Laurel Burch
Laurel Burch (December 31, 1945 – September 13, 2007) was an American artist, designer and businesswoman.
Early life
She was born Laurel Anne Harte in the San Fernando Valley, California, on New Year's Eve, 1945.[1] Though Laurel's parents Ann and Russell Harte divorced, Ann a seamstress and designer provided for her two daughters, Suzi and Laurel as a single mom. A rift however grew between Laurel and her mother when Laurel was a teenager. She lived for a period with her father but that ended abruptly. She supported herself by working as a cook, house cleaner and baby-sitter[1]
When she was 19 she married a jazz musician, Robert Burch. They parted after a few years together, Laurel becoming a single mom herself with two children to care for. She supported herself by claiming welfare payments and making jewelry and occasional help from Ann. Like her mother she also made outstanding dolls and sewn art. The background to this textile gift was a curious aspect of Laurel's childhood. Her mother was seamstress and designer for the singer Peggy Lee and her daughter. Ann described a strange moment where she had spent weeks shopping for shoes, ribbons, hat, fabrics to make an Easter outfit for Peggy's daughter. She sewed all night before Easter morning and drove the beautiful outfit to Peggy's home in Beverly Hills dragging Laurel and Suzi out of bed before daybreak. As she returned to the car seeing her girls knowing they had no Easter outfits waiting for them, their hair all messy with sleep and Ann was heartbroken. One can acknowledge there was the love there and the grief of a single mum. Laurel grew up with a mixture of love and loss, but also with a keen brilliant artistic eye from her parents.[1]
Career
Burch went on to launch her business, now called Laurel Burch Artworks, in February 24, 1960. She began making paintings and was commissioned by restaurants, businesses and private collectors. "I found metal in a junkyard and hammered it out on the back of an old frying pan", she stated during an interview with the Marin Independent Journal in 2005.[2]
She began making jewelry and selling it on the streets of San Francisco from tackle boxes. Some local stores began stocking her creations, and a businessman, Shashi Singapuri, took samples of her work to China. She went to China in 1971 and discovered cloisonné, a kind of enamel work, with which she designed paintings and had the designs made into earrings.
With Mr. Singapuri's financial backing manufacturing began. Burch went on to work on cast metals and wood, and to include spinoff products on paper, porcelain and fabric. In 1979 she split with Singapuri, and started Laurel Burch Inc. She was president and chief designer. In the 1990s she licensed her designs to a dozen or so companies that now make and distribute her creations worldwide.
Personal life
Burch's second marriage, to Jack Holton, also ended in divorce. Her third husband was Rick Sara.
She supported her mother through the last years of her life in a nursing home near Carmel California.
She died on September 13, 2007, aged 61, at her home in Novato, California from complications of osteopetrosis,[1] a rare and painful bone disease she had her entire life, suffering more than 100 bone fractures as a result. In addition to Rick Sara, she was survived by her daughter, Aarin; her son, Jay; and two granddaughters, Soffiya and Karly.[1]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 Douglas Martin, "Laurel Burch, Artist, Dies at 61", The New York Times, September 20, 2007. Retrieved 2013-05-11.
- ↑ Rourke, Mary (September 21, 2007). "Laurel Burch, 61; artist, jewelry maker whose work appeared in many forms". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 18 February 2014.