Hal and Margie Hiestand 38.5 Article

Only recently did I meet two remarkable Santa Fean jewelrymakers, Hal and Margie Hiestand, whose life reads like an adventure tale. Morocco was their start in the late 1960s, from where they bought and sold to Europe and the United States, to stores like Arrowsmith in the 1970s. They have lived in Mexico and Central America, often leading a nautical existence on their sailboat. In 1982 they moved to Santa Fe, hiring four Chihuahuans to build their iconic and energy-efficient adobe house for the next fourteen months.

Starting out by stringing necklaces, they learned metalsmithing from Tuaregs, also partly through Hal’s repair of antique pieces.