Mary Ehlers’ Nugget: A Gem to Behold

Photo by Harry Merritt Mary Ehlers, owner of The Nugget, at 123 South Fairfax Street in Old Town, where for the past 35 years she has specialized in creating original handcrafted jewelry designs featuring precious gems and metals.

By Chuck Hagee
 
ALEXANDRIA, VA. - In 1968, Mary Ehlers was enrolled as an Education major at Iowa State University and planning to become a teacher. Then she took a class in jewelry making. That changed everything.
 
 "I was so fascinated by it. I found it to be my niche," said Ehlers, owner of The Nugget, at 123 South Fairfax Street in Old Town Alexandria, where for the past 35 years she has specialized in creating original handcrafted jewelry designs featuring precious gems and metals. Her particular specialty is engagement and wedding rings.
 

Photo by Harry Merritt Ehlers not only specializes in creating unique jewelry pieces, but also is sought out by a dedicated following of local, national and international customers.

Born in Madison, Wisconsin, Ehlers’ father was a Methodist minister, which meant that the family moved to various churches throughout the Midwest. "It also meant that we didn't have a lot of money. I knew that if I wanted a college education, I would have to do it on an academic scholarship," she explained.
 
 "I was a straight-A student throughout high school, and Valedictorian of my class. I continued those grades during college and graduate school," said Ehlers, who also holds a Masters degree from Iowa State in Art Education, qualifying her to teach at the college level.
 
She arrived in Alexandria in the early 1970s when her then husband was working as a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In 1974, she became one of the first artists to have a studio at the newly-founded Torpedo Factory Art Center, where she taught adults the art of jewelry-making from 1974 to 1977, at which time she also opened The Nugget.
 
Ehlers not only specializes in creating unique jewelry pieces, but also is sought out by a dedicated following of local, national and international customers. "Many of my clients come back time and again to have me create jewelry pieces for all types of special occasions," she said. "This past year was the first time that I've had grown children of customers coming to me to create their fine jewelry."
 
However,  jewelry and The Nugget are not her only focus in life. Her personal quest to achieve an academic scholarship to further her post-high school education has made Ehlers a staunch advocate for helping others realize that dream as well.
 

Photo by Harry Merritt "Many of my clients come back time and again to have me create jewelry pieces for all types of special occasions," she said. "This past year was the first time that I've had grown children of customers coming to me to create their fine jewelry."

As an active member of the Alexandria Optimist and Kiwanis Clubs, she raises money for T.C. Williams' Scholarship Fund, and even convinced a New York diamond dealer, with whom she does business, to donate a percentage of his profits to the fund.
 
In 1991, Burke and Herbert’s Taylor Burke introduced Ehlers to Jack Graboyes, founder of House of Doors, who convinced her to join the Optimist Club.
 
"It was one of the best decisions of my life. It has served me well, both personally and professionally," she emphasized. It also fulfills one element of The Optimist Creed: "To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own."
 
That enthusiasm and dedication seems to run in the family. Her niece, Theresa, was named the first Miss Iowa with a so called "visable disability." But Theresa just never thought of it that way. "She was born with no fingers on her left hand,  but, even as a child she learned to tie her shoes before the other kids," Ehlers proclaimed.
 
 "One day, Theresa decided to join a friend for a baton twirling demonstration. The friend just couldn’t get the hang of it, it but Theresa got it down cold almost immediately," Ehlers stated. "Theresa went on to become a twirling champion with a host of trophies, won an NFL scholarship her freshman year at ISU, and also performed at half-time at every Iowa State football game during her college years."  
 
During her year as Miss Iowa, Theresa, travelled the United States, and performed in every Shrine Hospital to promote her platform of "Take the DIS out of DISABILITY".  Mary beams when she speaks of her nieces, all 5 of them, all talented ISU graduates who did something with their education.           
 
The Nugget has a large collection of precious gems and jewelry that would be difficult to duplicate anywhere in the Metropolitan area. It includes a large assortment of opals and pearls. One of the most spectacular being a 100 carat black opal from an Australian mine called Lightning Ridge.
 

Courtesy Photo Ehler's particular specialty is engagement and wedding rings.

Over the years, Ehlers has gathered gems throughout her world travels, many directly from mining sites. "I have seen rubies and sapphires being mined, cut and polished; and it has always been my goal to bring the best of these world treasures back to Alexandria for my customers," Ehlers emphasized.
 
This dedication to excellence won her the American Gem Trade Association Spectrum Award for a piece of jewelry she designed in 1994. Valued at an estimated $55,000, it is composed of four pieces that hold opals, yellow diamonds and other precious stones, set in 18K gold and platinum. It can be worn as a single statement or as four individual pieces, ranging from a brooch to a necklace.
 
"To me, it is priceless and not for sale," Ehlers insisted.
 
In 1981, the National Geographic Society published a book, entitled How Things are Made.  The section on jewelry features Ehlers, her works of wearable art and explains how she creates them, using the lost wax casting technique.
 
Her client list is almost as impressive as her creations. It includes former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the former Commandant of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and a company called Space Adventures who was connected with NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
 
"I've met so many neat people in the course of my career,” Ehlers said.
 
For Albright, Ehlers created a pin that is now part of the former Secretary's traveling exhibit of 200 pins on tour and display nationally at museums and cultural centers, featured in her book, Read My Pins, which enjoys a place of prominence in The Nugget's front window.
 

Courtesy Photo Nugget Rings

Ehlers was commissioned in 1999 to design and create a pin which would emphasize a message Secretary Albright wanted to send to the inquisitive press.  It was a pin featuring 4 mushrooms, representing the United States, Israel, Syria, and the Palestinian authority.  It reinforced Albright’s message to the press that “Peace efforts are like mushrooms, they thrive in the dark”.   The Exhibit of the Secretary’s Pins was first unveiled to the public at the New York City's Museum of Arts & Design in September of 2010.  
 
 "I never imagined I would have one of my creations in a museum, let alone also meet Secretary of State Madeleine Albright," Ehlers said. The Mushroom Pin was presented to Secretary Albright while she was a "captive audience" to her staff, aboard Air Force One.  
 
Ehlers made the pin particularly meaningful by using ancient silver from each of the Middle Eastern regions from when they were previously united under one ruler, Herod the Great, over 2000 years ago.  For further details regarding the symbolism, Ehlers filmed a 6 minute video showing the actual melting of the coinage and the casting of the pin which was a true one-of-a-kind creation.  The Secretary’s staff presented the pin after she first watched the video showing how it had been “born”.
 
"I received a thank you letter from Secretary Albright for that pin," Ehlers stated. As for the astronauat pins commissioned by Space Adventures.  "Those were created for the first two male citizen astronauts and presented to them by Buzz Aldrin himself," Ehlers recalled.  I was given some pictures of the event.
 

Courtesy Photo Black opal at The Nugget

The former Commandant of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point was the least obvious. When they first met, Ehlers was not aware of what he did or that he was a high-ranking general in the U.S. Army. "I knew him only as Joe," she stated.
 
"One day, I had a question about something he had ordered for his wife, so I called the number he had given me. When a male voice answered, I asked if Joe was there. After a slight pause, the voice on the other end of the line asked, rather indignantly, if I was referring to THE General. That's when I discovered I was talking to the West Point Commandant's Office," Ehlers revealed.
 
For all her success, Mary Ehlers has never stopped her continuing education.  Every month, she attends the meeting of the Gemological Institute of America. She has also begun acquiring estate jewelry to preserve special pieces and prevent them from being melted down for their gold content. "Many of them are so beautiful and intricate. It would be a crime to have them melted into just a lump of gold," she said, as she held up a recently acquired delicate bracelet.
 
Sometime in the future, she does have the desire to see her shop continue to thrive for a future generation, and wants to pass on the store, its contents and her enthusiasm. "I would like to find someone who is truly interested in all aspects of the business. Maybe it will be one of my five nieces," she said.
 

"But whomever that person is, they  have to be very customer service-oriented. I believe in producing only the best for my customers. I have been accused of being a perfectionist. And, I guess I am. I have had some very trusted and capable sales help in the shop, but no one ever had the dedication and also the technical level of expertise to satisfy me," Ehlers confessed.
 
Sitting in her gem-laden shop in Old Town, literally surrounded by her creations and precious stones, Mary Ehlers is the personification of her own designs. She is brilliant, gleaming and altogether a rare find – a nugget to behold.
 
Reprinted from the Zebra www.thezebra.org January 2012.