Life and Work with Hillary Muramoto

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hillary Muramoto.

Hillary, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Within the first couple of years, after I moved to Denver in 2009, I had gone through some shifts in my personal life that left me feeling more depressed than I had ever experienced. I took some time away to re-set and ended up at my dad’s house in Sedona, AZ for a week. A friend of his is a semi-precious stone excavator and showed me around his property one day. The only thing I could think of to help my emotions at the time were the energies of stones. I bought a bunch from my dad’s friend and started to wrap them in wire so that I could wear them instead of carrying them around in my pockets. Everything started to evolve from there. Making pieces of jewelry ended up becoming my active meditation… it was the only time my mind could have a break from the tornado of emotions I was going through, and with a background in Interior Design, I guess I was already programmed to build, create, work with composition and color, etc. I eventually quit Interior Design, took a couple of years away from Denver, and when I moved back in 2015, I was working full time as a massage therapist and making jewelry at night. My work really shifted when I began working out of Art Gym Denver in 2016. The facility supplied me with the space and all of the tools I needed to really create to the capacity that I wanted to. In October of 2017, I quit massage therapy and committed to jewelry full time. I started creating as much as I could with all of the ideas swirling around in my head, and gradually began working a lot with commissions and custom pieces. Two weeks at a women’s silversmithing retreat in January of 2018 introduced stone inlay into my work, and now, is the center of my design process. Today, I have the pleasure of doing a lot of commissions in bridal jewelry and bridal re-design. One of the things that I love is being able to create according to the personality and aesthetic of a client, connecting with people through their vision, and turning ideas into something tangible. My personal expression through my work comes out in-between clients and is always morphing and evolving.

Has it been a smooth road?
Committing to full-time artistry and starting a business has not always been smooth. There have been plenty of emotional and financial challenges, and A LOT of learning to do in the business realm of how to operate. When you are the sole driver of your income and don’t get paid unless someone buys your art, the stress is huge! You never know whether or not you’ll make enough to pay your rent and buy groceries, and there have been many times that I’ve questioned whether or not I have what it takes, whether people actually like what I create, or if I’m good enough to stand out in a sea of other artists. The only thing that I know how to do when things feel hard is to continue. Making jewelry is my passion… the thing that I love more than anything else… the thing, as its own entity, that I make sacrifices for and have 100% committed to. It brings me peace and excitement and joy no matter what, so I just keep doing it. I’ll go through waves of high confidence and low, strong momentum and slow times, months that I produce more and sell more than I could have ever possibly imagined, and months where I sell zero. But as the years go on, work is increasing, becoming more challenging, more exciting, and more rewarding. I ask myself every now and then if there is anything else I’d want to do, and the answer is always a big hard NO. I think the advice I would give to other women is probably the same advice you hear from anyone in their own adventure… just keep going. Find someone, to whom you can ask a lot of questions, and doesn’t mind the inquisition. If you love it enough, you’ll NEED to continue anyway, and if you love it enough, you’ll automatically be dedicated enough, and continuing is the thing that will inevitably get you where you want to go. Everything takes time, any endeavor has challenges, and there may be people that tell you to stop. Just don’t.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Hillary West Jewelry – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
First, I am an artist. And I am a metalsmith that specializes in custom work. I would say that I’m known for, at this point, inlay wedding bands and bespoke wedding jewelry, but also the ability to understand and translate other’s ideas and bring them to life. I primarily work in silver, gold, stone inlay, and more and more, precious gems. As a brand, I’m most proud of the quality of jewelry I can produce, and the wide range of design styles I’m capable of. It is also important to me to use materials that make as low impact as possible. I use/buy recycled metal, diamonds that are conflict-free, and favor lab-created gems, but I think (hope) that most jewelry artists are also paying attention to this these days. What sets me apart, I would say, is my willingness to try something I’ve never done before! I definitely have a specific style in what I create and especially when I’m creating things that are not commissioned, but every time I am asked to do a custom piece, I’m usually doing something that I’ve never attempted. I’ve been able to create designs very far outside of my comfort zone, and so far I’ve been able to deliver! It is important to me and exciting to be able to give a client their dream. I also think that something that makes me different is that my work is always changing. I’ve never gotten into production jewelry. There’s something really beautiful about consistency and repeated design elements, and I have that to a degree, but I also LOVE that jewelry is almost limitless in what you can do with it. I want to see what I’m capable of, and to me, it’s more about art. This is my art and my expression, like wearable sculpture as opposed to simply jewelry.

Often it feels as if the media, by and large, is only focused on the obstacles faced by women, but we feel it’s important to also look for the opportunities. In your view, are there opportunities that you see that women are particularly well positioned for?
I do think there are many opportunities women are well positioned for. Women are experiencing a time where we have strong camaraderie. We are being seen now more than ever before, and especially by each other. We have a visible voice and the ability to build off of each other’s accomplishments. We have sisterhood over competition and are openly sharing our experiences. We can use that sharing to build relationships, support each other’s businesses, and speak up for one another. We have built a container of safe expression, and are realizing our own dreams through that. We live in a place and time where women can now try and be anything. What I’ve seen, is that women are not only filling roles that once only belonged to men, but also creating roles that once, never even existed. We are taking our fight, turning it into leadership, and pioneering new genres of entrepreneurship. My own industry, jewelry, was once dominated by men. In the past couple of decades, that has shifted dramatically. I think women are particularly well positioned right now for opportunities in government, business, health, design and the arts.

Contact Info:

• Address: Denver, CO
• Website: hillarywestjewelry.com
• Phone: (720) 551-6091
• Email: hillary@hillarywestjewelry.com
• Instagram: @hillarywestjewelry

Image Credit:
Bio Image: Lijha Stewart

Suggest a story: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.