KILA – Even if the chemotherapy has slowed her down, Julie Van Sant won’t stop; the ever-growing stack of orders won’t let her.
But when Van Sant is swinging around her chair in the workshop behind her house – a length of silver wire in one hand and a rubber mallet in the other – nothing seems wrong. And the only suggestion otherwise is her short gray hair.
Friends and fellow artists are helping the silversmith pay for her cancer treatment by hosting a benefit auction at The Cottage Inn on Saturday, Oct. 15. The event will feature donated work from dozens of local and regional artists.
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Silversmith Julia Van Sant demonstrates how she custom fits a bracelet while at her home studio in Kila. |
Van Sant has made her living as a silversmith for the last two decades after beginning the craft almost by mistake. In 1990, when living in Santa Fe, N.M., she had an idea of a bolo tie she wanted to make as a going away gift for a friend. Although she had always been artistic, she had no idea how she would make it.
She turned to her friend who was an accomplished local silversmith. Van Sant asked if her friend could teach her how to make the tie. Little did she know, it would be the first of thousands of pieces.
“She just totally changed my life,” Van Sant said, referring to her friend in Santa Fe. “She gave me access to her shop, her tools and her knowledge.”
Van Sant began learning the art of binding and shaping raw silver into beautifully designed rings, bracelets and necklaces. For the next few years she also kept working as a bartender, ski teacher and “all that great stuff you do in your 20s.” In 1993 she began earning enough to work as a full-time artist and two years later she moved to Montana to live with a relative. She always wanted to move to the Flathead Valley, but it was far too expensive for a “starving artist.” Yet she kept saving, making thousands of silver pieces every year that she sold at regional craft shows for up to $500 a piece. Finally in 2007 she bought a home in Kila and set up shop in the garage.
For the next few years, Van Sant lived in her small house nestled in the hills, working well over 40 hours a week crafting the delicate silver pieces, and then traveling to craft shows around the state on the weekends to sell. Depending on the piece, it can take up to 15 hours to craft a ring or bracelet, each item stamped on the inside with her stylized signature, “JVS.”
Last year, during the height of her busy summer season, Van Sant began feeling ill and losing weight. At first she thought she could deal with it herself, “you know, being a starving artist.”
She hoped to put it off until after the annual C.M. Russell Art Show held in Great Falls the following March, one of her biggest events. Just weeks before the show she weighed 88 pounds and knew she needed to get help, realizing “either I’ll be dead or be 60 pounds and won’t be able to set up my own booth.”
Within a few days doctors examined her, discovered a tumor and diagnosed her with ovarian cancer. On April 4, she underwent a four-hour surgery to remove the tumor. Two months later she started chemotherapy. In early July another tumor was discovered and had to be removed. Another round of chemotherapy began. The treatment led to a sudden loss of energy and she was unable to work as much.
Realizing a friend was in need, area artists began to take up a collection to help fund Van Sant’s treatment. Soon after they came up with the idea of a benefit, where they would auction off their own work to help.
“I think we all try and be supportive when we go through medical problems or accidents,” said Elaine Snyder, one of the organizers. “Sometimes you’ve got to step up and put your talents (out there) to help someone when they need it.”
Snyder, who has made leather clothing for the last 36 years, said although she only knows Van Sant through craft shows, she and the other artists felt compelled to help. Snyder said the silent auction and raffle will feature up to 50 pieces by local artists.
Among those items will be some of the silver pieces crafted by Van Sant, all of which have a lifetime warranty.
“My jewelry will outlive me,” she said.
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A piece of Julia Van Sant’s silver jewelry is seen on an anvil in her home studio in Kila. |
Van Sant doesn’t know how much time she has left. Some research she has done suggests she has a 50 percent chance of living another five years. Yet she’s determined outlive the prognosis.
Knowing these could be the final days at her workbench – soldering pieces of silver atop each other, shaping pieces of wire around an anvil or grinding off rough edges – she has begun putting her work into perspective.
“It makes me want to be more artistic in my work instead of (doing) the production line work to meet orders,” she said. “It makes me want to do all these ideas that have been floating around my head for all these years.”
She is thankful for the help she’s received the last few months from friends and family, something that often brings her to tears as she sits in her shop. That has been one of the positives in her life.
“You hate to call cancer a gift, but you can look at it that way,” she said, smiling. “So long as I come out OK and if I don’t, I don’t. That’s the circle of life.”
The benefit for Van Sant is on Saturday, Oct. 15 from 6 to 9 p.m. at The Cottage Inn in Kila. For more information about Van Sant’s work visit www.julievansant.com.