"Jewelry has to have flow..."

"Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you're passionate about something, then you're more willing to take risks." ~Yo-Yo Ma

“At 18 who knows what you really want to be.” Trained as an RN and not finding it easy to get the work she was interested in, Cindy and her roommate, Betty (also an RN) decided to go to Europe and when they returned leave Philly and move back to DC. September 1971 they picked up a VW in Wolfsburg Germany and spent the next several months wandering as whim took them. While in the Netherlands, visiting a woman who’d lived with Cindy’s family as a foreign exchange student, they went on a short bike ride. The barn they rode to was open to all who were interested in exploring and producing crafts. Patrons only needed to provide inspiration and the desire to create. For Cindy this was a pivotal moment, “Now, I knew what I wanted to do!”

Once back in DC and with a part time position with the Visiting Nurses Association Cindy began the University of Maryland’s craft program, part of the  Home Economics department. Initially interested in ceramics and weaving, the program was designed to introduce students to all mediums. Discovering that she hated getting so messy with clay and that setting up to weave was tedious, luckily, under the tutelage of Bill Nelson, Cindy found her way to metalsmithing and jewelry design. In her last semester, she and 4 other metalsmithing students applied to the very first Sugarloaf Craft Festival in 1976. Surprising themselves, they got in and started to learn what it took to sell their own work.

With a BS (her 2nd) in Applied Design from UMD and a recommendation from Bill Nelson (owner of Hi Ho Silver in Ellicott City), Cindy became the resident jeweler at Craftsmen of Chelsea Court on Connecticut Ave in DC.  Her 8 year tenure there was an education, working primarily in gold, she designed and created many wedding bands and commissions, made repairs and learned what it took to be a working craftsperson.

When Chelsea Court closed in December 1985 Cindy moved to her basement where she began to design her first wholesale production line. It was at this point she began the switch to sterling and mixed metals. Recognizing that wholesaling rings would be
difficult, Cindy built her line around sterling pins and pendants, primarily metal with the occasional stone as an accent. In 1987 she presented her first wholesale line at the Buyers Market of American Craft in Springfield, Ma.

“I was taught the basic principal that jewelry had to have a flow and that how you finish and polish a piece was critical.” While her early work was carved out of wax and cast, the wholesale line was designed around roll printing and combining silver and gold. A beautiful line, it was well received at the wholesale shows, but it was also difficult and labor intensive. At a 1995 Gem and Mineral show in Baltimore, she met Scott Bennett who had beautiful stones for sale. With 5 in hand she headed back to the studio, “made them up, took them to the wholesale show to see the reaction.”

It was so favorable, Cindy made the big switch, scrapped everything else and took these larger stone driven pieces to the next show. “Took a while to catch on, but by 2000 everything started to gel.”

In 1990, Cindy moved out of her basement and into a studio at Rockville Arts Place. In her second year Jan Maddox, Johnnie Gins and eventually Pam Hill-Byrne moved in with her.  After many successful years at Garrett Park Town Hall, some of the original seven had moved on and new artists had replaced them, Jan Maddox being one of them. When Pleiades made the decision to expand its numbers, Cindy was a natural fit.

With a classic, contemporary style tending towards minimalism, Cindy allows the stones to speak for themselves. Rarely does she come home with new stones without a pretty clear idea how they will be used.  Again working out of her basement, she sits down at her bench, sets the stones out and begins to play with combinations, the pieces design themselves. “Attention to detail, finishing, combinations and polishing are the hallmark of well-made jewelry.”

If you'd like to purchase or commission jewelry from Cindy, please contact her at cindycalahan07@gmail.com. She will also be exhibiting at Sugarloaf Crafts Festival Oct 17-19 in Gaithersburg.