Sundance Artisan, Polly Hart's jewelry has a modern edge but contains an aesthetic that clearly values the past. Her artistic roots go back at least as far as her great-grandfather, a furniture maker whose creativity has permeated several generations.

Hart credits a seventh-grade metal-smith class for sparking her lifelong passion for jewelry making, and counts ancient Troy, medieval Europe and the Art Nouveau movement among her artistic influences.

Currently, she credits her everyday surroundings in Utah as the inspiration to some of her more recent pieces, "Half a lifetime ago I moved to Utah for the skiing, but what I got was so much more!" Hart notes, "I learned quickly that to escape the summer heat (because ski season doesn’t last all year), my best bet was a hike up in the canyons, preferably along a cool mountain stream."

In Utah, Hart hiked through Little Cottonwood Canyon starting in the Albion Basin in Utah to Cecret lake where she came across the wild flowers that would soon dictate her designs.

"To experience the mid-summer wildflowers in the Wasatch Mountains is to witness Mother Nature’s most glorious color palette," Hart gushes, "Albion Basin, at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon, offers some of North America’s best alpine wildflower viewing."

Hart continues and describes the scenery, "Soft blue Forget-Me-Nots grow beside wild pink Geraniums. Indian Paintbrush can be found in intense pink, red, yellow and orange, but the most spectacular are bi-colored explosions. Lavender and yellow Asters rise next to clumps of pale pink delicate Creeping Flox, and Native Lupine is the color of Delft pottery. Dandelions, considered weeds in most places, sparsely dot the hillsides looking like crackling fireworks. Single blossomed Columbines offer a softer palette of pastels in contrast to dense clusters of vivid blue Penstamens.  The list goes on... yellow Arnica (considered by many to be a healing plant), tall pink Elephant Flowers, Mountain Blue Bells, white Rocket flowers, soft blue and yellow Flax, and pink Fire Flowers are also among the many varieties that blanket the meadows like a vivid quilt."

Hart's most recent pieces for Sundance are her Albion In Bloom pieces. The Albion in Bloom Earrings feature many splendored sapphires that echo the colors of wildflowers in full bloom, while her Albion in Bloom Necklace plucks sapphires as colorful as wildflowers and tethers the faceted gems between 14kt gold links.

About her inspiration, Hart says, "My hikes in the Wasatch usually include a moose sighting and the occasional deer or elk.  I can’t imagine how I ever lived without this outside my back door.  Every morning I awaken and make a new gratitude list, and the natural beauty of Utah is always on the list."

Discover the artistry of Sundance Artisan Poly Hart here.