Susan Eisen ASA, MGA®

Born and raised in El Paso by parents who promoted her artistic talent since she was from five years old, and pursuing her dream to major in art, Susan Eisen enrolled in art metals as a Bachelor of Fine Arts Student. Her love for design, soldering and cutting metal, forming sheets and wires into jewelry, and playing with gemstones led her to fall in love with the art of jewelry making. Having learned the skill for making jewelry from her two metals professors at UTEP, Wiltz Harrison and Rachelle Thiewes, she ventured into the world of jewelry design with very little business background and only her hands and the movement of metals and gemstones to guide her. She opened her first retail jewelry store and art gallery named Tiara in May of 1980 in a small 1920^s office turned shop in El Paso^s Art Museum district downtown. Having very little financial assistance, she spent the days alone in the store dreaming, designing, and fabricating her own pieces. She spent the next few years learning the trade, working with customers, exhibiting at art shows, and finding out the many things she needed to learn about in the jewelry industry. Because most jewelry stores are run by families who inherit the business from their ancestors, her journey to learn the business was a labor of love. In fact, until today, her labor is her love and her hours at the store feel like an artist playing is their studio. She discovered her love of design and the desire to create more each day and when the gemological knowledge of gemstones became necessary, she enrolled in classes at the Gemological Institute of America in California. Walking through the buildings at GIA she knew she was in the place in her life she would remain forever, learning about gemstones and their properties but more importantly building a love for the fabulous colors and shapes that surround gemstones. Her Graduate Gemologist degree was only the beginning of her learning. Over the years, Susan Eisen realized that not only did she love to create from precious metal, but that having and succeeding in business was a constant challenge, also requiring education, skill and creativity. This combination of aesthetics and business kept her brain cycling through ideas every day of her life. Rather than being a jewelry store owner alone, she ventured into creating products that would make life easier for others. She applied for and received 5 trademarks and one design patent for her creations and pursued their manufacture and marketing. She began to carry other brands, jewelry by known designers and well known watch brands. But carrying these products and handling the day to day duties of a jewelry store owner required energy that she had previously used for her jewelry creations. Her life was inundated with business chores, hiring and training personnel, handling finances, ordering products, meeting customer needs and her desire to design jewelry fell by the wayside. And then one day, while reading one of her man...