How It Began

How it Began

The U.S. Army assigned me to West Berlin, West Germany in the Fall of 1966 and discharged me there in April 1969. While there, I learned German and studied at the Free University.

In 1971, I began making leather belts and bags to sell them on the Kurfuerstendamm (a beautiful boulevard in the center of West Berlin) along with many other talented craftspeople. By 1976, I had lost interest in working in leather and decided to travel. In October of that year, I was on my way to Crete, Greece. During my 3 months there, I practiced making name pins from nickel brass wire. I also visited many museums and archeological sites, which continue to influence my work to this day. In Athens, I discovered a great bead store where I bought beautiful ceramic and brass beads. Upon my return to West Berlin, I began stringing the beads on leather cord making them into necklaces and bracelets. I sold these and name pins on the Kurfuerstendamm.

After over 11 years living in Europe, I returned to the United States in late 1977. I stayed in my home town of Southbridge, MA until early 1979 when I moved to Venice, CA. By the end of 1980, I had moved to Eugene, OR.

There, I discovered the Saturday Market and the next stage of my jewelry making career began.

I switched from bead stringing to working copper and brass making bracelets along with name pins. As time went on, I acquired more tools and took a jewelry making class at Lane Community College. I started selling my jewelry at arts and craft fairs on the west coast. In the late 1980s I expanded into working with sterling silver. By 1990 I was setting stones and making one of kind pendants. In 2004, I started cutting some of my own stones and I was already working with gold. I am basically self-taught, and I experiment constantly.

While in Europe, I was impressed by the old world notion of craftsmanship which I have adopted as my guiding principle. I have always been interested in archaeology and the craftsmanship of the ancient world east and west. Many of my designs are inspired by architecture. I like creating designs around the gemstones I love.

-Vince