
Somers Randolph is a nationally recognized stone sculptor who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As a seven-year-old boy, he began carving under the watchful eye of his great uncle, Superior Court Judge Alfred Adams of Nashville, who was known as "the Whittling Judge" because he would hear cases while whittling on cedar sticks behind the bench.
"In the Tennessee mountains each summer, when I would run up and say hi to Uncle Alfred", remembers Randolph, "he would inevitably greet me with, "Son, let me see your pocketknife." He then rolled up his starched white sleeve and proceed to try to shave his arm with my knife. If it wasn’t sharp enough, he would say, "Son, go sharpen your pocket knife and then come talk with your Uncle Alfred." So, you see, a sharp pocket knife became my ticket to the company of the grandfather figure of my childhood. Uncle Alfred taught me how to sharpen my knife and how to whittle, and a great deal more besides." Randolph graduated from Princeton in 1979. Majoring in art history he studied sculpture with Tony Smith, Alice Aycock, Jim Huntington, and Bill Umbright and his thesis was a sculpture show. By 1984 his sculpture sales were paying his studio bills and he was able become a full-time artist. In 1998 he moved to Santa Fe to take advantage of the thriving art market.
Somers Randolph devoted his attention to silversmithing for the first year, then returned to his primary medium - carving a labaster and other soft stones into elegant abstract sculptures. Throughout the years, he developed the habit of keeping the pieces that split off the large stones while composing his sculptures. In leisure moments, he would take these stone fragments and whittle small, intricate, jewel-like carvings, digging so deeply along the grain that he exposed the final, pure essence of the stone. He began to amass a large volume of these delicate works of art, simply for his own delight.
Then the blade met the crucible. Into Randolph’s life walked the beautiful Hillary Fitzpatrick, fresh from a dozen years in the top echelons of the New York fashion and retail world. She was captivated by the tiny stone carvings, the large sculptures, and most of all, by the artist himself. Randolph is, as his wife describes him, "six feet seven inches of large, earthy man". As he whittles his miniature sculptures, his hands envelop both knife and soapstone. To see the elegant results dwarfed in his palms is magical.
When Fitzpatrick asked Randolph if she might wear one of his small pieces as a
pendant hung from a silken cord, he was most obliging. He remarked that they were very likely to break, which was not a problem since he had a twenty-year accumulation. He was constantly producing more, so he told her she was welcome to break as many as she liked. At that point Fitzpatrick revealed what she actually had in mind: she planned to cast them in solid sterling silver and gold. Within a year she had developed over fifty pendant designs and a series of bracelets and earrings. They created
Fitz & Fitz Jewelry - a handcrafted jewelry firm to showcase Randolph’s creations. The firm has swiftly gained momentum as museums, major department stores and galleries across the country join the growing number of Fitz & Fitz clientele.
The art of Somers Randolph has now come full circle, from carving stone down to its innate form, to casting it in precious metal, itself a product of the stone. The story of the handcrafted jewelry he has created with Fitzpatrick is as romantic as the way this dedicated artist and talented businesswoman found each other.