Susan H. Maxon was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona where she was exposed to the art of silversmithing at the tender age of 4 years. She grew up across the street from well-known Arizona silversmith Gran Minor. At that time, Mr. Minor was contracted to teach the fading art of silversmithing to the young men of the Navajo Tribe. Every six months a young Navajo apprentice would move into the Minor home and study with Gran. As a very small child, Susan would visit every day to learn and to watch what was going on in the studio. She could barely see over the side of the bench but she could see enough.
When she returned home from these visits, she would sit at her little table in her room and, instead of having tea parties with her dolls, she would hammer out little bracelets and rings from the wind off strips of metal that once came off of cans of Planters Peanuts. She used a tiny handmade metal hammer that had been made for her father when he was a child.