Sedona Gem & Mineral Club

NANCY BIHLER
JEWELER
Chains and Settings by Nancy

Nancy was born and raised in the Chicago area, graduated from the University of Illinois, and upon an early retirement in 1989, moved with her family to Sedona.

After joining the Sedona Gem and Mineral Club in 1992, she met and became good friends with long-time member Charles Kacsur, who was a master jeweler and industrial arts teacher in New York. At age 83, he was still creating extraordinary lapidary and jewelry work as a hobby in his home in Sedona where he had resided since 1974.

One day, after rockhounding for the first time with him and several friends in the Camp Verde area, he invited Nancy into his home shop to cut and polish one of the candystripe travertine rocks she had just found that day. At Charlie’s age, he was thankful that Nancy had taken him on the back roads to the hunting place he so dearly loved. She was equally thankful to have this opportunity to learn how to make a beautiful specimen out of one of her finds. It was the start of their six-year endeared friendship.

About one year after their meeting, Charlie was diagnosed with stomach cancer and Nancy became his devoted caregiver. During the six years of their friendship, despite his constant battle with cancer, he continued to teach her the basics of silversmithing and jewelry fabrication as well as lapidary, handmade sphere-making, woodworking, and general shop skills when his strength would permit. He taught her so much about love of life, and developed her curiosity in everything. His patience, gentleness, and experience as a teacher made Nancy eager to learn more. His insistence on perfection and attention to detail made her strive for excellence. All of his work was completely hand-fabricated on old and primitive equipment. He even made his own screws for projects. He continued her education until the week before he died in 1999. Charlie’s time and knowledge was one of the greatest gifts Nancy has ever received. Nancy will never forget how very fortunate she was to have had the opportunity to be his "exclusive" student and now carries on his objectives to continue to learn and always strive to improve her work. His photos are everywhere in her shop and house and she will never forget him. He is in her heart.

Nancy at her jewelry bench with part of her rock collection in front of her.

Like Charlie’s work, all of Nancy’s silver and gold jewelry, including her chains, is completely hand-fabricated. She also makes many of the unique cabochon stones which are cut and polished in her home shop. A cabochon or “cab,” is a gemstone which has been shaped and polished as opposed to facetted. The resulting form is usually convex with a rounded top and a flat back. The normal procedure to make a cab is to cut a slice of the rough rock with a diamond saw, then stencil and trim a shape. The next step is to grind the shape with silicon carbide or diamond wheels, making the edges beveled and the top smoothed to a uniform dome, followed by a high polish. Cutting a cab takes time and patience. Nancy seeks out unique patterns in stone and strives to maximize the beauty of that stone.

Because of Nancy’s membership in the Sedona Gem and Mineral Club, she is fortunate to be able to participate in rockhounding trips to find new material for her high-quality cabs. Her friends in the club also provide her with unique rough material as well as their custom-shaped cabs to buy. She attends many gem and mineral shows. This gives her access to unique rough material and cabs from around the world from such places as Germany, Russia, China, Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, Africa, India, and Brazil as well as all over the U.S., and Arizona. Her love of hiking, 4-wheeling, and camping plays a big role in rockhounding in remote, hard-to-reach places.

Nancy digging for agate in Mexico.

In 2000, Nancy decided to take five of her pieces, including one Roman chain, to a juried competition at Sedona Arts Center. She was standing in line during the “take in” with at least 100 artists including painters, sculptors, woodworkers, jewelers and more, waiting to submit their work. Being such a novice and totally inexperienced, it seemed to her that she had made a mistake in coming. Everyone seemed so much more experienced. Dennis Ott, a wonderful potter and a SAC board member, unknown to her at the time, passed by and commented to her that her work was beautiful. His brief comment gave her more confidence and encouraged her to stay. All five of her pieces were accepted in the competition and she has been selling her jewelry in their gallery ever since.

One of Nancy’s favorite specialties is designing and creating various styles of handmade chains of sterling, fine silver, and gold wire. It gives her great satisfaction to make every link perfect with "invisible" solder joints and to have the finished creation sparkle with a perfect polish. One of her trademarks is the handmade Roman or Etruscan chain which was the first one Charlie taught her to make. These chains date back to the 7th century BC.

In April 2002 she was awarded “Craftsman of the Month” by Rock and Gem Magazine for her own chain creation “the tubing chain.” She was also awarded the “Emerging Artist Award” in August 2002 by Sedona Arts Center.

You can see Nancy's beautiful jewelry in person at the Sedona Art Center in uptown Sedona, or at the new Oak Creek Gallery at the Hillside shops and galleries located on Hwy 179 in Sedona.

To see more of Nancy's beautiful work, click on the images below for a larger view: