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Esmeralda
hails from a small town called Silverlake, which is nestled
in the mountains of the Angeles National Forest in
California. Esmeralda's father had a woodworking shop where
he made custom rifle stocks, as well as a variety of other
wooden crafted items. About 15 years ago, as a gift for a
friend, Esmeralda crafted her first set of wooden grips for
a Colt 45 Government pistol. Before long, numerous friends
wanted more grips made. |
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Taking a break from sourcing
cocobolo.
Photo taken at the Esteli
waterfall, NW Nicaragua, March 2002. |
Esmeralda's father is Irish and her mother is
Aymara Indian, and she credits this background for her
lively and hi-spirited nature,
"being young and adventurous, I always wanted to travel &
see places. I ended up trekking through the rain forests of
Central & South America, eventually living for 7 years in
Costa Rica and Nicaragua." In those countries
Esmeralda worked with many artisans of considerable talent,
carving traditional art forms from a variety of exotic wood
species. She consulted for several years for a prestigious
US firearms company in Costa Rica, training their employees
in hand crafting grips and checkering techniques.
Says Esmeralda...."the
secret to beautiful looking wood grips is to be able to
select the absolute best specimens of raw logs........which
is near impossible unless you are prepared to travel to the
native source area where the species grows."
Esmeralda travels frequently from the USA to Central
America, where most of her time is spent choosing the most
select exotic wood in the rain forest. To obtain the
highest figure and most spectacular colors, she selects the
top 2% of the harvested logs.........."that
means I reject 98% of the wood I inspect!, it's a
painstaking task." |
