Gallery offers art and jewelry

Husband and wife Gordon and Val Mustain will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of their Enchanted Earthworks Gallery tomorrow with an open house to display their personally made jewelry, as well as other pieces from local artists.

The Mustains will be showing off their wire-wrap jewelry and beads they collaborated on specifically for the show.

"By doing it together, we were able to create something that was more than just a little pendant with some beads with it," Val said.

"What really makes us different is that we have an enormous variety of things. We are not a standard jewelry shop and we don't carry even the kinds of things you'd get at a Zales."

Val believes there are added benefits to holding an open house.

"It's good for the community because anytime you have artists that are available to interact with the community, it broadens the community," she said.

"I don't think you have a community if you don't have artists."

Both Val and Gordon come from artistic backgrounds; Gordon has been a novelist since he was a teenager and Val was an art history major in college. They found themselves in the beginning stages of their present careers by an attraction to rocks.

"When we started, we really thought we might be a rock shop," Val said. "And after about six months we realized that all the people that were coming were either coming for small specimens or my husband's jewelry."

Enchanted Earthworks caters to more than just a jewelry store crowd, with displays of art surrounding the gallery.

"Everyone that does work (at the gallery) has a certain reverence for their art, a reverence for the medium in which they are working in, and a reverence for what everyone else is doing. And it comes through in the art," Val said.

The open house will be an opportunity for UA students to meet local Tucson artists.

"If you're interested in art at all, there will be 20 different artists here that you can meet, and if you want to talk about their art, you can."

Wood carver Ron Karulski will be displaying "Jenny," a wood coyote carving, and Lindianne Sarno will play the violin for over two and a half hours.
Source: arizona