■1967
Alex gets kicked out of Rhode Island School of Design. The world was about to go through Cultural Revolution but they were not ready for Artist like him just yet.
He rode his motorcycle across the United States to San Francisco.
A childhood vacation across country was the beginning of Alex's fondness for the west.
Seeing the giant redwood trees left a great impression.
1968
Living in San Francisco during the days of the Fillmore, a famous live music venue showing Moby Grape, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and others with illustrations by graphic genius, Rick Griffin proved to be an art education in and of itself. Without the guidance of a formal art education, Alex continued his painting. He worked at bygone stores of the Hippie Haight: Wild Colors, Happy Jack and Middle Earth where the proprietors supported him as a painter and sold his earliest jewelry pieces. These pieces were carved of California Redwood bark and hand painted by Alex Streeter.
For special collectors, Alex has re-created 8 pieces of his earliest work. These pieces are hand painted by Alex Streeter in his Tucson Workshop depicting desert flower blossoms. If you are interested in owning one of these 8 pieces, they will be available in our webstore until they are sold out.
1970-71
Alex left San Francisco around 1969 and headed back east. He lived with jazz musicians in the upper west side of New York City and finally found his way downtown to Hells Hundred Acres, now known as Soho. He met with a gypsy family that were living in a storefront, and as they stirred the stew composed of food gathered in the neighborhood, they taught him about the neighborhood, and about selling, and he left with the keys to the storefront of 152 Prince Street.
The shop was not all jewelry in the beginning, he sold magic books and tarot decks. He created leather belts and charms and painted denim shirts. He also put his R.I.S.D. printmaking education to work and used an acid etching technique to create Tarot pendants. They sold quickly, and only 1 remains. Here is the Sun Tarot.
TECHNIQUES IN TWO DIMENSIONS
Another early technique was cutting sheets of metal and already made metal details. Many early rings were cut from Buffalo Nickels. The Head of the Indian would be cut out and soldered to a band.
Some of the earliest Jewelry Molds are of simple charms like these created by metal cutting them from 2 dimensional sheets of metal.