Harriet has been a sculptor for the last 30 years. She grew up in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado in a family of seven kids— the youngest of whom was Fran Bahr (fellow Bayside Jeweler). The immensity of the environment filled her with a wonder for the natural world and her place in it. Thus, she began to explore her identity through the arts.
She did her undergraduate studies at Adams State College in Colorado, and in her mid-thirties got a Masters Degree in Art Education from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She moved to Colorado Springs in 1988, and has lived there ever since. Harriet started with very small sculptures and then over the years progressed in size until she was creating large public sculptures. In the last few years her work has been almost entirely by commission, both private and public. She has completed major public art pieces in a number of cities in Colorado and large private installations in Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Belize.
Now she is ready to revisit that very small category by designing and creating jewelry in collaboration with her younger sister Fran. In her mind jewelry is simply very small sculpture, and much of what she learned over the years can be applied to this new enterprise. She has always had a particular fascination for materials and has worked in stone, bronze, steel, copper, resins, wood, concrete, clay, and kiln cast glass. She will use combinations of the materials she has worked with in the past to create unusual and beautiful jewelry.
Here at Bayside Jewelry we are excited to have Harriet join our team of jewelers! We are also eager to see the work of the collaborative sister duo.