Novato, Calif. – Laurel Burch, an artist who put her brightly colored images of cats, butterflies, flowers and mythic figures on jewelry, coffee mugs and many gift items, has died. She was 61.
Burch died Sept. 13 at her home in Novato, Calif., said her daughter, Aarin Burch. The cause was osteopetrosis.
She began making jewelry as a teenager in the 1960s, while she worked as a cook, house cleaner and babysitter in San Francisco. So many people complimented her on her exotic creations of bone, coins, beads and hammered metal that she began to sell them at street fairs and flea markets.
“I found metal in a junkyard and hammered it out on the back of an old frying pan,” she said, speaking of her early jewelry, during an interview in 2005.
She launched her business, now called Laurel Burch Artworks, in the late ’60s with the help of a small staff that worked out of her house.
About that time, she began to make paintings using exotic nature, myths and world culture for images.
Soon she was commissioned by restaurants, businesses and private collectors. She also made posters that featured her art.
Burch was often hospitalized with broken bones caused by her disease, but she continued working through her recovery, starting in her hospital room.
“I refuse to have anything in my life that I can’t turn around to something magical and beautiful,” she said on her website.
After a trip to China in the early 1970s, Burch adopted the cloisonne technique of enamel work. Soon afterward, her vivid enamel jewelry became her most popular item. Her business grew to the point that about 500 boutiques and department stores worldwide sold her jewelry, mugs, T-shirts and other items.
