Gisela von Eicken: And then gradually when we moved to San Francisco, Michael and I, and were no longer in Las Vegas, I began to go to a shop in North Beach. The owner was a Japanese guy, and he had masses of stones in little boxes, looking similar to the way I keep my stuff upstairs, you know, those little sections that are all colored and everything.

And he sold wire in gold, 14 karat gold filled wire. And I’d buy one foot at a time. One foot at a time; I kid you not. I think it was thirty-five cents for one foot. Now, of course, I buy fifty ounces at a time, and that certainly is a different thing altogether. But at the same time that’s how one has to start. When you first sort of have an idea, it takes a while to develop that idea. And it did take about a year or two before I was fully into making jewelry that would be considered, I guess, art wear or something like that, because I was then in gold and silver, or gold filled and silver at the time, and moved on to gold after that.

Disc drop earrings. Gold-filled wire.

Time passed and Gisela decided it was time to move on. She headed for Chicago, and zealously began to pursue her career as a jewelry designer. Gisela was the only jewelry maker to be accepted into the Art Institute of Chicago's annual show. Every other entry was either sculpture or painting.

FF: And how did you establish yourself jewelry-wise in Chicago?

Gisela von Eicken: I entered every single art fair that was moving. And then in 1974, I applied for the Chicago and vicinity show at the Art Institute in Chicago. I submitted an entry which was a lion’s head ring. Now, the way the lion first evolved was it just came to me. One day it just came to me that I wanted to make a lion, being a Leo anyway, lions had always fascinated me; the look of them, the way the mane is.

And remembering back to when I made the very first ring, it was sort of reminiscent of a lion’s mane, in my opinion, when I first made it in copper.

So now I was really beginning to work with gold and gold-filled and sterling with, you know, much more security. I began to realize that I was in charge. I knew that I could handle it; that I could handle the differences in the tempers of the metal.

Small salamanders are pins. Gold-filled wire, garnet and jet. Large salamander. Cooper-coated wire, 1940's beads. Cuff. Brass.

And so I made my first lion. And I made it in my head for about two weeks first. I mean I toyed with it; I toyed with it in my mind at first. It was sort of like a little game I played with myself. It was just tantalizing. I absolutely adored this sort of attenuated holding back from actually doing it. And then I did it.

Africa roots necklace. Gold-filled wire, geode. Left ring: Lion's head. Gold wire, garnet. Center ring: Gold-filled wire. Right ring: Citrine stone, gold-filled wire.

Around this time, Gisela met Fred Hopkins, the renowned jazz bassist, who would become her companion for 20 years. Fred recently passed away, and was given great tribute on jazz radio stations nationwide, and a splendid memorial concert was held here in NYC in February.

Painting of Fred Hopkins by Gisela von Eicken.

Gisela found inspiration in Fred's music. She would sit by candlelight at a small table in the jazz club where Fred was playing, and with her pliers and wire, she would weave the flame-bright, molten-like metal, working and listening.

Sinai fragments bracelet. Iridescent beads, bronze, 2000 year old glass and stone. Dragon fly pin. Gold-filled wire, iridescent beads, green onyx. Necklace. Animal bones from India, plastic-coated wire. Ring shown earlier.