Carrie Adell

I must share with you the very sad news that my friend Carrie Adell died on Sunday, July 15. Carrie’s spirit will never leave us. She was the most vital person I have ever known. From the innocent days at Bennington and Rhinebeck to her last craft fair in Baltimore this year, Carrie was always working to reconcile her love of the earth with her excitement at working with metal. She exuded an excitement that continued through the three decades that I knew her; I am certain that was an essential part of her spirit for every one of her 69 years.

When the Rhinebeck Craft Fair moved to West Springfield, Mass., she did not. She told me, “I did not want those toxic fumes, the heat, the crowding; eight days in that barn would have killed me.” She was true to her own beliefs and never put her business above her love of nature and people.

When Carrie moved to Santa Fe after the death of her husband, she told me she was surprised that she already knew so many people. But I wasn’t surprised. Carrie created and nourished a vast network of friends on whom she would lavish her verbal chicken soup. I treasure the cards I received from her through the years as I treasured seeing her dance the tango at the Society of North American Goldsmiths conference she helped organize in Santa Fe.

I was fortunate enough to have Carrie with me on the last safari my partner, Jason, and I led in Kenya. She brought her energy and her artistry. While everyone else was busy clicking cameras, Carrie was calmly sketching everything she saw, making the experiences we had into her own, totally personal memories.

She wrote her own epitaph many years ago:

The earth speaks for itself.
We do not listen
Heeding our own greed, as though
We had another place
to be.

For information about the celebrations of her life that are
being planned, contact her daughter, Jo Adell, by e-mail:
jo@knot-working.com.