I love this company’s designs and workmanship.  Shown here is  one of my favorite designs, the Copperhead Snake.

“At the heart of Julio Pagliani you’ll find the people of Norogachi, a small town deep in Mexico’s Sierra Madre, reachable only by sometimes impassable dirt roads through a land of Tarahumara Indians and Mestizo farming families.  Working with these talented people, we craft beautiful bracelets, necklaces and accessories embraced by the finest shops.”

When you purchase a design with Julio Pagliani’s name, you are helping a village to find fairly paid work…and make much-needed money….without having to leave home and family.

Arizona artist, Kit Carson has brought a taste of the wild to Santa Fe Trail Jewelry.  Inside some of his bracelets is this wonderful inscription of “Bad to the Bone”.  Kit’s Stitch bracelets are inscribed with “Life is Good” inside.  If you want a piece of the ‘wild side’, look for his work here at Santa Fe Trail Jewelry.
Jewelry with attitude.

 I discovered Kit Carson’s work through a friend who owns one of Kit’s  ’Pirate”  bracelets.  Engraved inside is the saying “Bad to the Bone”.  (see “Looking for Biker Jewelry?”)   I knew his designs would be a perfect fit for my store.                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Kit Carson, the “Wildest Jewelry Engraver in the West”, is known for his original, bold, naturalistic, curvilinear design, extremely fine detail and a subtle sense of humor.

Inspiration rushes through Kit like a desert flash flood slapping the dust out of a dry arroyo.  He observes the rich palette of nature in the desert:  a leaf spiraling over itself, the graduating texture of a weathered stone, the voluptous form of the thunderheads, and the accelerating curves of a sunbleached bone.  As he notices a rabbit bounding by him, framed over a golden cactus against a turquoise sky, he’s back at his bench working madly, a happy guy.  “It is the nostalgic freedom of the western landscape and a return to a natural and simple life that I want to capture in my art”, says Kit.   His themes include ravens, dragonflies, cactus, bones, cowboys and anything else he discovers in the desert.

Santa Fe Trail Jewelry has been showcasing the designs of Richard Lindsay for over 6 years.  I have made it my mission each year to buy his featured earrings from his spring shows.  This year he designed the “Mountain Chime” earrings which I just had to have and I have added to my gallery.  I hope to add some of his other styles as I get to it but these are just a preview of his best, most outstanding work available.  Each element is hand made, so the wait can be several months.  I have these and 4 other pairs of fabulous Richard Lindsay originals available.   Watch for them to be added soon! 

Richard says “A hallmark is the registered signature of a master gold and silversmith.  I have chosen as part of my hallmark a triangle, the universal symbol of change.  It represents the three main sources of my artistic inspiration:  my love of nature, wildlife and the outdoors, my roots in the American West and the stories and symbols of American peoples past and present.  This hallmark signifies an authentic Richard Lindsay creation and guarantees enjoyment and inspiration.”

Debby Harkness, of Southern Exposure in Austin Texas, came in to my store this week and intrigued me with her story. She is in town for the duration of one of the top Renaissance Festivals in the country. She creates lampwork glass designs and is a silversmith. She graciously offered me a pair of tickets to come visit her booth.

The Renaissance Festival is going on in Larkspur, Colorado and it is a huge, well visited event. I had a wonderful day and enjoyed many artist’s demonstrations. I picked this gorgeous lampwork glass bead made by Debby of Southern Exposure and hope to get my hands on more as she makes them. Offered on a simple rubber cord, I am going to try to come up with my own design with beads that will compliment the blue glass pendant. It will be a truly unique necklace and should be made available for sale in the very near future!

The breathtaking shards of glass Angie Olami uses in her jewelry date from 100 BCE to 300 CE. They were unearthed in Israel by archaeologists sifting through the fallen pillars and once magnificent cities of the Roman Empire.

And how do the colors form? The layers of iridescent colors have evolved gradually over the centuries as part of the glass’s chemical reaction to the sun, the water and the mineral rich earth in which it was buried. There has been glass found in England and Northern Europe dating back at least 1700 yrs, but it lacks the opalescence associated with Roman Glass because the natural phenomenon could not occur in their cold, damp climates. Angie Olami’s suppliers of Roman Glass are all licensed by the Israeli Government Antiquities Authority. Whole vessels are carted off to the museums and archaeologists keep whatever they need for research, the fragments are used in the jewelry design - useless rubble to some but magnificent gems to us!

Angie Olami jewelry is made from the hand blown fragments of ancient perfume pots, juglets, lamps, flasks, vases, cups and bowls. Each fragment varies in thickness, age and composition. Each piece underwent its own unique transformation as it became weathered with layers of patina. If a shard doesn’t sit exactly straight in its bezel, remember it is someone’s ancient wineglass you are wanting to wear as a pendant or as earrings.

Santa Fe Trail Jewelry has been proud to offer the versatile designs of Rebecca McNerney for over 6 years.  Rebecca’s designs combine sterling silver beads & clasps with freshwater pearls.  She also makes sterling silver slides, stackable sterling silver rings, sterling silver charms and hand made sterling chains.  The sterling silver elements are all designed by Rebecca using the lost wax casting technique.  “My work focuses on the textural differences between the silver & the pearls & gemstones that I use.  I like to combine smooth pearls & round stones with textured & oxidized metal.  all of my designs are very simple, and focus on the intrinsic beauty of the materials.”  Rebecca McNerney’s designs are a perfect choice  for gifts.

May 2009 brought a new artist to the store.  I am always hunting for new and inspiring work for my customers.  I invited Shelly to come in and show me her collection titled “Stone” and I had no trouble picking 30 one-of-a-kind pieces.  I sold 6 pieces in the first few days! 

She has designed and created jewelry since she was a young child.  Her first jewelry gallery show was at the age of 18.  She is a recent honors graduate of Laguna College of Art and Design.  When Shelly’s not traveling around the world, she spends her time in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
 

The sterling silver jewelry incorporates stones she hand selected, or in some cases had custom carved for her, on her journey.  Today Shelly buys many of her stones directly from the miners in Colorado and enjoys cutting, polishing and doing the lapidary work herself.
 

Shelly travels to the tropical island of Bali, in Indonesia, several times a year where she works side-by-side with many talented metal smiths and their families in remote villages to produce her one-of-a-kind pieces. A purchase of Stone jewelry helps boost  the economy and well being of the recently hard-hit Balinese people.

Darlene Armstrong is a self taught metalsmith with most of her informal training coming out of Adult Education Beginning and Intermediate Jewelry classes she attended in 1988  and 1989, as well as a semester of casting and other metal-smithing skills at Front Range Community College, Denver, Colorado in 1998.

She has spent 20 years diligently working, experimenting and honing her many skills in her own jewelry studio. She continues taking jewelry related classes and workshops in order to enhance her design options to supply to her galleries with fresh and appealing jewelry designs.

“I believe “true artists” are those who are compelled to create works of art, whether or not they choose to sell the work.  Artists create works of beauty for the “Soul” purpose of pursuing their heart’s desire and I believe, are actually conduits for God’s Spirit to bring into existence, through the artist’s hands, wonderful gifts to enhance the world.  When an artist is in love with the medium he/she works in, that love translates into a tangible energy that gets infused into the work and that energy can be felt by the person handling or viewing the piece.  I believe when any object of art (whatever medium) is suffused with the happiness and love of the artist, the piece FEELS exciting and desirable.  The response is visual and emotional. The skill, intention, devotion and love of the creative process is what I believe ultimately sells the work of an artist. “

Sharon Schaffner has been designing jewelry for 30 years and has  been recognized in local, national and international shows and galleries.  Her current work is titled “Faces” and reveals her fascination with different cultures and unique stones.

She has traveled extensively, has worked with other cultures and is a teacher in metal and jewelry design.

Beautiful in its simplicity and showing character through its richness and warmth, this type of jewelry can be worn  to any type of outing and makes a wonderful gift, even if it is for yourself!

Sharon’s current work reveals her fascination with different cultures.  Originally inspired by the Northwest Coast Indian primitive sculptures, the designs exhibit influences from numerous cultures and many travels.

Sharon Schaffner works directly in the metal, allowing the material an expression of its own and achieving  greater spontaneity of form.  Contrast of textures and shapes, and the use of unique stones both precious and non-precious enhance the total design.