Hal & Margie Hiestand

Hal and Margie Hiestand found each other in Tangiers, Morocco in 1969 and thus began an adventure of travel and collaboration which has lasted more than 40 years.

Their first attempts at making jewelry were the results of watching local metalsmiths at the edge of the Sahara Desert, and the roving tribes of Tuareg nomads who created jewelry from beads, old stones, glass, silver and other metals. Hal and Margie began collecting antique stones, beads and jewelry, and re-stringing the pieces in a way that would be more wearable in the western world.

In the years since they met, Hal and Margie have travelled the world collecting materials and design ideas. They have taken their vision of bright colors, multiple layers of color and the designs in textiles and jewelry from Africa and the Americas, and shaped them with stones, ancient beads and silver to create their jewelry. The results are a reflection of their personal experiences, their travels and their vision of other places. As Hal describes it, the stones and beads are the core of their pieces; the shapes and colors determine the design. Margie calls it "gestalt", an approach to creating that they share, which is intuitive and in which the final design develops around and for the elements, rather than fitting the pieces into a design.