In September of 1993 I met Leslie Ann Heath at the Yankee Peddler Arts and Craft Show, an event that celebrates Colonial arts and crafts. She had her booth selling her handmade jewelry and I was a musician with the North Fork Rounders hired there as entertainment. It was a rendezvous of sorts, as there was a buckskinner camp at the show and we were dressed in period clothing appropriate for pre-1840, as were all the craft people. One of the our jobs, along with the Blue Eagle String Band, was to cruise the grounds and sing period sea shanties and other unaccompained songs to the crowd, after which we would sell our recordings. It was our 13th year and Leslie's second.

     One night, after hearing one of our instrumental stage performances earlier, Leslie came over to our campfire and requested we play the fiddle tune called "Pink Coyote." None of us could to remember having played a tune by that name, but we finally established she had mistaken "Big Scioty" for her request. So we played the tune and that was the beginning of my journey through life with Leslie. I began helping her at arts and craft shows and gradually increased my involvement so that now we both work full time at making and selling her jewelry pieces, which include earrings, pendants, slides, bracelets, necklaces and concha belts. Yes, you guessed it; use of the word "concha" implies a Southwestern style.

     Leslie was born and raised in Pittsburgh area, went to the University of Denver and, after graduation with a degree in art, never went home. She settled in Taos, NM and led the exciting life of a white-water rafting guide and ski instructor. Then one day she happened upon a group of Taos hippie artists at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House.  Mable Dodge,"patron of arts and spokeswoman for the New York avant-guard," came to Taos in 1917 seeking a change.  She wound up promoting the utiopian myth of the Southwest as a model for the aesthetic and spiritual renewal of materialistic Anglo civilization. She married a Pueblo Indian chief named Luhan, built a sprawling adobe mansion and supported an artist colony, which included D.H. Lawrence, Willa Cather and Georgia O' Keeffe.

     In the 1970's the mansion was owned by Dennis Hopper who rented it to a group of young Anglo silversmiths then learning the techniques by which the Navajo silversmiths made their concho belts and other silverwork in the classical period of 1870-1900. Leslie learned her techniques in this enviroment of creativity  and competion.  What began with a few sales to tourists in the plaza, has resulted in a life's work of creating beautiful items of adornment for sale at national level arts and craft shows all over the eastern US.

     This is truly a collaborative effort.  Leslie is the designer. This style of jewelry is characterized by little designs actually stamped into the silver pieces, much like what a leatherworker does.  I solder the bezels, she picks the stones and I set them. We get stones and shells in the form of cabochons, i.e. already cut, sized and polished, at the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show each year in early Feb, as well as additional trips to New Mexico when necessary.  Leslie hand picks mineral beads to make beautiful one-of-a-kind necklaces, many of which incorporate one of our pendants. We attended shows roughly 28 weekends a year, but some of the shows are from 3-11 days long. Leslie does most of them; I do a few; together we attend those history oriented shows that require demonstration. Soon I will be putting some of our jewelry pieces on this site.