~ The Christensons have been waiting years for a used bench. A new one costs $1200. Starting a jewelry business is expensive: a pair of pliers might cost $60, and even at $2 each, the cost of bits really add up when you buy a drawer full.

~ These days their need to purchase tools has decreased and the Christensons can now invest more in gold and semiprecious stones, an important aspect of raising the value of their work. Recently, they visited a fellow jeweler, where a gem merchant was peddling his wares. " We went over determined to spend only $100," laughs Chris. "we walked out with $400 worth of stones."

~ Most likely the temptation was worse for Shani. As a young child she used to dismantle the jewelry that her grand father bought at junk stores and garage sales. "I was fascinated with the shiny stones," Shani says, "I used to pry out the gems and beads and play with them." Later, in high school, she was intrigued with a pair of beaded earrings that cost $150, but the price was beyond her budget, so she decided to make a pair herself. "It took me a week to figure out how to do it," she says. "Then I started to sell earrings in the various stores around Mendocino."

~ Chris was initiated into jewelry through his fascination with fire. At age nine, he spent a great deal of time melting lead pipes that had been put out for collection on the streets of Shreveport, Louisiana, where he grew up. Chris would then pour the molten metal into horsetails and other objects to form casts. He believes his early obsession came from being a jeweler in another life. Indeed, his belief is so strong that, much to the chagrin of Shani, Chris overbuilds even the simplest setting so that he might discover the piece in another incarnation.

~ For both Chris and Shani, the spiritual aspect of jewelry is primary. While having a nice workbench and a selection of fine gems is great, having a way of working, a reason to work is even more important. Their most influential teachers were Wolfgang Hasselkas, a German master goldsmith, and Heyoka Merrifield. Hasselkas taught them the old world craft of channel setting, hand fabrication and use of engraving tools. Merrifield taught them cameo carving, and most important, how to make jewelry a personal spiritual journey through design and prayer.

~ After each piece is finished, the Christensons perform an awakening ceremony that brings energy to the jewelry, and a connection to the earth for its next owners. "Every piece of our jewelry touches one special feather", Chris says. "The awakening ceremony also allows us to let go, to say good bye to our creation".

A&E July 1997

Coast Magazine - Summer 97

~ Chris and Shani have taught their own apprentices as well, and haveparticipated in the Mendocino Art Center's Open Jewelry Studio throughout this past winter. They taught a class at the Art Center in the earlyspring, and will be teaching another class in October called "Metal onStone." This will be a jewelry fabrication class, teaching a number oftechniques including metal layering using a unique cut away solderingmethod, which "sandwiches" large stones between fine silver overlays. Thistechnique produces the multi-layered, double sided jewelry for which theChristenson's and Moonlight Jewels are known.

~ "A flower swaying in a cool spring breeze, a lone wolf howling at the full moon, an ancient symbol carved in stone hundreds of years ago by a Druidpriest. Each image we capture in our jewelry has a special meaning to usand evokes it's own special feeling. Many of our designs are inspired bynature as well as symbolic and spiritual images of ancient peoples . To us,creating jewelry is a celebration of the beauty we see in our world." Thisphilosophy and a number of glittering photographs of the Christenson'sjewelry art can be found with a visit to their new web site atwww.moonlightjewels.com.

~ Celebrate Chris and Shani's unique vision and work at the opening of their new show on First Friday, July 2, at Northcoast Artists Gallery, 362 North Main Street in Fort Bragg, from 6 to 9 pm. The show will run through July.