A quarter century ago Stephen Walker left his job to try his hand at self employment as a craftsman jewelry designer and metalsmith. It was over the Christmas and New Year Holidays in 1983 that the transition of working as an hourly employee for Markusen Metal Studios in Kendall, NY to sole proprietor and aspiring artistic entrepreneur took place. At the time his dream of living the life as a silversmith or handmade jewelry craftsman seemed like the stuff of hippie fantasy.

Walker began working in precious metals more than a decade before, gradually beginning his career in art class at Andover Central School in the early 1970s making celtic jewelry and pipe band accesories.  After a year tramping around Europe he enrolled in art school at Alfred University.  He then transferred to Syracuse University where he earned his BFA degree in Silversmithing and Jewelry design in 1980. At Syracuse he met his wife Susan, who was a marketing and public relations major. After Syracuse the Walkers married and Stephen earned his MFA degree in Metals Arts at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1982. For the next year and a half Stephen worked for wages while he developed his own line of designs and a business plan.

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