows. I helped my neighbors with all facets of cattle ranching from putting up hay, calving, branding and the fall roundup along with raising my own band of very tame sheep, mostly black, some chickens and a calf now and then for us to eat. A lot of understanding of life in general was gained sitting in the straw in a shed at 3am when it was -20 waiting for one of my ewes to give birth.

I have won awards for my photographs, pencil drawings and acrylic paintings but have always been drawn more to working with metal which has also won awards. I get some of my inspiration from the rugged mountains I live in and explore with my son, now 13, who is also a jeweler starting at age eight. Together we play golf, go exploring, camping and hiking in our surrounding mountains with our young Airedale Farley and cat Chica, ride our bikes and practice the current sports after dinner.

As a single mother now, my entire focus is on raising and supporting my son along with my jewelry business that is the sole means of our income. With many trials put behind me and many obstacles overcome I have so many new and exciting ideas that hit me everyday as I work. I enjoy so much the opportunity to spend every day making my jewelry and it positively confirms what I have chosen to do with the rest of my life when someone else enjoys my work as well.