The Story Of Eldsmiðr

My name is Chris Monsen, and for more than thirty years I have earned my living with my hands.

My story began far from a jewelry bench. I grew up on the shores of Lake Winnipeg, commercial fishing with my father out of Victoria Beach, Manitoba. During the off-season we built cabins together, and that's where I first learned that good craftsmanship comes from patience, hard work, and pride in doing a job properly.

In high school I studied machining, fascinated by precision and the way raw steel could be shaped into useful tools. Before I ever stepped into jewelry school, I was already carving bone, setting rough stones, and teaching myself to create with whatever materials I could find. I knew I wanted to understand the craft properly, so I enrolled in a three-year goldsmithing program.

While attending jewelry school in Winnipeg, I worked as a bench jeweler repairing and finishing jewelry for established retailers, including pieces destined for Maples and Peoples Jewellers. I also worked with Epsilon Creations, where I finished and stone-set sterling silver jewelry that was later sold through Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. It was an experience that taught me the precision, patience, and attention to detail expected of professional goldsmiths.

Over the years my path has never followed a straight line. I spent time tattooing professionally, welded and fabricated steel for the topiary displays at Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg, and built everything from hotels and truck stops to car dealerships, log homes, timber-frame buildings, and commercial projects across Canada—from near Montreal to the mountains of British Columbia.

Through every chapter of my life, one thing has remained constant: I have always been making something.

I've searched for gold in mountain streams, built my own tools, restored old equipment, learned blacksmithing, carved wood and bone, and spent countless hours at the jeweler's bench. Every skill I've learned has found its way into my work.

The name Eldsmidr comes from the Old Norse words for "fire" and "smith." My Norwegian and Icelandic heritage inspired the name, but the forge itself represents something much deeper. It reflects a lifetime of learning, creating, failing, improving, and refusing to stop making things with my own hands.

 Every piece that leaves my bench is designed and handcrafted one at a time .
I don't believe in mass production. I believe in honest craftsmanship, traditional techniques, and creating jewelry that can be worn every day and passed on for generations.
Today, my workshop sits in the Kootenay Mountains of British Columbia. Every ring, pendant, bracelet, and sculpture begins the same way—with raw metal, fire, and the belief that the things we make with care are the things that endure.

I don't chase perfection.

I chase craftsmanship.

Some pieces take hours. Others take days. A few have taken years to become what I first imagined. Every hammer mark, every file stroke, and every polished surface carries with it the lessons of a lifetime spent learning from wood, steel, stone, fire, and the people who taught me along the way.

I don't know where Eldsmidr will be ten years from now.

I hope there will be more tools. A larger forge. A busier bench. Maybe a young apprentice standing where I once stood, eager to learn.

What I do know is this:

As long as these hands are steady enough to hold a hammer... As long as a torch will light... As long as there is metal waiting to be shaped...

I'll still be here.

Still learning.

Still forging.

Still trying to create something worthy of being passed from one generation to the next.

Because in the end, the jewelry isn't what lasts.

The story does.

Thank you for taking the time to read mine.

Perhaps one day, I'll have the honour of helping tell yours.

I still work in construction, and I'm proud of that trade. But every chance I get, I return to the bench, because this is where I feel most at home. This is the work I've spent a lifetime preparing to do.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story.

I hope one day I'll have the privilege of crafting part of yours.

— Chris Monsen

Eldsmidr Artisan Works