Jewelry

Cancer diagnosis leads Maine woman to running; inspires new jewelry line - WMTW Portland

Pauline Warg has spent more than three decades working as a jewelry maker, and her work is renowned around the world.

Diagnosed with breast cancer a little more than four years ago, Pauline said the disease left her physically and creatively depleted. 

So for strength she turned to running and training for 5K road races. 

It was during that training she developed the idea for her fArtlek line of jewelry.

"While I was learning to run, I had a program on my phone that showed me where I was running. I looked at them at one point and realized these are really cool designs," Warg said.

Warg uses maps of established races, such as marathons, along with bike and trail routes, transforming them into various pieces of jewelry, including earrings, belt buckles, pendants and bracelets. 

For many of her customers, they are personal remembrances of a meaningful event.

"The routes are serious personal achievements for a lot of people. People train for months, for years to do these events," Warg said.

Her work is meticulous. 

She can accurately carve a marathon course down to a single piece of two-inch jewelry.

The word fArtlek is Swedish for the term "speed play," a type of advanced physical training. 

Warg believes the work she put into running helped save her life and inspired her line of successful jewelry.
  
"That really rejuvenated me and revived me and gave me my creativity back," she said.