Denyse describes her early years in the jewelry business as "boot camp." She spent two years on the road in a sales capacity, then settled down to business in New York City, primarily working with design, stone selection, model-makers, stone-setters, casters and engaging in high-level meetings. During the 1980s, Denyse's designs were featured in Tiffany catalogues and The New York Times. She was immersed in every aspect of the jewelry industry — even attending the international jewelry shows in Basel, Switzerland, and working directly with lay-out boards, examining more than 250,000 pearls for quality assurance purposes for the design "Pointelle"©Tiffany & Co. After commuting for 13 years to the City, she felt she had all the tools to work directly with her own clients. Denyse had the sources and resources to carry an assignment from inception to completion at the highest level. So in 1994, she took a leap of faith and started her own design business.

It's clear that Denyse followed her heart after raising her children and settling into a traditional 1950s life, when pursuing a career was not encouraged for women. In those days, she did volunteer work for groups like the Visiting Nurses and Multiple Sclerosis associations, and in the 1970s formed a cooperative with 12 other women known as the Gilliwrinkles. She made a large variety of items, such as handbags, hand-painted frames, skirts and shawls, and her creative juices were flowing. But it all didn't feel like enough, and she "wanted to sink her teeth into something more substantial." A chance meeting with the president of Tiffany foretold what the future would hold for her career path.

When Denyse ventured out on her own, she found she had time to enjoy some adventure in eco-tourism. She traveled far and wide to witness volcanos spewing fire in Costa Rica, to go on a safari in Kenya and to kayak the fjords in Alaska. She's enjoyed the total eclipse in the Galapagos and heli-hiked in the Canadian Rockies, where she met her husband, William Pugsley. In between adventures, she continued to build her jewelry design and consulting business.

Today, her business consists of all aspects from de-accession, appraisals and design creation to obtaining outstandingly fine gems at remarkably low prices by keeping overhead at a minimum and working on small margins. Over the past decades, she has found the best model-makers and stone-setters in the business, which enables Denyse to execute a piece of jewelry to the highest standards. Denyse claims that because of the number of steps involved in the creation of superlative jewelry, each person involved has to be top-notch. She initiates the process by creating a design, and it may be just a very commercial concept, such as "Etoile"©Tiffany & Co., rather than some fanciful design, which, though beautiful, might be expensive and of limited taste. She feels design always succeeds better if it is part of a collection, where it coordinates best with other similar pieces and holds greater commercial value. The model-maker executes Denyse's design in wax. When it meets her specifications, the wax goes into the caster and comes back to her as a silver model. After fine-tuning by filing, it's returned to the caster where rubber molds are made and used ultimately to make gold or platinum castings. When the castings are accomplished, they must be filed and pre-polished, the stones are set and all findings are soldered in place. Finally, the piece receives its final polish with buffers, brushes and jeweler's rouge, completing the finished product.