Patti Cadby Birch was born in 1923 in New York.   As a child Patti traveled and spent much of her time in Paris at school.  After completion of her schooling abroad, she returned to the United States and enrolled at the University of Virginia before losing focus and finding art.  She began working under David Rosen at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where she met and married Everett Birch in 1952. By then she introduced art to their family and became collectors opening a gallery of contemporary pieces.  Their love to travel sent them to Marrakech and eventually to St Thomas where she opened Circe Gallery in 1969.  Here she put together an art collection as well as a collection of jewelry that had become her passion.  She began with historical Persian jewels and made multiple trips to Iran and surrounding areas where she acquired ancient beads and jewelry.  With this jewelry she created new pieces that could be worn as fashionable artifacts.