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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:
5-piece
necklace
is Indonesian
fossil crinoid with
hand-made chain. |
Silver
& turquoise
pendant with
hand made chain. |
Matching
set made with
Russian Charoite &
hand made chain. |
Pendant
made with
crinoid mass
from China. |
Bola
made
with moss agate. |
Mexican
jasper Bola. |
Copper
and sterling
loop-in-loop chain/earring set. |
Dendritic
agate from Kazakstan (formerly Russia) pendant. |
Moss
agate (Utah) pendant. |
Imperial
Jasper pendant. |