Jewelry Design

ACleoni Designs Acleoni Designs has created a signature style featuring a dazzling and unusual array of gemstones set in handcrafted silver. The design inspiration begins with an appreciation of the natural beauty of the stones and incorporates traditional bezel settings with ancient and contemporary forms. Acleoni Designs embraces jewelry as adornment and heirloom, and we are committed to bringing fine quality and distinctive jewelry that celebrates the test of time.

Marahlago

MarahLago designs are created to showcase the rare beauty of Larimar and imbue each woman with a natural sense of style and elegance. Marah's goal is to use beautiful gemstones and everyday jewelry designs to infuse a sense of uniqueness and rarity into each piece. Resort style, individuality and versatility are the cornerstones that the brand is based on.

Marah Lago was blessed by a childhood steeped in imagination. Her mother was a famous painter who created a world of dazzling creativity; exposing her to gatherings of notable artisans; sculpture, ceramics and the finest of arts. An artist was born and an artist she would be. With a degree in International business she made her way into the corporate world designing for Robinsons May and Nordstrom. In 1997 she was recognized in the International Who's Who of Entrepreneurs.

Today, a sensational blue stone builds the foundation of MarahLago and fire's a passion to showcase this breathtaking gem. And so, Marah designs, melding nature and art, exceptional stones and exceptional designs, bringing to life a rare gemstone with a sense of style, playfulness and individuality.

Michele Foster Michele Foster specializes in sterling silver jewelry featuring creative and colorful inlay designs using a variety of natural materials and semi-precious stones. Her line includes unique sculptural pieces based on the inherent beauty of diverse minerals, as well as a wide range of distinctive inlay designs. Originating in southwestern motifs, these designs are evolving to embrace a broader range of contemporary and traditional cultural inspirations.

Steven Battelle

Steven Battelle has followed a singular, somewhat circuitous route to his current incarnation as a noted designer of unique treasures of wearable art – capturing the feeling and nuance of bygone civilizations long since disappeared and bringing them forth into the modern age. Diverging from an early interest in painting and the visual arts, Steven initially followed a path into the healing professions. He is certainly unique among designers as one who has also practiced as a veterinarian of exotic animals, as well as all manner of domesticated creatures. Following an unexpected trip to South East Asia in 1987, Steven became fascinated with the imagery and ornamentation of the ancient cultures of Majapahit Java and pre-European Siam, and what began initially as a brief diversion, resulted ultimately in a 180 degree change of life direction.

Drawn particularly to large cabochon (un-faceted) stones, with which the first jewelry from all the ancient cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Asia was made, Steven handpicks unusual precious and semiprecious stones that often carry with them some manner of inherent imperfections. The natural characteristics of the stone become a part of the feeling and energy of the piece. Utilizing both painstaking traditional handmade techniques and current processes, he has developed a line of jewelry that melds the classic line of these ancient motifs into objects of functional and timeless beauty.

Jan D. Gjaltema

The very private, some say reclusive, Jan D. is probably the only well-known jewelry designer that does not display his creations at craft and trade shows. Like many other well-known artists, his designs have often been copied but never duplicated to his high standard of craftsmanship. Though Jan D.’s initial success occurred in Europe, his work is now in demand throughout the United States. Currently, more than 50 galleries in the U.S. represent his works. All of Jan D.’s creations are handcrafted and fabricated - none are cast. He works with inlays of abalone, mother of pearl and resin in many different colors as well as with precious stones. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he did work in matte finish oxidized silver, and in the mid 1990s he created an extensive line with the combination of rosewood and silver. In the early years of this century he also worked with hand torched translucent enamel, and later fashioned a line with a glass /silver combination. In 2008 he presented a new jewelry line with silver and black obsidian, aventurine and rose quartz.

Cavin Richie

The delicate beauty of a heron captured in mid-flight, the lacy wings of a dragonfly, the solid power of a bear, the elegant shape of a salmon, the energy of a leaping frog, are all part of the art of Cavin Richie, appearing on the lapels, ears and necklines of many people across the country. Under my Cavin signature, I have been transforming nature's art into fine jewelry over the past 21 years, creating original wildlife jewelry in bronze castings, wooly mammoth ivory, naturally shed antler, wood and other materials. Over the years, my work has grown from relatively simple representation to sophisticated pieces detailing evocative moments in nature. My passion for natural history grew from my childhood in the Colorado Rockies, and subsequent discovery of the ocean environs and adoption of the west coast as my home.
My pieces depict creatures of the natural world and are exquisitely crafted with fine detailing on a very small scale, using techniques common to monumental bronze sculpture. The earthy color of the bronze brings out the subjects, including eagles and other birds, feathers, frogs, marine mammals, insects and forest creatures. The pieces are enhanced by the color of permanent patinas accenting the original design.

Stecher

Marty and Denise Stecher live and play near Mesa Verde in southwest Colorado where their enthusiasm for outdoor sports has given them opportunity to visit and study many remote rock art sites. Their sterling silver jewelry depicts the prehistoric Indian petroglyph designs they have found in the cliffs and rocks in this area.

Kathy Anderson

In all of my work, I enjoy the use of multi metals; the different colors and surface textures that can be drawn from each metal. I also enjoy the interplay of colored gemstones to enhance my work. Most of my earrings can be made with posts as well as clips, there are size limitations for clips on some smaller earrings. Any gemstone can be placed in any design, prices will reflect the higher priced stones.

Painters

Sam Keith "Living and working in East Texas and the mountains of Colorado, I work in acrylics, mixed media, and fine art photography. I have studied painting and drawing with Jerry Newman, watercolor with Frank Gerrietts and Don Andrews, and mixed media with Stephen Quiller. Photography studies were with noted photographers Keith Carter, Tony O'Brien and Linde Waidhofer." "I've spent much time looking for "the light"....both in my work as well as in life. I stand in awe of genius, both in man and nature. My inspiration comes from the spiritual, the mystical....great music, great books and dreams. My work is about feelings and emotions; with subject seldom th focus. My art reflects who I am as I try to transfer what's within to paper or canvas. It is my hope the art that I create will, first of all, satisfy what's inside of me. Second, that the viewer will find something that makes them feel, and think, maybe not in the same way that I felt when creating the work, but in their own special way. This is my effort to be honest to my emotions....hopefully I've let a few escape and have achieved that goal."

Carolyn Barford

After I graduated from Hartford Art School with a BFA in 1970, I set out for the western adventure. I had no idea what I wanted to do artistically. I only knew I wanted to do it in the Southwest and so I headed out with my carving tools and a journal to the mountains and deserts. I found myself living on a farm in Colorado, learning to raise animals. I began drawing some little animal characters as if they were living my life.They seemed to be doing a good job of it and so they developed a life of their own and traveled all over in search of fun. In these paintings, I try to create pictures that imply that each one has been lifted from an album. The stories are for you to finish writing as you find parts of the images that speak to you. After thirty-eight years, these creatures still return to their fascination with the Southwest, which never seems to run out of arenas for activities and places to make memories. They are still out there experiencing the small and wonderful, simple, everyday mysteries that make up the unforgotten tidbits of life. In recent years , I have been enjoying painting with glazes on ceramic tile and have been reproducing my watercolor paintings as notecards and prints. Now I have made my work available as printed ceramic tiles which are made here in my studio. I hope you find some of your own story in these images.

Pottery & Ceramic Artists

Will & Johanna DeMay The DeMay’s make each piece by hand beginning on a potter’s wheel.  The pieces are decorated using glazes and techniques developed over many years and then fused together in a kiln.  The process can take months, and each piece is a true masterpiece of their imagination.  They incorporate a bit of nature into their pieces, reflected in colors or actual animal embellishments on the pottery.  Recently, the DeMay’s have chosen a beautiful beige/black/green/red color scheme that they have wanted to do since they began…and the outcome is exceptional!

Dick Lumaghi

Dick Lumaghi is a potter living and working in Abiquiu, New Mexico. A former teacher of Eastern and Western Philosophy, he has been making finely thrown, high-fired stoneware and porcelain for over 25 years. His work is functional pottery for domestic use and is strongly influenced by Japanese and English country pottery. His work includes one-of-a-kind pieces, Ikebana vessels, and a line of standard domestic ware. Casseroles, steam pots, garlic cellars and match strikers are just a few of his unusual pieces in a variety of glazes, designed for the discriminating and creative cook.

Glenda Jordan Glenda fell in love with pottery while working on her undergraduate degree in speech therapy at Texas Women's University. She left the teaching world to pursue pottery full time and has been a full time ceramicist for over 30 years. All of Glenda's work is designed and handmade in her studio in Berkeley, California where she hand throws and builds, paints and fires the pieces. Glenda uses a special glaze process which she developed, similar to a batik process. It allows her to work with a large palette of rich glaze colors with matte and gloss finishes. Glenda's tableware pottery is both wheel thrown and slab worked in cone 5 stoneware ceramic. Her distinctive abstract designs are inspired nature, are hand painted by the artist and the extraordinary colors and the matte and satin textures are achieved through her wax resist polychrome glaze process. Her pieces are collectible and functional works of art.

"I am inspired by finely crafted, balanced forms, the beauty of nature, and color. My work is a continual dance of marrying these three elements: form, decoration and color."

Jon Anderson Jon Anderson is simply the most accomplished polymer clay artist in the world today. An accomplished painter, sculptor and jewelry designer, Jon has lived among an incredibly diverse cross section of the world’s people, from Central America to the Far East. His Fimo designs show the influences of classical Moorish motifs, Native American spirit figures, ancient petroglyphs, Celtic themes, and more. Fimo is a polymer or non-terrestrial clay. These clays are available in a variety of stock colors, but Jon is constantly blending and mixing them to create his own palette. The clays evolve into the hues and fades that are the basis for the next step, the images themselves.

The images and patterns are all created by Jon’s hand. He begins by laying canes or blocks of different colors of clay next to each other, starting from the center of the design and working outward, creating a number of visual borders around the original image. Each of these illustrations in clay is the size of a large loaf of bread when first constructed, and the loaf is then stretched to double its length and cut in half. This process is repeated over and over, each time reducing the actual size of the original image or illustration by half until the final cross section is the size of a small coin. The small canes are then thinly sliced into intricate tiles using a surgical scalpel.This process is the same for each unique design, and each animal is made up of multitudes of different images, amounting to hundreds of these tiles being hand-applied to every sculpture.
The actual forms or armatures of the animals are created either from recycled hand-molded clay or hand-carved wood. Once the tiles have been pressed onto the armature,(if you look carefully you may see thumbprints), the piece is cured and then fired for a period of hours, further reducing the images and tightening the spaces between the individual tiles. This process may create crazing or tiny fissures in the clay, which adds to the uniqueness of each piece. Finally the eyes are carefully selected and applied to give each creature its own special personality. After cooling, the sculptures are meticulously hand-sanded, making them very smooth and silky to the touch. To hold a Jon Anderson Fimo animal is to love it!
Because the animals are individually handmade, no two are ever exactly alike. Once the design tiles are all used, that design is gone forever. This renders each piece unique and collectible.

Photographers

Michael Lewis Michael Lewis has worked as a photographer for nearly 30 years. With a background in documentary work, he approaches his subjects with respect and understanding, creating an image that remains timeless. His career has taken him to 45 countries shooting projects for National Geographic, Smithsonian and a variety of commercial clients. Michael has been working extensively in the Creede area since 2006 and teaches a photography workshop every summer, where he passes along his passion for capturing honest, compelling, storytelling images.

Libby Goff

Libby Beall Goff is a mature, artistic photographer who exudes a zest for life.  Her photographs combine a refreshing mix of everyday humor, societal reflection and spiritual hope.  Through her compelling images, Libby gently urges viewers to reflect on their values, their beliefs and their passions, to see the world for what it is, while also hoping for what it will become. With 20 years of experience in traditional black and white photography, Libby has been published in magazines, coffee table books, music videos, and documentary films. Her work was most recently printed in the New England Journal of Medicine, Spring 2006.  Libby’s photographs have been exhibited in twelve selected exhibitions, 42 private collections, and many related commercial projects.

Glass Artists and Sculptures

Karole Sharpe

Since 1980, working with glass has been Karole’s passion. Using color and light she creates pieces that delight and sanctify our connection to Spirit.  Glass has been a never ending source of inspiration for her and she is constantly learning new techniques and exploring new method of expression. She specializes in creating one-of-kind glass sculptures using a variety of techniques.  Throughout her career, she has taken numerous classes to learn different techniques of working with glass; this allows her work to be constantly new and evolving.