Little Falls artist creates jewelry with intention

Marquart continued to make jewelry and other artwork after she graduated from college. Little did she know at the time that she would one day walk away from it. Doing hot work in her studio in the late 1980s, Marquart said the studio accidentally caught on fire while she was welding. “I was there, barefooted and welding on carpet. Back then, they didn’t teach you safety in college,” she said. After the studio burned down, having no insurance coverage to rebuild, Marquart decided to change careers. She chose the field of environmental sciences, working with hazardous materials, sick buildings and teaching Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) safety. Part of the job was also to clean up after acid spills and methamphetamine laboratory explosions, she said. Looking back, Marquart believes it was the fire at her studio that led her to ultimately choose a career in environmental sciences. That combined with the fact that safety wasn’t widely taught.