Polly Elizabeth Ryel
Born 1961
I grew up in Fayetteville, New York, then the relatively quiet small-town suburbs of Syracuse. Being creative and making things was the cornerstone of my childhood, it was fostered, encouraged, and valued by both parents. My mother was a painter and my father had studied landscape architecture. I was fortunate to have had many nurturing
and inspiring art teachers all my years in public schools. Ellie O’Connell, the surrealist painter, was a close family friend and occasional teacher in her lovely studio/gallery made from a converted church.
I attended the Rhode Island School of Design intending to study painting and or illustration but instead declared Light Metals as my major at the end of freshman foundation, something I knew very little about. The difficulty of mastering the technical aspects of metalsmithing before being able to realize design was intriguing and the process was both frustrating and rewarding. In an attempt to add more color I experimented extensively in enameling. Many of my electives were taken in the glass department. I had some stained glass experience from high school which I was keen to expand on. Then I discovered the energy and immediacy of blowing glass and it opened
my world. It was amazing to just be around and witness the hot shop, I loved the scene. The popularity of glass as an art form was skyrocketing due in no small part to Dale Chihuly who was then the head of the Glass Dept and one of my professors. It was an exciting time, spending days working on metalsmithing and evenings in the glass department.
In the summer of my junior year, I took a job teaching jewelry making at a summer camp in the western mountains of Maine. I fell in love with the state and resolved to live here. I took a job as a goldsmith/designer with Camden Jewelry Co. the fall after graduation in 1984. My husband and I own and run it to this day. My passion is working on high
karat gold pieces and gemstones.
Over the years I have gone back to painting dabbling at times, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that a serious desire developed and now I’m becoming obsessed. I enjoy being outside in every season, walking, hiking, biking, skiing, swimming, paddling, and climbing in this incredibly beautiful state. My outdoor activities are enhanced now by the search and study of light, color, and composition. I work from photos and the memory and emotions from my journeys often rushing home to capture something before the mental image and feeling fade.
I live in Lincolnville on a few acres surrounded by woods where I enjoy gardening and raising fowl. I have two grown sons; one a musician and goldsmith, the other a college student, avid outdoorsman, and a chair maker at Windsor Chairmakers.
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