Chris Nelson
Jeweler & Goldsmith
Pagosa Springs, Colorado
Chris Nelson is a studio jewelry artist and goldsmith who lives in the mountains of southwest Colorado with his Rottweiler, BB. He made cast jewelry in the late 60’s while in college, selling in head shops, then for almost 3 decades did absolutely no jewelry and worked as a building contractor and carpenter, project manager, and in marketing. In 2000, Nelson re-found his lost love of metal-smithing while living in St. Thomas, and retired from his career. He bought a couple of metal working tools and a little sterling silver, and with his 30 year old Prestolite torch began learning some basic jewelry fabrication, mostly through books.
He moved from the Caribbean back to the US in 2001 to study gold-smithing, and began studying with a few masters at Revere Academy developing a real love and fascination for fusing metals and ancient jewelry. Mining fire opal in the Virgin Valley, Nevada and cutting stones also occupied some time. The next few years were spent studying stone setting, hydraulic press, granulation, ancient jewelry, acid etching, forging, and more difficult fabrication.
Chris became very interested in working in 18k and 22k gold in 2003, and incorporating raw natural diamonds into the designs. An 18 day road trip in 2004 from Melbourne to Lightning Ridge, Australia, to buy fire opal resulted in a enhanced passion for black opal. Many of the designs over the next few years utilized congo cubes, macles, half-octahedral natural diamonds and fire opal.
In July, 2004, Nelson dismantled his studio, which was in the mountains of San Diego, loaded BB and the jewelry bench into his 5th wheel and drove over 9000 miles in search of a new location to live and create. Having never lived in snow country with a close proximity to a ski mountain, Pagosa Springs, with 300 days of sunshine a year, and 454 inches average of powder snow, became home.
The past 3 years have lead to some major changes in jewelry making. After a 10 month sabbatical from jewelry in 2006 and early 2007, a new series of work and design has evolved. The alloying and use of 20 karat and 12 karat (Egyptian electrum) gold has led to the 2012 series. Three 2012 pieces were designed and created for competitions, and since, a whole series of 2012 is being pursued. Much of the shift in work has been from not only using “green” recycled fine gold and fine silver, but in alloying the metal, and milling the metal in the studio rather than buying it milled. Use of sapphire and ruby in designs, as well as for the beadwork in neckpieces, has supplemented the use of natural diamonds and fire opal.
Nelson has made a decision that it is now time to participate in art festivals, and shows, and this spring and summer will be participating in several festivals in Colorado and Wyoming, and possibly California. In the fall, he will be showing in Arizona.