After years of working 40 hours per week in office jobs, and creating art on the weekends, Susan Coyote realized one day that she had it all backwards. So she traded in her day planner for a welding torch and hasn’t looked back. Working with precious stones and metals to create unique jewelry pieces is what Coyote loves and she plans on doing it full time from now on.
Susan Coyote grew up in Santa Monica and moved to Tahoe in 1997. She thrives on what she describes as the ‘positive and imaginative beauty’ of this place and draws on that to create her jewelry. Her pieces are earthy, subtle and even a tad whimsical. Satin-brushed, sterling silver spider legs curl under an intricately set turquoise cabochon abdomen to make a tarantula brooch. Canadian jade and peridot beads strung alternately with Balinese silver accents form an eye-catching bracelet. Rough cut, garnet rondelles set on either side of rose quartz and silver bead caps, dangle delicately to make a perfect little pair of earrings.
Susan’s business, Suz Coyote Studio, is physically located at her home in Incline Village, but she operates virtually through her site on Etsy.com, an online marketplace for buying and selling exclusively handmade items.
Etsy’s mission is to enable people to make a living making things, to reconnect makers with buyers and in a broader sense to ‘build a new economy and present a better choice,’ according to the website. There are over 100,000 merchants selling their handmade goods on Etsy.com and the site even has a shop local feature, which points visitors to sellers in their vicinity.
Coyote is surprised at how easy it is to connect with customers on the Internet and she lights up as she describes an interaction with a woman from Minnesota. After searching for a jeweler to make a custom bracelet for her and finding Suz Coyote Studio on Etsy, the woman sent Susan a very special stone that her father had given her before he passed away. From it, Susan designed and created a beautiful piece that ‘the woman was absolutely thrilled with,’ she beams. ‘Turning an idea into something precious is a really cool thing.’ Coyote’s favorite materials are sterling silver, gems, Lake Tahoe stones and crystals, metals, copper, fossils, recycled materials and found objects, old photos, tin cans, wool sweaters and leather. ‘I have so much gratitude for being able to make these pieces and express myself through art, that I put that intention into each piece,’ she said.
To shop at Suz Coyote Studio, visit etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5287913. You can also view her work at flickr.com/photos/suzcoyotestudio/.
