Meet the Makers: Lyon Pond Studio

Celebrating 50 years of the Chester Festival on the Green. All products are 100% handmade.

Based in Peru, Vermont, Karen Utiger makes sterling silver jewelry with dichroic glass, art glass and semi-precious gemstones. 

Products: Lyon Pond Studio specializes in rings, earrings, necklaces and bracelets. Many are one-of-a-kind.

Most Popular Item: Spinner rings, used for meditation, to ease anxiety, and even to help stop nail biting.

​"Working with my hands is fun: quilting, bead-weaving, making pottery, fusing glass and working with metal. I still carry around the first pinch pot I ever made as a Girl Scout. But I have to say that using fire, sawing and hammering are definitely a big draw for silversmithing." - Karen Utiger

Utiger draws out her ideas, then uses traditional silversmithing tools, such as a saw, hammer, torch, files and pliers to form jewelry from silver, fused glass and semi-precious stones.

"Much of my process is organic, intuitive and hands-on. I really need to see and feel the components to get to the final result.

Best "find" at the Chester Festival: A fabulous Face Mug from Rising Forest Pottery.

Best Advice: Make something you like or it will be drudgery. Be flexible. Keep learning.

Find Lyon Pond Studio on Facebook, Instagram ​and at the 2024 Chester Festival on the Green in September 2024.

Favorite childhood memory of festivals and craft fairs: "Eating sweets, pony rides, parades, buying my first handmade gift to give to my mother for her birthday."