It’s impossible to attend a swanky event in Durango and not see an elegant woman sporting Carol Salomon-designed jewelry.
Salomon’s first career was owning a plant business that included installations in office buildings in St. Louis.
“People would say they could recognize a Carol Salomon installation, so I guess that was really my first art form,” she said.
Working with beads was a bit of a fluke.
“My partner was a beader, and I went with her to antique and garage sales in search of beads,” she said about her beginnings. “My first project, though, happened in Park City (Utah) with my granddaughter, when we walked by a window with a big jar of beads in the window for a contest. We went in and guessed, then picked out some beads for a project.”
Her beading took off when a friend’s mother, who was a beader, died, and Salomon found herself the owner of a major bead collection amassed over more than two decades.
“She told me it was all or nothing,” Salomon said, “and suddenly, I had station wagonful, beads in closets and beads under beds. Since then, what I love is the prowl and have found wonderful beads everywhere we’ve traveled, except for in South America, which apparently has never had much of a beading tradition.”
Salomon is represented by Sorrel Sky Gallery in Durango and Santa Fe, a gallery in St. Louis and holds a “trunk show” in Atlanta every year. But it’s not unusual, she said, to be walking down a street somewhere like New York City and find herself selling the jewelry off her neck to someone who has admired it.
Every artist factors in a lot of elements when determining the price of their work, and Salomon is no exception. She does estimate the cost of the materials used, particularly when there’s something expensive, such as a lot of silver, involved. But a large factor for her is the price point at which customers seem to be comfortable purchasing.
She is currently making and selling or donating about 60 pieces a year.
abutler@durangoherald.com
