Telluride Gallery: Trunk Show Featuring New Jewelry by Barbara Heinrich, 3/3 & 3/4!

28 Feb Telluride Gallery: Trunk Show Featuring New Jewelry by Barbara Heinrich, 3/3 & 3/4!

Visit the Telluride Gallery to welcome award-winning jewelry designer Barbara Heinrich back to town. She is visiting from upstate New York with over 70 stunning pieces of new bling. The work will be on view all week, but stop by the gallery on Thursday, March 3 and Friday, March 4 to meet Barbara in person.

Go here for more about the Telluride Gallery and its stable.

Her ice is nice. Barbara Heinrich’s award-winning baubles, bangles and beads are masterpieces of quiet elegance, not “statement pieces” that shout for attention. Bottom line: Barbara is all about enhancing the beauty of the wearer with jewelry that goes ‘round the clock and lasts for generations.

Barbara Heinrich has owned and operated a workshop in upstate New York since the 1980s, where she and her assistants produce signature lines, such as aspen series, inspired by Telluride and designed for the Telluride Gallery, her local patron for the past many many years.

Barbara returns to town for a show of her latest collection at the Gallery on March 3 and March 4.

Barbara Heinrich grew up on a farm in Heilbronn, Germany, the daughter of winemakers and her designs reflect her roots: pieces inspired by the natural world, but anchored in German precision engineering:

“From an early age, I had to learn to keep myself busy. I would find snails’ houses and seedpods and make necklaces. I dyed noodles and strung them together. I had my first collection by age five.”

Barbara went on to apprentice in gold-smithing at Pestalozzi Kinderdorf Wahlwies for almost four years. The institution operated under Rudolph Steiner’s holistic philosophy: We are part of nature and must live in harmony with the natural world, which inspires us and directs what we ultimately do.

“In a Steiner community, there is no radio, nothing from the outside world. The six apprentices in the program were not allowed to speak to each other, only to our teachers. The silence allowed the peace to speak to us, inspiring our work. To this day, when I design a piece, I often don’t know how I’ll make it. I let the piece tell me.”

After her apprenticeship, Barbara attended Fachhocheschule fur Gestaltung Pforzheim, the most renowned jewelry school in the world at the time, 1977, for a master’s of fine art in jewelry and hollow ware.

“The school’s approach to learning was highly intellectual. We needed a reason for everything you did. We studied art history. We made very experimental pieces for avant-garde dance performances.”

With a Rotary Club scholarship in hand, Barbara traveled to America to study at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where she earned a second master’s degree in fine art.

“In contrast to Pforzheim, Rochester was very laid back. My work became more innocent, fresher. One of my professors suggested I try working in gold. I started doing what I do now, letting things just happen.”

After graduation, Barbara was determined to work for Tiffany or Cartier.

“As a girl, I dreamed about selling my pieces in New York. After looking at my portfolio, however, a potential employer encouraged me to work for myself. I had just met my husband Gregory, an established chiropractor and acupuncturist in Rochester. Working for myself would allow us to remain close. In 1989 we built a beautiful new studio for me adjacent to our home. That said, I am delighted to be making yet another return trip to Telluride to reconnect with old friends and meet new collectors.”