About Me
I really like working with metal–silver, gold, copper, and mild steel. The metal is lively and interesting and always good-looking.
Why I started
My dad, during the second world war, was a welder at Republic Aviation on Long Island, N.Y., and evidently took to metalwork. He was an artist, who used brazing, soldering, and welding in his work. When I was about ten he taught me how to braze copper.
Around this time I was seeing that making art an income-producing job, to say nothing of a livelihood, was more struggle than it was worth. It was serious work with no certainty of being shown and actually selling. Getting into a good Gallery was, and is, hard work and politics.
It was likely to be a hard living in Fine Art, BW: Before the Web. I eventually went to RISD, also Before the Web, and studied Art, but not how to sell it.
So valuable metals were the answer. They could be turned into Art, and actually sold because of their intrinsic value. And anyway, silver and gold are very satisfying to work with.
Artist Jeweler
in Santa Fe
I LIKE THE WORK
It is a job in which I am entirely happy.
Also, I can indulge in Drawing, in the form of jewelry designs, models wearing them, and schematic drawings for the construction of involved pieces. Drawing the construction is part of the solution to problems in a design.
When I design and plan a piece, the assumption is that it won’t be inexpensive because of the time I take and the good materials used in it. I take as much time as I like and I enjoy every hour.
- There are no factory-made parts used, only ones I made specifically for each design.
- A number of rings shown in the website incorporate castings, for which I made the masters, and which then were used for stones or 24K gold covering
- The only machine-made chain I use is on a few simple pendants, and I make the hooks or toggles for those chains.
- My soldering technique is clean and makes machine polishing unnecessary.
- The finished pieces are hand burnished or etched with a burnisher, so every surface is subtly different
- A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and a lot of jewelry is one form or another of a chain. So all connecting rings or links or solders have to be strong enough to support the whole piece. A heavy necklace or bracelet must have a substantial closure.
- A heavy piece of jewelry will have an opening that looks like part of the chain, or a hook or toggle that is part of the design or is a decorative feature
- Every connecting piece of metal is handmade and will be strong and therefore visible
- Each piece of jewelry should be comfortable and fit the human contours gracefully
- All closures have been tested to assure that they can’t come undone accidentally
- Should there be an issue with a clasp, hook or toggle, I will immediately, at no cost, remedy the fault
"When I design and plan a piece, the assumption is that it won't be inexpensive because of the time I take and the good materials used in it. I take as much time as I like and I enjoy every hour."