Community Profile: Michael Burris and Katherine Goulandris

Jewelry Designers in Abiquiu, New Mexico

Team Goulandris and Burris.

Katherine Goulandris and Michael Burris live outside of Abiquiu down a dirt road that will rattle your dentures. Both jewelry designers, Katherine and Michael live and work in a couple of self-designed adobe houses situated in the Rio Chama valley, mesas to the east and mountains to the west. For this couple, living off the grid in their passive solar homes is the good life.

"Ever since I was a little girl I dreamed of living in the country," Katherine says. "I lived in the country in Colorado for a while and somehow it never quite happened for me there. Everything just gelled when I came here."

Michael moved to Santa Fe twenty years ago and began building and renovating adobe homes. Eventually he needed to move on. "When I first moved to Santa Fe twenty years ago, it was a largely culturally Hispanic community and I loved that about Santa Fe. As Santa Fe began to change, I hungered for that type of environment again. And this area is one of the few places that I found where it was alive and well. This is really, I believe, where it shines."

The growth of the Espanola Valley region is something that concerns both of them greatly. Michael worries about the rural infrastructure keeping pace with the inevitable development. Katherine is cautiously optimistic about the future of the area. "Everywhere in America is growing, and I think it's growing here too. Finding the harmony between the growth which needs to happen without losing the open space and the farms and the old ways -- I think that is probably the biggest challenge this area is facing."

Through their jewelry business, Studio Q Jewelry, these two artists have created their own original copyrighted necklace design, The Bolera. This design incorporates elements commonly associated with New Mexico such as seed beads, often used by Native American artists. "I love these beads because of their delicacy and their color," Katherine says. "Glass seed beads add a lot of color and yet keep the piece fairly affordable." Katherine's goal is to incorporate the seed beads with gemstones and sterling silver to "make elegant and modern designs."

Crafting pieces of jewelry is meticulous work and Michael chose this area for its calming qualities. "There are no distractions, so your work can be very finely focused. You can immerse yourself in it without any problem at all. There's no Starbucks [he laughs], and it's perfect in that way. And it's silent."

Katherine and Michael shop their jewelry at art shows throughout the region, but their home always beckons to them at the end of their journeys. "To me, it's the friendliest community that I have ever lived near," Michael says. "There is a very particular feeling of earthiness and living close to the land which makes people more simple and less complicated; they don't have a lot of the airs that bigger city people seem to have. To me, that's very real, very kind and very beautiful. I think it's a great place to live."