Our Story
It began with a challenge from a friend and fellow knitter. “Take this roll of fairy lights. Unleash your creativity and do something interesting with it,” she said. I couldn’t refuse a challenge so I grabbed my needles and knit the fairy lights into a rectangle. It looked an ugly mess of wires until I plugged it in. Light helped but it wasn't enough.
Like most knitters, I have a stash of gorgeous yarn just waiting for the right project. So, I pulled out the most beautiful skeins and began weaving yarn into the fairy light structure.
It was hard to work with the yarn with the piece attached to knitting needles. So I went outside and found a small branch that fell from an Aspen tree in our yard. I picked it up, dusted it off and slid the stitches from my needle onto the branch. It looked great. I added beads and a feather and plugged USB attached to the fairy lights into a power outlet. When lit up, the piece was so beautiful and unique, it took my breath away. That was how the first Mountain Aura was created​.
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I was hooked and began combing yarn shops for interesting fiber. Everything changed when I found and began using hand spun yarn made from wool, silk, ribbon and a huge variety repurposed fiber. Thrift shops are my favorite resource for finding unwanted jewelry that I deconstruct and use in Aura pendants.
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My name is Betsy Rich. I create each Mountain Aura in Evergreen, Colorado.
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