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Beth was attending a Nashville jewelry conference earlier in the year when some peers caught a glimpse of her latest work and insisted she enter the competition. Ms. McElhiney had avoided trade competitions in the past, but her colleagues wouldn’t take no for an answer. Upon their urging, she rushed the entry papers in just under the deadline. Due to a communications snafu, Ms. McElhiney didn’t know she’d even won the prize until two weeks before the awards dinner. After completely forgetting about the competition, she suddenly found herself toasted by the industry, feted with prize money and splashed in full-page promotional advertisements in trade magazines. “It was exciting to win something that big and get the press I got out of it. Then use it to jump back into the industry that way,” she says. “It’s been great since. I’ve been getting a lot of attention.” For Ms. McElhiney, the return to prominence in the field is an elliptical arc in her decades-long career. The Parsons School of Design and Fashion Institute of Technology graduate grew up on Long Island, where she displayed a talent for art and craft design from an early age. Her plans to earn a gymnastics scholarship to college and study physical therapy were derailed by a debilitating knee injury at a gymnastics meet her senior year. While she was recovering in the hospital, she received a visit that changed the trajectory of her life. “My high school art teacher saved my life,” she says in a matter-of-fact voice. This teacher, Eleanor Meier, came to the hospital with paints and brushes, set them in front of her, and said, “you can’t do anything else right now, so paint.” After 10 days in the hospital, Ms. McElhiney spent a year in a hip-to-ankle cast. For a lifelong athlete, the immobilization was torturous. Ms. Meier helped her discover a new outlet in painting. She also spoke to Ms. McElhiney’s parents and convinced them their daughter had genuine talent in art and should pursue it as a career. Ms. McElhiney’s mother feared at first that her daughter would join the ranks of starving artists. “Now she brags about me, ‘my daughter the jeweler,’” Ms. McElhiney laughs.
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When Island jeweler Beth McElhiney won the 2007 Saul Bell Award for the Silver Category for her intricate “Juliet” cuff bracelet, the accolade caught her off guard. The prestigious industry prize is named for the founder of the Rio Grande Jewelry Company and honors artists who push the envelope of contemporary jewelry design. Victory in the competition came about through serendipity for this Island artisan who shirks self-promotion.