As we begin our 17th year for Baroni Designs, our hearts are filled with gratitude for so many things. We enjoy a safe, harmonious (most of the time) workplace with an amazing group of people who truly care about what they do, and a loyal, fun and very diverse group of customers that help make our jobs worthwhile and enjoyable.

After many years of building the business, we have reached a point where we are able to give back to the community. Each year we design and sell a breast cancer collection. The 2007 collection exceeded sales from the previous year by over 200%. We were thrilled to donate a portion of those proceeds to the Humboldt Community Breast Health Project, a wonderful cause on behalf of all of our staff and customers.

In addition to the breast cancer collection, which we will again update in fall of 2008. Throughout the year, we will be choosing charities that benefit women, children, and the environment. A portion of all sales will benefit these charities. As the charities are chosen our web page will be updated.

And now we invite you to peruse the all new 2008 Baroni catalog. We are thrilled to offer a full array of looks this season. It is our favorite season yet, with new looks and lower prices on many of the styles. Again, whether you have long been acquainted with Baroni Designs or are new to us, we welcome you, and thank you.
Sarah Baroni & Cathy Witkos

EK Designs - Jewelry for Us All - 19 June 2007

Jewelry That Rocks - 28 July 2007

Emily Armenta Inspiring Jewelry Designs - 08 September 2007

DiSpagna Jewelry Gets Creative with Cold Fusion Jewelry! - 18 December 2007

Jewelry Career Resources - 08 August 2006

Jewelry Designer for Princesses - 08 March 2007

Designer Jewelry Bargains - 20 April 2008

Jewelry Bargains at Max & Chloe - 03 May 2008

I learned to whittle from my great uncle Alfred Adams, a Superior Court judge in Nashville, Tennessee. He spent many hours whittling cedar sticks, trying to create the perfect curl of wood with each stroke. The price of a consult with that wise man when I was six or eight years old was to possess a pocketknife that would shave his arm.

My affinity for sculpture was discovered later, emerging as a logical escape from the standard pressures of a New England prep school's academic demands. Cabot Lyford was the first sculptor I ever met. His style of teaching involved a lot of doing. We were welding, casting bronze, and carving wood and stone in just two semesters of school. After a year of artistic exploration, which included attendance at the Corcoran School of Art and an apprenticeship in a marble yard in Pietrasanta, Italy, I attended Princeton.

Princeton is stubbornly academic, recognizing the study of, but not the creation of art as a worthwhile pursuit. I majored in Art History and mounted a sculpture show as a senior thesis in order to graduate. I am grateful to that institution for exposure to and friendship with some wonderful artists that chose to visit as professors from New York City.

From New Jersey, the logical move was to the West Coast, and I spent the next dozen or so years in Santa Barbara, California. In 1979, I visited a bronze pour at the local community college and was greeted by the instructor, an energetic fellow who introduced himself as Paul Lindhard, and asked me my name.

I told him and, without pause, he asked, "Somers, what do you do?" I said that I was going to be a sculptor. This fellow grabbed my shirt with intense enthusiasm and said, "Somers, you either are a sculptor, or you're not." Without hesitation, I replied to Paul, "Well then, I am a sculptor."

I taught at that college with Paul for the next several years, until I could support myself with sales of my own sculpture. I lived in warehouses and home-built studios with corrugated fiberglass roofs. The microwave oven on top of the refrigerator was the kitchen, and stone dust coated everything.

By 1990 it was time for a move, and so I loaded 14 tons of tools, stone, and possessions and headed to Nashville, Tennessee, for an encounter with my heritage. I threw in all my savings on a burned out warehouse in downtown Nashville, renovated it, and opened Blue Sky Court, the first coffeehouse in Nashville. While I was carving upstairs, we had live music six nights a week and a new art show every two weeks for over two years.

In 1996, I quit carving and began a romance with an anvil and scrap metal that lasted through my move to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1997. That morphed into silversmithing in 1998, and persists to some extent today. I returned to carving stone in 1999, and am now doing some large marble pieces, and some soapstone whittling to keep my lovely wife in jewelry designs.

Yes, there's a wife, Hillary. She's the business-minded of the two of us. She figured out how to market my thousand or so soapstone whittles as silver and gold jewelry. She also was kind enough to create a daughter, Comfort Avery Randolph, who at 3 years old has already participated in her first art show on Canyon Road in Santa Fe.

While I carve, I have lots of time to ponder. I think about everything from religion, to what will be the same in a hundred years, to how to answer my 3-year-old's query, "Daddy, where is the speed limit?"

And I reflect, very often, on how fortunate I am to have been gifted with the ability to create objects that other people want.

Jewelry Career Resources - 08 August 2006

Jewelry as Designer DNA - 13 September 2006

Couture Jewelry Awards - 04 March 2007

Jewelry Designer for Princesses - 08 March 2007

A previous career in classical ballet and theater instilled within me a deep awareness and appreciation for movement, line, and balance. These are the classical qualities I have always tried to incorporate into my jewelry designs...and in my life.

My work is individually fabricated using sterling silver with an overlay of 23k gold leaf. Many pieces also incorporate freshwater pearls and Australian boulder opals set in 22k gold. Die-formed hollow elements create visual depth, yet the overall concern with lightness and movement remain central to my approach. A recent development has been the use of oxidized, sandblasted sterling silver with 23k gold leaf to create an even more dramatic surface.

Jewelry Career Resources - 08 August 2006

Jewelry Designer for Princesses - 08 March 2007

Judith Ripka Speaks at WJA Conference - 20 March 2007

Judith Ripka Jewelry Designer - 04 March 2008