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About Spruce Mountain Designs Spruce Mountain Designs is a collaboration of two artists, Suellen McMillen and James Piet Van Woert. By combining their knowledge, skill and artistic energy, Jim and Suellen have the ability to design a piece of jewelry from the beginning and the expertise to finish it through to a beautiful wearable piece of art. Spruce Mountain Designs wants you to be completely satisfied with every piece of jewelry you receive. They use only the highest quality materials and findings available. Each piece of jewelry is skillfully carved, cast and finished with careful individual attention. Spruce Mountain Designs now has 8 lines including the: Great Camp, Quilt Blocks, Native Wildlife, Foliage, Adirondack Flowers, Pine Cone, Equestrian and a line based on tracery patterns from Gothic Architecture. We cast our work using the lost-wax method. Many of the pieces also incorporate some forged and/or hammered technique. We create new items for each line every year and welcome suggestions, please feel free to email us. Jim spent his childhood in upstate New York. As a young man, he hiked mountains and canoed waterways frequently in the nearby Adirondack mountains. Jim's appreciation and understanding of nature are reflected in the wildlife, foliage and pine cone designs. Suellen grew up in Fort Collins, Colorado. After graduating from college, she moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts where she worked at The Architects Collaborative in Harvard Square. During this time she took classes at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School which inspired her to pursue her Master's degree in Metalsmithing. In 1990, Suellen and Jim met in Providence while working in the jewelry industry. Although they enjoyed the art and culture of "city living", they missed the outdoors even more and so moved to Lake Placid, NY in 1993. Spruce Mountain Designs was created shortly thereafter. What began as a part-time endeavor has now grown to a full-time artisan business. History / Education Jim earned his BFA (Sculpture) at the Tyler School of Art and his MFA (Sculpture) at the Rhode Island School of Design. Suellen completed both a BFA (Metalsmithing) and BA (Interior Architecture) from Colorado State University. Her first job after graduating with a MFA (Light Metals) from the Rhode Island School of Design, was designing for the Ralph Lauren Jewelry Collection. Suellen later went on to design for many notable customers including: The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Metropolitan Museum, and Tiffany. |
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