posted 06-22-2001 10:41 PM            

Does anyone have any other pieces by Mr. Hayes?

posted 02-16-2014 02:12 PM            

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HAYES Silver & Goldsmithing
Aspen, Colorado

When you have a Hayes Aspen leaf, you know that you belong: to Aspen, to Colorado, to Skiing, to the Rocky Mountains, to our eclectic Community, and to our local history.

Everybody who is Anybody in Aspen has a Hayes Aspen Leaf.

Most items are handmade, available in Sterling and gold.

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posted 02-16-2014 02:12 PM            

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[<gone from the internet> .hayessilver.com/jim_hayes.htm]
Jim Hayes arrived in Aspen, Colorado in 1949.

Rumor is that he came to Aspen for a ski vacation, spent all his money and was forced to stay.

Jim set up his first jewelry shop in a corner of the Golden Horn restaurant on the corner of Mill and Cooper Streets. He began creating Aspen Leaf designs in 1950.

Originally from Texas, Jim and his family moved around during the Great Depression to make ends meet. In 1937 he lied about his age and joined the Army; the Field Drawn Artillery. Jim witnessed when the Artillery was mechanized and the men had to shoot the horses.

When WWII began, Jim joined the Air Force. He was stationed in Boca Raton FL where he flew radar students out over the ocean.

One day they were out flying and a hurricane came up. The planes were called back to the base and told to circle the airfield. One by one they ran out of gas and had to try to land in the storm.

Several planes crashed and burned. Jim landed but slid off the runway. The Radar set fell and hit him in the back of the head, smashing his face against the controls. He was in a coma for four months. he had to learn to walk again. They rebuilt his face with plastic surgery.

After the War Jim went to college on the GI Bill and took many classes in Jewelry making. Eventually he moved to NYC and worked there in a jewelry manufacturing company.

He took up skiing and went on several trips to New England. He met Charlie Paterson who had a shack in Aspen and told him about the FIS coming in 1950. So Jim went to Aspen in December 1949 and stayed for the FIS.

When spring came he was broke and went to job-hunt in Denver. He was in a line to apply at the Molybdenum mine in Leadville.. but the men all said..."Get in this line; you'll make more money". they told him to say he could drive earthmovers.

Thus Jim Hayes wound up in Greenland for two summers building the Thule Airbase. He learned how to drive the big earthmovers in the hold of the ship on his way there. He became a local hero when he returned and paid all his bills in Aspen. The second summer he stopped in Detroit and bought himself a new Mercury which he drove back to Aspen in the autumn of 1952. During the winters he tested skiis for Head, and broke a pair a week.

In November 1952 he met Mary Eshbaugh, reporter and photo journalist at the Aspen Times newspaper. They were married April 18, 1953. Jim had a silversmith shop but there wasn't much business. He bought a truck and tractor from Fritz Benedict and started Jim Hayes Earthmoving. One day he woke up and said, "What are we doing! I'm an artist and you're a writer and all we do is haul dirt!" He sold the business in 1961 to an employee; Dick Stutsman and his friend Jerry Gerbaz, and went to Art school, studying with famed abstract artist Vance Kirkwood. Jim opened a shop in Denver and sold quite a bit of jewelry and paintings. Summers he worked for the Operating Engineers and drove heavy equipment. He drove earthmovers on the Reudi Dam project and building highways in California.

Jim and Mary had five children; Pauli, Elli, Lauri, Clayton, and Bates. In 1972 Mary went back to work full time as a reporter at the Aspen Times and Jim was able to return to being a silversmith year-round. He had several small shops around Aspen, but eventually settled into working out of his home studio on Bleeker Street.

By the 1980's Jim had established himself as a well-known local metalsmith, and his belt buckles rose in popularity. In 1982 he accepted his youngest daughter, (Jess) Bates, as an apprentice. They have worked together for twenty years and the business grew exponentially. Bates and her husband Steve Solomon supplied an additional shop space in Basalt CO until 2002.

In his 70's and 80'sJim became a favorite local character through his many activities and zest for life; He resumed his abstract painting. Many will remember his fleet of hopped-up Volkswagen bugs lining the curb on Bleeker St.. He became a horseman. He practiced gymnastics with the local kids and had a trapeze in the backyard. He was a singer. He loved dancing and was often seen at local charity balls flinging the women around the room.

A bit of a trouble maker in his youth, Jim earnestly worked toward being a more loving person throughout his old age, and is well-loved by many.

Jim passed away December 14, 2012, peacefully at his home on Bleeker St. in Aspen. He was 92 years old.

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posted 02-16-2014 02:12 PM            

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[<gone from the internet> .hayessilver.com/jess_bates.htm]
Jess Bates, Silver and Goldsmith
30 years making Hayes jewelry.

Bates is Jim's youngest daughter. She served a 6-year formal apprenticeship with him beginning in 1982. Together they have since produced the Hayes line, sharing different portions of the business at different times.

Bates worked at the Hayes Bleeker Street studio until 1988 when she was able to establish an additional workshop at her home in Basalt CO. She and her husband Steve Solomon maintained that workspace until 2000 when they moved to Seattle.

Her Basalt studio in the late '80s and '90s produced custom one-of-a kind designs and pieces for private and corporate clients, including the Subaru Aspen World Cup Skiing Trophies, City of Aspen Service Awards, Aspen Volunteer Fireman Awards, Aspen Valley Hospital Awards, Gentlemen of Aspen buckles, The Little Nell Hotel, the Hotel Jerome, Aspen Valley Ski Club, and the wholesale side of all Hayes Silver & Goldsmithing production, as well as many of the items sold at the Aspen studio.

During the '90s Bates also began oil painting, and enjoyed a successful creative streak in that medium. She has taught silversmithing, drawing and painting to students of all ages throughout the Roaring Fork Valley, and was active in many community roles in the Mid-Valley.

The Basalt studio was closed in 2000 in preparation for the family's move to Seattle.
"Certainly our 15 years in Basalt were very productive, but they also resulted in a high degree of burn-out. I had to go do something completely different for awhile".

Bates completed a degree in 3D digital modeling, texturing and animation at the Digipen Institute of Technology in Redmond, WA while her son Tamas Bates finished High School. She afterward worked as a Technical Artist, modeler, and texture artist in the Video Game Industry in and around Seattle WA.

Bates returned to the Aspen studio part-time in winter 2006 when Jim's eyesight began to fail, and would drop in every six months to catch up the orders.

Currently Bates resides in Glenwood Springs, CO and runs full operations at the Aspen studio.

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posted 02-16-2014 02:53 PM            

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[<gone from the internet> aspen.thescoutguide.com/hayes-silver-and-goldsmiths/]
Hayes Silver and Goldsmiths

Jim Hayes came to Aspen in 1949 for an FIS ski race and stayed. Prior, he had worked in the jewelry district in New York City. Upon moving to the mountains he discovered the local ranchers and skiers wanted handcrafted belt buckles. So, the second buckle Jim ever made, pictured below,signed, dated and with the #2 etched on the back, is the design he settled on. One year after moving to Aspen, in 1950, the iconic Hayes aspen leaf belt buckle was created.

Jim’s daughter, Jess Bates, apprenticed with him for 6 years before opening a shop in Basalt and ultimately buying the business outright in 2009.

Everything is done by hand. First, a coping saw is used to cut the sheet of metal.

Then the cutout is textured with hammers.

Engraved,

and filed while bending the piece to create it’s final shape.

Then, it’s soldered, filed again and then lastly, the finishing touches; buffering and polishing.

And one very interesting thing you may not know about Jess is that she is an extremely talented artist.

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posted 02-16-2014 03:53 PM            

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A new generation of Hayes silversmithing in Aspen

Photo Paul Conrad Aspen Times Weekly
Master silversmith Jess Bates of Aspen carfully positions an aspen leaf to the front of a belt buckle at her Bleeker Street shop. Bates is taking over the family business from her father Jim Hayes who has been in Aspen since 1949 making silver and gold jewelery.

Paul Conrad Aspen Times Weekly Master silversmith Jess Bates of Aspen carfully positions an aspen leaf to the front of a belt buckle at her Bleeker Street shop. Bates is taking over the family business from her father Jim Hayes who has been in Aspen since 1949 making silver and gold jewelery.

ASPEN " The tools have officially changed hands at Hayes Silver and Goldsmiths in Aspen.

Jim Hayes, who founded the business in 1949, has passed his hammers, chisels and files to his daughter, Jess Bates. Bates, an accomplished jeweler in her own right, has helped her dad off and on for years.

What's different this time is Jim's health. He turned 88 in November; he hasn't been able to produce his jewelry since June because of failing health, according to his wife, Mary Eshbaugh Hayes. Bates has helped Jim finish his work over the last two years. She needed to take over the business this year or it wouldn't have continued.

"I helped build the business. I'd like to see it keep going," Bates said from the Hayes studio in the family's longtime home, a classic Victorian house on East Bleeker Street. "If I don't do it, it won't keep going."

Bates' willingness to take on the business preserves one of Aspen's most enduring traditions from the post-World War II era. Jim created an iconic silver aspen leaf belt buckle that has turned into a "must-have" accessory for many Aspen residents and visitors.

Mary recalled that Jim met movie star Gary Cooper and skiing star Stein Eriksen during his first winter in town in 1949-'50 and made crude buckles for them. Jim opened his first shop that season in the Golden Horn restaurant and tweaked the design. "He kept working to get the lines just right," Mary said.

It was the perfect design: the silver representing Aspen's roots as a mining camp and the leaf from its namesake tree. The price of the buckle soon went from $20 to $30. Some folks around the tight-knit town thought Jim was dreaming.

"People used to say, 'That crazy Jim Hayes, he thinks he can get $30 for a belt buckle,'" Mary said. "Now they start at $1,000."

The popularity of the buckles soared in the 1950s and the demand has endured through Aspen's changing times. "Everybody wants the aspen leaf," Mary said. "He always was famous for them."

Bates said: "We've sold about 100 a year " for 60 years."

Silversmithing was always part of her life. Jim's business became so popular he didn't need to maintain a shop in the downtown core. People came to him, so he was able to set up shop in their home. "From the time I was an infant, he was over there making scratching noises" while working on the jewelry, said Bates, 46.

Bates started studying wood working after leaving Aspen in the 1980s. She eventually branched into working with other materials and a discovery was made.

"One day I said, 'I really like metal work. Gee, that's what my dad does,'" Bates said.

Jim's business was booming in 1982, so Bates came back to Aspen to work with him. The first attempt didn't turn out so well " father and daughter didn't mesh. Another attempt a short time later worked better and Bates apprenticed with Jim for six years.

Bates and her husband established their own shop at their Basalt residence in 1988, working with silver and gold. They handled all the large jobs for Hayes studio " like the aspen leaves that the Aspen Skiing Co. gave to employees to recognize an anniversary.

"We had more of a volume shop down there. Jim stayed up here and did custom orders," Bates said.

Bates moved to the Northwest, eventually divorced and started returning periodically to help her aging dad with orders when he was particularly busy, like before the holidays. Jim's workload dwindled starting in 2006 and he conceded last summer to Bates that she needed to carry the load. His silversmithing days were through.

The Hayes have always bought their metal from a small refinery in Virginia. Ironically, a son took over that business from his dad just as Bates took over the silversmithing from her dad.

Bates works with rolled metal sheets, cuts out the aspen leaves, uses wood chisels to create the veins and then uses high-temperature soldering to attach the leaf to the base of the buckle. The filing and buffing are done by hand.

The process is "very low tech," Bates said, but also "an exercise in perfection."

"It just takes a little bit of will power " and I have plenty of that," she said.

It takes one full day to produce the standard buckle and up to three days for a custom design.

Jim, and now Bates, also create other jewelry out of silver and gold, but the aspen leaf buckles have always been their signature piece.

Bates said nearly every customers has taken the passing of the torch in stride. "They're glad there's still a family connection," she said.

The Aspen fire department is one of the most loyal customers of the Hayes silversmiths. Bates worked with the late Stan Lauriski of the fire department years ago to design aspen leaf pins. They are awarded by the department when a volunteer reaches a special anniversary for years of service. They are awarded for anniversaries in increments of five years " such as five years, 10 years, etc.

Fire Chief Darryl Grob said awarding the pins is a time-honored tradition at the department. He said 13 were awarded to firefighters at the department's annual celebration Dec. 13.

"It's an icon of the community," he said of the silver aspen leaf. The department also presents a silver aspen leaf belt buckle to volunteers that reach 20 years of service.

Jim wasn't able to tackle the fire department's order a few years ago, so the department located a different silversmith in Carbondale, Grob said. The department was excited to get reconnected with Bates and Hayes studio for this year's order, he said.

The differences between Jim's buckles of any era and those created by Bates today are impossible for the average person to detect.

"I can look at a buckle and tell if I made it or Jim made it " place it in a context and time," Bates said.

Placing herself in context and time is a little more difficult. Bates said she hasn't lived in Aspen full time for 22 years. She is uncertain how long she will stick around and carry on the family tradition.

"It's a little surprising to me that I'm here," she said. Love of her family and a sense of obligation to her parents at a difficult time drew her back. "It's definitely the right thing for me to do right now," Bates said.

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