I have always been fascinated with the human process involved in transforming raw stone into utilitarian and ornamental objects. As a small child growing up in the Deep South, I would pick up about every pointed rock that I found and say, “Daddy, Daddy, is this an arrowhead?”. The answer was always “No”. “But how can I tell?”, I asked. “You’ll know when you find one”. Well, I didn’t feel that was a very adequate answer, but found out that in reality, it was quite true. One day, in an old abandoned cotton field behind my house, I saw “IT“…. a small orange projectile point sitting atop its low pedestal of red Georgia clay. It seemed to glow with a certain inner spirit that other rocks simply didn’t possess. As I picked it up, I could feel the life force of the person who had taken the rough stone and, by virtue of his skill, transformed it into an object pictured only in his mind. Although the craftsman had been dead for centuries, his spirit seemed to still radiate from this product of his handiwork.

Eventually a time came when I needed to commit to a major in college. Obviously with a love to both create and study manmade objects, I took on the focus and study of Studio Art and History. After graduating in 1971, I was blessed to land a job at the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson, Arizona. Here I fell in love with all aspects of both Natural and Ethnological History of the Great American Southwest. In 1974, I moved to the Zuni Mountains of West Central, New Mexico and built a log cabin utilizing only an ax, hammer and handsaw. Soon I landed a job at the nearby Ice Caves Trading Post and had an opportunity to further develop an appreciation of the local Zuni and Navajo arts. Since I didn’t have electricity at my cabin, working with electrical equipment in one of the old hunting cabins located there allowed me to improve both the silversmithing and lapidary skills I had begun to develop earlier in Tucson.

Over the years I have continued my research of ancient and contemporary jewelry design, lapidary materials and trade routes. At different times I lived in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Crete, Greece, always attempting to improve my skills and develop a greater understanding of jewelry construction, design and the various materials employed in its construction. In the mid-1990’s, I began mining some of my own gemstones for use in my own personal jewelry line as well as supplying select Native American artisans. I now operate turquoise mines in Cerrillos and Hachita, New Mexico, Patagonia, Arizona, and Royston, Nevada. Gem variscite comes from my claims in the Candelaria Hills and Monte Cristo Range of Esmeralda County, Nevada.

Almost forty years after being given my first piece of turquoise at the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum, it is now my desire to share my life’s work with you, and in so doing, I hope to continue to learn and develop within my chosen field for many more years to come….