Liz at her shop workbench working on a crown repair. (Photos for this article were provided by Liz Bucheit)
Profile: Liz Bucheit – Creating a Lifetime of Art
LANESBORO – Liz Bucheit is an award-winning jewelry designer and goldsmith. She’s also a main-street business owner who operates Crown Trout Jewelers in Lanesboro. This is where she puts her skills to work – and where her creativity comes to life!
Born in Decorah, Iowa, Bucheit (pronounced “boo-kite”) was drawn to fixing things as a little girl. Her family had Mayo Clinic ties, and she remembers visiting its museum where she was fascinated by exhibits on amputations and reconstructive surgery.
“Seeing how they could fix things that were damaged or broken was so interesting to me. That relates to what I do now when I repair vintage jewelry,” she says. “If I hadn’t become a jeweler, I’d probably be a surgeon!”
From concept to drawing. . .
. . . to finished piece.
Those interests and innate creative skills (“I was drawing by the time I could hold a pencil,” she says) sparked Liz’s career as a full-time jewelry artist.
After graduating from the University of Iowa with a Master of Fine Arts, Liz worked in Iowa, Minneapolis, New York, California, even Japan.
“By the time I was 20, I was running a store’s jewelry department. At some point artists usually decide what they really want to do — create, work in retail, do exhibitions or teach. I’ve been fortunate to do all of those things.”
Intricate design work creates one-of-a-kind artwork that also doubles at jewelry.
Opening Doors All On Her Own
“Nobody has ever opened a door for me!” she says with a laugh. “Sometimes you have to knock them down. I’m more likely to light a fire outside and kick it open.”
Liz’s success was early and impressive. One of her pieces was purchased by a member of the Rockefeller family; she appeared nationally on “Shop NBC”; and she even designed for musicians, including Prince and Cher.
Peacock eye pendant necklace with unique chain attachment.
By the mid-1990s, eager to start her own business, she made plans to return to the Midwest.
“I explored towns like Maidenhead, Pepin and Lake City,” she recalls, “but my mother loved antiquing in Lanesboro and encouraged me to look here.
“In 1995 I rented a small shop and opened Crown Trout Jewelers. In 2001 we purchased an historic building on the main street that currently houses our studio and living quarters.” Liz’s husband, Michael Seiler, is also a jeweler, as well as a marketing consultant.
Liz and her husband, Michael, in front of the Northern Lights.
Small Town Business, Big City Customers
Can a luxury-business survive in a (very) small town in southeast Minnesota?
“The major centers for jewelry design are certainly in New York, on the West coast, and in Chicago,” she says. “But we love living here! Michael and I can’t beat our commute, a major airport is only two hours away, and culture-fixes in the Twin Cities, Madison, and other spots are close at hand. Today’s internet and social media make people and markets accessible worldwide.”
Liz in her traditionally-adorned Norwegian bunad.
Returning to southeastern Minnesota also positioned Liz to explore new artistic avenues, including one very close to home.
“My dad is German. My mom is Norwegian. Very Norwegian!” she says. “We grew up with traditional Norwegian holidays, foods, and folklore, but I hadn’t yet considered exploring that artistically.
“My mom pointed out the rich artistic history of Scandinavian culture. We’d gone to the Vesterheim Museum in Decorah as kids. I remembered a room filled with beautifully-crafted silver wedding crowns that were really cool. I found myself drawn more and more to that.”
Liz’s fascination with Norwegian wedding crowns has led her to creating her own.
A Norwegian wedding crown.
A grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council to create a wedding crown herself was an early inspiration. So was traveling to Norway (she’s been there six times) and Ireland to learn from and network with local artists.
Soon she was designing and producing Scandinavian filigree and body adornments. To say she excelled at it is an understatement.
Her exhibit entitled “Hands of the Huldra,” based on the myth of secretive forest creatures popular in Scandinavian culture, was displayed last March at Duluth’s Nordic Center.
In 2021 she received a fellowship from the American-Scandinavian Foundation to research the history and culture of “Sami” silverwork produced by the indigenous nomadic “reindeer people” of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. She also began teaching about her work at places like Decorah’s Vesterheim Museum, the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, and at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais.
Meeting a reindeer in northern Norway while doing research on “Sami” silverwork produced by the indigenous nomadic “reindeer people” of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.
On Becoming And Being An Artist
The story of Liz Bucheit and Crown Trout Jewelers is one of early encouragement, creative skill, good mentors, vision, hard work and persistence. Her business name, in fact, honors Norwegian crowns, as well as her dad and brothers fishing for trout – a special fish in Scandinavian lore – in the Root River that flows outside her shop’s back door.
Delicate filigree work creates a silver maple leaf.
“I was groomed to be an artist, it seems,” she says. “My parents encouraged us and exposed us to good art early. When we lived near Washington D.C., for example, they took us to museums where I saw the Mona Lisa.
“I’m also thankful for wonderful teachers and mentors.” she says. “My advice to a young artist today is find your ‘tribe’ and learn all you can!”
Repairing jewelry is a major component of Liz’s design work.
While comfortably settled in her Lanesboro business and studio (“working at my bench with music playing in the background is my happy place”), Liz Bucheit is far from resting on any laurels. In coming years, she plans to continue producing and sharing quality pieces and finding new ways to pass along her craft to others.
“I love teaching and hope to do that closer to home, too. My classes on Sami-inspired bracelets at Sylvan Brewery in Lanesboro sold out last winter and were lots of fun.”
2025 will culminate in her first solo exhibition just down the street at Lanesboro Arts. “I’m very excited about that,” she says. “It feels like I’m coming home.”
Liz gives a demonstration to eager students in how she creates her pieces. (Photo by provided by Liz Bucheit)
For a little girl who just wanted to fix things, to building a successful full-time career as an artist known internationally for extraordinary work, Liz Bucheit’s journey has spanned decades and cultures. She’s doing what she loves. But she has deeper motivations, too.
“The arts are incredibly important,” she says. “That goes beyond just creating things, like making jewelry or doing a painting. It involves learning how to think creatively. It means discovering different ways to handle problems and challenges.
“I believe it’s part of my charge as an artist to share that with people in ways that connect and make a real difference.”
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To learn more about Liz Bucheit, her art and Crown Trout Jewelers (located at 107 Parkway Avenue in Lanesboro, open by appointment only), visit crowntroutonline.com or call (507) 467-3078. Information about Michael Seiler’s marketing agency, Eye Prize Marketing, is at eyeprizemarketing.com.
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Contributor
Steve Harris is a freelance writer and author of two books, “Lanesboro, Minnesota” and “Dads Like Us.” He can be reached at sharris1962@msn.com.
Root River Current’s coverage of the arts is made possible, in part, by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund.
