The artistic heart of my life was first and foremost music.  I began playing piano at age of 4 and studied for many years.  My artistic life was transformed in my retirement years by a series of events.  My brother bought a turquoise mine whose stones inspired me to think of jewelry making. I found a wonderful silversmithing teacher, Lu Manos, in Pocatello, Idaho, and silversmithing became the most fascinating thing in my life.  I also studied with Jay Kidwell at the junior college in Lake Havasu AZ and he influenced my designing a great deal.

I work primarily in lost wax casting, and my stones and organic materials, such as grasses, flowers, seed pods and sagebrush, guide my designs.  I've entered very few shows.  Instead, my rewards are the praise of my friends and relatives who have inspired or commissioned my work and worn my jewelry for decades.  Like the Native Americans, I always work in silver, but I disapprove of copying their designs.

In the last few years I have enjoyed basket making with the Great Basin Basketmakers Guild of Reno NV.  Baskets are also organic and a faster expression of the artistic impulse.

                            Photograph by Sarah E. McKibben