Reprinted with permission by The Register.
Original article printed Thursday, April 20, 2006.
Written by Nicole Muller.

MEET YOUR NEIGHBORS
From time to time, The Register profiles the people who make our community unique.

Etta follows her heart
Etta's Philosophy of life echoes Polonius' advice to Hamlet: "To thine own self be true." Here is a woman who sets a course and steers with a steady hand, reaching her destination with determined certainty.

"I was born an artist," Etta says, matter-of-factly. From her earliest memory, she knew in her heart, her talents, her beliefs. Life's influences led to changes and decisions, each reflecting her confident sense of self.

She was born in Chicago, and after her parents' divorce, she moved with her mother and brother to Worcester. "On my visits to Chicago, my father took me to the theatre, museums and cultural centers," she says. Recognizing their daughter's artistic bent early on, Etta's parents both nurtured her talent.

"As a kid I had painting lessons, drawing lessons, ballet, piano, weaving, sculpture, pottery. When I hit metal in high school, that was it!" she says. "I realized I could do everything with metal - weave, paint sculpt. I had hit my destiny.

At Doherty Memorial High School, Etta enrolled in a silversmithing class. Her immediate response was bone deep and equally enduring. By her senior year, she was enrolled in evening silversmithing class at the Worcester Craft Center.

Breaking free
It was 1970, the Vietnam War era. Students at Ohio's Kent State University protested the bombing of Cambodia in a massive campus demonstration. National Guardsmen fired into the student throng, hitting 13 and killing four. "I was the spokesperson for the youth and college community in Worcester," Etta says.

In response to her speeches condemning the murders at Kent State, officials at Doherty High School asked Etta to leave. "My stepfather kicked me out," she says. "I took my finals early, packed my bags and got a job as a silversmith on Charles Street in Boston and a room in Cambridge. I did that for six weeks before deciding that I wanted to be self-employed."

She has remained self-employed for 35 years.

"Because of my fascination with metal, I decided I wanted to learn while building jewelry rather than being influenced through formal education," she explains. "I just wanted to be at a bench and learn, developing my own style, so I worked as a freelance designer of jewelry."

Following her heart
"This was a residence, and like any commercial property, I had to put in a parking lot, raise the ceilings, refinish the floors," Etta Explains. "At the time. I lived upstairs and worked in the small front window. Businesses like this tend to be more successful in a strip mall with lots of glass. I've tried to maintain the integrity of this old house's historical character, but I put in bigger windows to bring in more light."

Wide-plank, pine floorboards are tacked down with square handmade nails. Three central back-to-back fireplaces accent Etta's showroom, and the rear workroom, originally the kitchen, boasts a large working fireplace with a beehive oven. Below it lies a circular root cellar.

Etta chose to house her business in a building that reflects the character of the community, and she works to preserve that character. "I believe it's important to keep the older buildings along Route 28 and put thriving businesses in them," she says.

Artistic distinction
Noted for her love of opals, and more recently, black diamonds, Etta wears her favorite pieces, an exquisite array of rings, necklaces and pendants that change with her mood and attire. "My love of gems and color is so great that they direct my design," she says. "I hand build everything. Designs emerge around the shape of raw stones. Rings are 'fabricated' - built from 14-karat-gold yellow, pink and white wire."

Etta is busy year-round with custom orders and stone re-settings. "Peoples tastes change, so what was once a ring becomes a brooch or a pendant, and I create a new design around the shape, size and colors of the stone," she says. In winter, Etta builds her summer inventory and travels to Australia to select opals.

Inspired by nature, Etta selects stones that lend themselves to her artistic vision. In Lightning Ridge, "a real Australian frontier town," Etta buys directly from the miners and cutters, examining hundreds of stones before one strikes her fancy for it's color shape and size.

"In January, I saw this unset (blue) opal. One time I had seen a blue Empress butterfly in the wild. I said to myself, 'This opal will be the body of a dragonfly when I get home, with an amethyst head.'" Today the dramatic dragonfly pendant is the centerpiece of Etta's opal display.

Australian pink diamonds, the rarest and most valuable in the world, are among the gems Etta brings home to West Dennis. For rubies, she has traveled to Bangkok. "I have people in several countries who know what I like and send stones to me," she says. Her latest discovery is black diamonds from India. "They're fun, bright and different," she says, fingering a necklace of the gems hanging from around her neck, exquisite against a tomato-red sweater.

Political Arena
" Politics is one of my favorite subjects," Etta says with enthusiasm. "When my Cape business became stable, I started devoting time to my other passion: getting good people elected to office.

Since 1990, Etta has represented the Cape and Islands for the Massachusetts Democratic Party. She was a delegate and presidential elector for Al Gore in 2000 and will serve as a counter at the June 2-3 state Democratic convention in Worcester.

Between conventions, she's busy mobilizing volunteers for local, state and national elections. "Fundamentally, everything from the air you breathe, the food on your table, the roads you drive on to your children's education is a product of decisions made by your elected officials," Etta says. "So it's vital to me to get good people in there to make good decisions."

Vowing to get democrats elected this fall, "not only locally, but statewide," she attributes political apathy to television and computers. "Too many people are not noticing important big changes, let alone small, subtle changes in policy," she says. "It will be interesting to see when people wake up. It should be sooner rather than later."

Her artistic serenity suddenly kicks in, her voice resuming its characteristic mellowness. "My stepfather always said you have to be proud of what you do in life and to sign your name to it. I'm glad he lived long enough to see me live up to those words."