Meet the Face Behind Rusty Creek Designs

Hello all! 

I wanted to take a second to introduce myself to you all! I always enjoy getting to know the makers behind the wonderful products, so I thought you might too! 

My name is Liz Gould and I live in Johnstown, CO, with our rescued dog Piper and my Husband, Cody. Even though I am now a Greenie (as people from Wyoming call Coloradans), I was born and raised in Wyoming. I am a small town girl at heart, so living in Colorado was a culture shock for me at first.

I went to college at University of Wyoming and after changing my major 3 or 4 times, I finally graduated with a bachelor's degree in Family Sciences, with a concentration in Human Development and a minor in Psychology. You may be wondering, "what in the heck can you do with that degree?!" Let me tell you, I have not used it since getting it! While I was in college, I worked for a place called the Ark. Here, we worked with mentally handicapped adults to help them live the fullest lives they could. I wanted to become a life coach, but when they started cutting those roles due to lack of funding, I decided to look at other options. 

I was so close to graduating, I decided to keep my major and deal with my career choices later. I had no idea what I wanted to do. Around this time, I met Cody online. He lived in Loveland, CO and since I was in Laramie, WY, we were long distance for a total of almost 4 years. I started applying everywhere and anywhere in Colorado so I could be closer to Cody. I got a job offer from a company in Denver, and I took it! In all honesty, I had NO IDEA what they did, but I knew I would be somewhat closer to Cody, so I took it. It ended up being a staffing agency, where my career took off! Man, living in Denver was a completely different world than I was used to! Here is a fun fact - Wyoming has a total of 577,757 residents. Denver alone has 727,211, but including the suburbs has a total of 2,932,415 residents. To say in the least, I had complete culture shock. I grew up in a town with 5 stop lights, while there was one on almost every block in in Denver. 

I stayed in Denver for a year and a half before I moved to Northern Colorado to begin a new career! Now, 5 years later, I am a full time direct hire recruiter and a silversmith on the side! 

Cody and I got married in 2018 on Catalina Island, CA where we only had our 2 best friends join us. We could not have imagined a better day! We had never been to Catalina before and it literally took our breath away! Besides the fact my husband almost drowned the day after our wedding (a story for another time!), it was the best vacation we have ever been on.  

 In my family, I was always the musical one (10 years piano) and my sister was the artistic one. I never thought one day that I would become a silversmith. I was looking on Instagram at some beautiful work and I decided to looked up some videos on how to do it. I told my husband, "I am going to order all of the supplies for this! So if you could build me a bench, that would be great!".  He turned to me with a bewildered look and said, "Umm, Why? You have never spoken about this a day in your life!!".  And after many burns, late night, ruined pieces, here we are today. 

In my work, you may be wondering why I mainly use Turquoise and White Buffalo. When I decided to take the plunge, my mom was the one I wanted to create something beautiful for. She has always loved Turquoise, as have I, and so I wanted to base my business around it. I absolutely love the mountains in Wyoming - it has a different feeling than the mountains in Colorado. I think the main thing is that there is a fraction of the people who go to the mountains in Wyoming, versus Colorado it is a tourist attraction. My parents bought land in the mountains, which is what my business is named after. It is one of the most beautiful, most peaceful places I have ever been! I wanted to show my love for this in my work, which is why you see a lot of drift wood and mountain-type pictures. My mission is to bring my jewelry to you, to help you feel bold and beautiful every single time you wear a piece of jewelry! 

There is so much more I could bore you with, but here is my life story! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out! 

Love, 

Liz