Peggy West

      Award-winning artist Peggy West is a native of Mexico City. Her multi-cultural heritage has prepared her unique viewpoint and her extensive travels through Latin America and Europe have given her a world view which she uses to express her talents. Being exposed to the beauty and wonder of the art world at an early age gave Peggy an unquenchable desire to express herself in many art forms. Her education at both the Ecole Le Manoir, Switzerland and the Universidad de las Americas in Mexico City, Mexico prepared her in many ways for her life’s work.

     Peggy’s work is a true expression of her soul; bold, ardent, and original. Trained as a painter, she found herself unwilling to commit to a single style or purpose and soon became enamored of iconography. The texture and look of sculpting her art in three dimensions became a dominant theme. Peggy’s jewelry has become a further expression of her need to blend texture and color in unique forms.

     Using articles mundane and exotic, profane and sacred, and drawing inspiration from both the natural and modern world, Peggy allows form to dictate and shape her creations. Color, texture, and density create a vibrant tapestry of organic designs that gives the wearer a sense of completeness. Each individually designed and handcrafted set is a unique self expression.

 "In every work of art, the artist and observer become as
one; bold, ardent, original.”

Sandy Rakoski

     Sandy Rakoski, teacher and creator of beaded jewelry was born in the wide open spaces of Kansas, a place where the weather keeps you indoors frequently. All her life she has glimpsed a potential beyond her physical senses, a vision into an inner world beyond external forms. Her creations take the wearer on an inner journey into the whimsical and metaphysical, a world beyond mere form and limitation. Forced within, color, composition, and design were a way to express all the exquisite marvels and mysteries nestled deeply in her soul.

    She attended Kansas State University and graduated with a BA in Education. Sandy has dedicated the first half of her life to teaching children how to better understand the world around them and how to open themselves to the myriad possibilities that life offers. Now it's time for her to do the same for herself. Brimming with thoughts and ideas she desperately needs to externalize with her creations, Sandy finds herself with the same viewpoint she engenders with her students: wide-open wonder and joy with her ability to translate her inner spirit into physical forms.

    Sandy's art has been inspired and shaped by her children. Thirty years of innocence and wonder have helped her maintain a balance in contrast with the harsh realities that surround us and sometimes intrude so glaringly. Simple and complex, artful and naive , subtle and bold, her designs comfort as well as enhance. She follows no rule or logic and expresses herself in her need for beauty that is as essential to life for her as breath.