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Gary Rondeau sets up display pieces at Allegro Arts. 

Gary Rondeau sets up display pieces at Allegro Arts. 

From turquoise mines to musical instrument repair, the artists of the Metro East area have a wide range of backgrounds and an even wider range of talents. 

Gary Rondeau’s tent was filled with dozens of folded silver figurines in the forms of earrings and necklaces. Rondeau, a resident of Barnhart, Missouri, and founder of Allegro Arts, said that metal origami was not his original trade. 

“I originally was a musician, and I got into musical instrument repair,” Rondeau said. “That taught me how to work with metal, especially silver and brass.”

From instrument repair, Rondeau worked his way into jewelry repair and creation. Eventually, he fused his metalworking skills with his passion for origami. Rondeau uses a material called PMC, or precious metal clay, that allows him to fold the metal much easier than would otherwise be possible. 

“You can work it just like paper – do whatever you want, fold it, cut it, do whatever,” Rondeau said. 

Rondeau creates a variety of figures, focusing mostly on the natural world. Folding a cat, however, is far simpler than folding a bouquet of flowers, according to Rondeau. 

“The complex pieces … can take weeks because you’re starting on a wire frame, and you’re firing a layer of silver over that, and then another layer, and another layer,” Rondeau said. “Every time you want to add something, you’ve gotta fire it again.”

Not all artists use the same tools; Rocky Pardo, an independent jeweler, said she prefers a torch to a kiln for her work. Pardo’s tent displayed several bracelets and other jewelry made of silver and gold. 

“I love to use my torch to create different textures and finishes on my work,” Pardo said.

Pardo said she gets involved in the scientific aspect of jewelry making, especially when it comes to alloys. An alloy is a mixture of two or more types of metal, and Pardo uses these mixtures both for practical and creative purposes. 

“I create my own in-between alloys,” Pardo said. “I’ll play with a rose gold alloy to put enough gold in there that it won’t tarnish or oxidize, but add enough copper that it’s still pink. I think of myself as an alchemist.”

Pardo said her first exposure to metalworking was through a class at the St. Louis Craft Alliance. From there, her love for metal blossomed. 

“As soon as I touched metal, it just clicked,” Pardo said. 

Pardo said her journey with metalworking has exposed her to many different artistic techniques and aspects of design which work together to facilitate the creative process.

“What I really love is when I can draw on all the different aspects of my formal fine arts education, [such as] color theory, asymmetrical balance, and heavy technique use,” Pardo said. 

George Sharos, founder of Olde World Jewelers in Fairview Heights, Illinois, had a variety of turquoise jewelry for sale, as well as samples of many other stones. 

Sharos said his passion for jewelry making stems from his experience in the mines in the 1970s. He said that his grandfather and uncle worked in a mine in Nevada back then, where his decades-long adventure with turquoise first began. 

“I learned to cut turquoise back when I was seventeen years old,” Sharos said. “When I was in high school, I went out there and actually mined with them.”

Sharos credited his interest in jewelry making to a class he took at Collinsville High School. By the end of high school, Sharos said he would sometimes bring boxes of rings and pendants made of turquoise and silver to sell to teachers and fellow students. 

“I’m very, very particular about perfection,” Sharos said. “I try to do things that are extremely well-finished.”

Sharos said that he often buys raw materials straight from the mines and works with them until they are ready for display in the shop. The transformation from raw mineral to finished product involves machinery such as diamond grinding wheels and a belt for rounding and finishing stones, not to mention a lot of time and patience. 

After the work on the stone comes the rest of the jewelry. Sharos said the creative process is often directed by the shape and appearance of the stone. Sharos said that he also generally leaves a signature gold blossom pattern on his pieces. 

“As an artist and a jeweler, it’s very satisfying to just create things you want to make,” Sharos said. 

Gary Rondeau sets up display pieces at Allegro Arts. 

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