Wright Auction

Elsa Freund was born in Missouri in 1912 and spent the majority of her life as a school teacher. She began creating jewelry in the 1940s, when she and her husband, a painter, opened a summer art camp in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. As a self-taught jeweler, she relied upon wrapping metal wire, rather than welding, to create airy, graceful pieces. With a background in ceramics, Freund also took an experimental approach to incorporating colorful stones and beads, which were usually of her own invention, by way of firing broken, antique bits of glass and tile that she collected. In 1949 she and her husband moved to Florida for artist residency positions at Stetson College, giving Freund more time to refine her unique approach to materials. Freund passed away in Little Rock, Arkansas in 2001.