When Angela Olsgard opened the gallery in Boulder, Colo. in 2002, her work and her gallery quickly made an impression on the community. In a matter of weeks, both had a loyal following. Customers of Angie Star Jewelry had found works of art, but they had also found something more—a place to celebrate and to feel truly appreciated.

Olsgard is a woman like few others. (She’d be quick to disagree, but she didn’t get to write her own biography!) The truth is, she represents some of what is good in all of us…and that is not an overstatement. Olsgard is a successful entrepreneur and a talented artist, but her advanced degrees in family and child therapy underscore her business. The depth of care and sensitivity required of a therapist reveals itself in the warmth and sincerity that she naturally and consistently extends to her customers and employees.

A lifetime of jewelry design brought the design house about, but it was Olsgard’s personal nature and her higher education that brought about the characteristics that set it apart. Olsgard earned her Bachelor of Science in human development and family studies at Colorado State University, and was a member of the Chi Omega sorority. She then earned her Masters degree in marriage and family therapy from the University of San Diego.

“As a bereavement therapist in California, while also developing my line of jewelry, the healing potential of jewelry as sacred ornamentation moved me,” she said. “The moment we put something on our bodies, it becomes sacred and meaningful. That has always been what jewelry is to me. Art that lives on our bodies, talismans, pieces of what we see as beautiful and meaningful in the world.”

Her work is recognizable by the use of deconstructed shapes and unpolished finishes. Matte, heavily brushed surfaces on blackened sterling silver, highlighted with bits of recycled gold. Her work is new, but seems to speak of a different story, an older tale of the passage of metals and stones through time.

Living and practicing in a Buddhist community, Olsgard’s work is influenced by the strong meditational shapes prevalent in Eastern religious art. She also utilizes the repetition of simple organic shapes like those found in nature.

“Nature does it best,” Olsgard says, “in a subtle, understated, recklessly beautiful sort of way.”
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