Aldrich Art is a cottage industry currently located in southern Colorado. Benny and Valerie Aldrich started out in a teepee on their property just outside Prescott, Arizona over twenty-five years ago. They have chosen to keep their business small since they believe that small organization is an important factor in keeping the quality and standards of their original, handmade inlayed jewelry intact.
The Aldrich’s met while attending Northern Arizona University. A few years after they were married, both took a jewelry course from Mesa Community College, which is the only metalwork training they have received. Having little money, they made jewelry for Christmas presents while Benny worked as a carpenter and Valerie was beginning to raise their family. Their early pieces were shell inlays and concho belts. To augment their income the couple sold pipe stone and serpentine from local Arizona quarries to Santo Domingo Pueblo, a New Mexico pueblo famous for its bead makers. When asked what their raw materials would look like as beads, the Aldrich’s drilled and hand ground beads from the rough stone. Their career in jewelry manufacturing began in earnest in Jerome, Arizona where they lived for some years.
It was the splendor and inventiveness of Mother Nature herself that inspired Valerie and Benny to create their own line of unique contemporary Southwest jewelry. The rainbow shimmer of seashells from the coast of Baja, California and the earthy fullness of turquoise from the mountains of Nevada and Arizona drew the Aldrich’s into designing an innovative and trend setting process of traditional hand silversmithing coupled with explosively colorful stone inlay. Many European customers say Aldrich Art inlay reminds them of intarsia, an inlay process long practiced on the European continent.
The Aldrich's were among the first to use gemstones for inlaying and revived spiny oyster as a jewelry material. They use only the best natural gemstones and other traditional and recent materials, none of which is resin treated. Only the highest quality natural raw material is chosen for their jewelry. Valerie’s creativeness and natural flair for color makes each piece of inlay she designs a work of art. Each piece of inlay is completed one at a time by one person. This is unlike some inlays from overseas in which slabs are cut off a block of inlay. Benny then frames the inlay with beautiful hand stamped silver or gold. The piece is then polished to a perfect finish.
Benny and Valerie feel that their purpose in creating jewelry is to express perfection and love for themselves and others using the elements of the land and the sea to capture and enjoy the beautiful side of nature.
