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In 1968 Coast Gallery owner Gary Koeppel resigned as an English professor in Oregon, moved to California and became a candle maker in Malibu. He developed a new kind of sculptured sand cast candle and began selling them in large craft shows in the streets of Los Angeles.
He soon developed a studio with helpers and joined a small group of artists who toured malls throughout California where he sculpted the raw sand castings into functional wax sculptures. He participated in the first Renaissance Pleasure Faire and became one of a growing number of American Craftsmen who were earning a living with their hands.
The American Crafts Renaissance exploded in the 1960's and 1970's. Young people were exploring new lifestyles and new ways of earning a living.
While performing his newly developed unique craft at art shows throughout California, Koeppel also wholesaled his unique candles to galleries in Malibu and Big Sur. He was invited to special shows in Disneyland and Universal Studios where he sculpted his sand cast candles in front of huge crowds.
In 1971, with his livelihood in his own hands, the now accomplished American craftsman purchased the Coast Gallery in Big Sur and settled into his home, studio and business on Highway One where thousands of annual visitors passed through and collected his work.
The next year his innovative candles were discovered by the publisher of Chilton Book Company and Koeppel was asked to write a book about how to make the new type of candle he had developed. The publication of "Sculptured Sandcast Candles" established him as one of the influences of the American Crafts Renaissance.
As a professional 'master' crafts person and a new gallery owner, Koeppel was knowledgeable about both sides of the crafts gallery business. He personally selected all of the American Crafts represented in his gallery. He weeded out lesser crafts and selected only what he coined as "MasterCrafts".
He curated MasterCrafts based on the quality of their workmanship, uniqueness of design and honesty in pricing. By selecting only those functional, utilitarian crafts that met these criteria, and ignoring those works in craft media that were not functional, over-worked, over-priced, Koeppel built the Coast Gallery in Big Sur to be one of the largest galleries of American Crafts in the United States.
Now representing the functional work of over 250 American MasterCraftsmen, Koeppel's Coast Galleries in Big Sur, Carmel, Pebble Beach and Hana, Maui contain some of the best master-crafted work in America today.
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