Sandy Bomhower: Biography

Born in Hanover, New Hampshire, and raised in Wilder, Vermont, Sandy is a member of a long standing Upper Valley family.

Initially she learned enough jewelry-making in art classes at Hartford High School to start creating pieces for herself and her friends, mostly working in silver. She simply loved it. She started buying tools and set up a bench in her parents’ basement.

During the years after high school, Sandy held several different types of jobs, finally settling on one in which she did jewelry repairs. Later, when she started work at Designer Gold, she realized how valuable her varied background was: here she has been called upon to do most of the jobs in the store: designing, buying, repairing, stringing, selling, ordering, cleaning, and creating displays.

She continued to learn her craft by taking jewelry classes at the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen in Hanover. In May of 1987, she came to Designer Gold and started to work in gold most of the time, discovering how forgiving gold is compared to silver. She joined the Metal Heads of New Hampshire a group of jewelry designers who got together, shared ideas, and exhibited their work.

Shortly after she arrived at Designer Gold, She began to develop a specialty in bead and pearl stringing. Now, all of Designer Gold’s stringing and restringing is done by Sandy, and she teaches courses in it at the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen.

In the past few years, Sandy has branched out into designing more complicated one-of-a-kind pieces. She specializes in fabricating earrings and pendants with drusy, a mineral formation in which small crystals on the surface give the stones a glittery, unpolished look. She also prefers cabochons to faceted stones. Much of her work has a Japanese look which she enjoys. Her eyes light up, too, when she talks about all the pearls that Designer Gold has on display.

Sandy has her own house in Wilder not far from the home where she grew up. Her boyfriend, Chris, and their golden retriever, Jezebel, and Miss M-Cat live there, too.