Ramona Solberg Fibulae 38.5 Article

The late Ramona Solberg’s found object style of jewelry continues to influence the work of Northwest jewelers Laurie Hall, Ron Ho, Kiff Slemmons, Nancy Worden, and others (Brown 2014; Updike 2001, 2006). Warm and effusive when speaking about the work of her peers, Solberg called herself the Henry Ford of jewelry, and rightly so (Benesh 1989, 2001; Liu 1995). An inveterate traveler and lover of the material culture of the many countries she visited, Solberg often combined her metalwork with beads, which she collected on her trips, and was responsible for two of the best bead jewelry exhibitions (1988, 1998) held in the United States, at the Bellevue Art Museum.