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For Immediate Release:
July 8, 2011
Madam Chef to Show-Off Asheville Crafted Jewelry at the White House
Asheville NC---Asheville is a destination appreciated for its boutique charm, elegant arts & crafts, and natural beauty, but it’s rare, if ever, that its mountain mystique journeys its way to the White House to shimmer and dazzle before the President and the First Lady. Most, even the President himself, must travel to experience Asheville’s finer points--in all of its organic, earthy, and in some cases signature Southern radiance.
On his last trip to Asheville, Obama could have stopped into Van Dyke Jewelry to admire the exquisite collection of local artist-made treasures, but with golf at the Grove Park Inn, BBQ at 12 Bones, a tour around the Biltmore Estate etc., these more intricate attractions were most likely overlooked.
Not to worry--Mary Erwin, better known to locals as Madam Chef, will be heading to the White House on July 22, 2011 to usher in to the day’s South Lawn festivities those precious little pieces of Asheville the U.S. President probably passed by last time. Though she won’t be using her Johnson & Wales culinary degree to whip out any trademark gourmet surprises for President Obama or his guests during this invitation-only soiree, she will arrive adorned with a hot-off-the-anvil, master-crafted set of matching pendant and earrings from Van Dyke Jewelry.
Van Dyke Jewelry started out in Bloomsburg, PA, with Chris working under Dad in his store. After a stint touring the US on a black 82' Harley Softtail and a couple of pit stops to get a degree from GIA and earn some money working for other people on the West Coast, Chris stumbled into Asheville and found home. Ten years and three kids later, he opened up his dream store in the heart of downtown, and changed his name from Van Dyke Goldsmith to Van Dyke Jewelry and Fine Craft, in part to honor his dad and the place where his career began.
The pendant Ms. Erwin will wear started, as do most of Chris Van Dyke's pieces, with a beautiful stone--in this case from the boulder opal and the interlacing veins of color running through the stone. Of the 14 pieces of gold cut, formed and shaped to make the pendant, there are as many on the back to make it lie properly as there are on the front to make it visually appealing. It's difficult to add up the hours spent on a piece like this. The hours lying awake, the sketches, and the stops and starts that come with owning a business--actual hours spent would easily exceed 25 on this pendant. This much effort and detail ensure this is more than just a piece of jewelry, it's a family heirloom.
“As with any piece of jewelry that I create, the words that my father repeated over and over years ago continue to be the bar to which everything needs to rise. He would look at me and say “Is it true?” He meant this in the very technical sense of whether the things that were supposed to be round were round and straight were straight. This was a very good standard to work towards and even more important when doing asymmetrical work. I think that in the case of the Boulder Opal pendant, Dad would agree that it's true. This is one of my best pieces, true not just in balance and workmanship, but true to jewelry as a work of art. When I make a piece like this I am an artist, and that's when I truly love this business," said Chris Van Dyke.
To complement this hand-made presidential salute, courtesy of Van Dyke Jewelry, Ms. Erwin, will be wearing an off-the-shoulder-sleeveless, white summer gown design by Ménage Fashions of Morganton N.C.
To sneak a glimpse of the artistic splendor the U.S. President will soon be swooning over, feel free to browse through Van Dyke Jewelry’s virtual showroom at: http://www.vandykejewelry.com/ or swing by the gallery, located at 29 Biltmore Avenue in Asheville, NC.
Media contact:
Jonathan Poston
(828) 674-9113
Ryan Brower
Van Dyke Jewelry and Fine Craft
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
828-281-4044
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