Alisa Stewart, Silversmith at Cody Jewelers

Alisa Stewart creates unique jewelry as an exclusive local artist for Cody Jewelers. As a silversmith, she works with a variety of materials, including elk ivories, turquoise, agate, and other cabochons she creates from raw materials. Her artistic skills allow her to create most anything a customer can dream up.

Her Artistic Path to Today

She is self-taught, but started down her artistic path early. Her first jewelry sale was in fourth grade, when she sold a beaded piece to her teacher. She also explored painting, sketching, pen-and-ink drawing, pottery, and more. She mentioned she has never tried glass blowing but finds it intriguing.

In high school, she took a craft course that exposed her to Indian jewelry-making, lost-wax casting, and some fabrication. With a natural talent for drawing or depicting what she saw, she was hooked on a new avenue for creating.

Later, she worked in a foundry with bronze. There she learned wax chasing, metal chasing, and patinas. She kept coming back to sculpting bronzes, and with her jewelry work today, she treats them as tiny sculptures. Whether it’s a wedding ring or bracelet, her attention to detail stands out.

She shared a bit of advice for artists, “Don’t ever look at art as a job. It requires a lot of dedication to acquire the skills. It needs to be a part of who you are and how you interpret the world around you.”

Jewelry as Sculptures

Today, she works in her home studio, an original log home in the area, with a wood stove keeping it warm and windows where she can keep an eye on a gorgeous view. From creating cabochons to carving elk ivories and scenes or elements for her pieces, to engraving silver pieces or working with gold, she has all the artistic skills at her fingertips and blends them to complement each other.

Elk Ivory, Mammoth Ivory, and Stones

While she has a collection of elk ivories for customers to use, she also works with elk ivories that commemorate a special hunt. She can keep them clean and simple, or can carve them into flowers, swans, and more. Plus, she has purchased legal mammoth ivory to use to add to her creations.

She’s also collected hard-to-come-by stones, including agate from the now-closed Dryhead Mine, not far from Cody. At estate sales, she often comes home with boxes of rocks that are a lapidary worker’s dream. Likewise, she regularly visits gem shows and occasionally collects on her own to see what she can add to her work. While polishing, she works to keep the original shape as much as possible while bringing out the natural beauty of each stone.

“Polishing a stone is like shining a window into it. I never get tired of the beauty of what the Earth has created,” she said.

If you have a special stone you’ve collected, she can take a look at it to see whether a piece of jewelry could be made from it. Bring it in to Cody Jewelers and visit with them about this unique opportunity.

Stop by Cody Jewelers to See Alisa’s Work in Person

Alisa continually adds new inventory at Cody Jewelers, and it’s a great place to see the wide variety of styles she creates. If you have an idea for a special piece of jewelry you’d like, stop in and start that process.

“Some of my favorite pieces are ideas that someone has always had, but can’t find. I love the challenge of bringing those ideas to life,” Alisa said.

From carving specific mountains or scenes of a particular location someone loves to more unique pieces, such as a request for a horny toad bracelet, your ideas can be brought to life.

Cody Jewelers is open Tuesday through Saturday each week.

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