Podcasts about metalsmithing

This week, I sit down with Michael Studebaker of Studebaker Metals. ⚒️ - Eleven years ago, Michael started crafting jewelry in his parents' basement with little more than a few rusty tools, a dream, and a lot of ambition. - His journey began after earning a BFA in Metalsmithing and spending several years working in museums in Philadelphia. Through a series of events, Michael found himself back in Pittsburgh, taking on odd jobs while trying to figure out his next move. As a traditionally trained metalsmith, he saw an opportunity to create affordable, hand-forged jewelry. After meeting his partner, Alyssa Catalano, a fashion marketing expert, they combined their talents to build the successful brand that Studebaker Metals is today. - Now, at their new workshop and showroom on Smallman St in the Strip District, Michael, Alyssa, and their team continue to grow the Studebaker name, creating high-quality, hand-forged pieces made from the best materials available. Thanks for listening! - Yinz can SUBSCRIBE & WATCH here! - Become a "friend" on Patreon and support the show

Metalsmithing and applied design with John Rais. Thank you, John, for speaking with us.  Be sure to explore his wonderful work at:   https://www.johnraisstudios.com

Michelle Pajak Reynolds quite literally began creating jewelry as a young girl, inspired by the tiara and cuff bracelets she saw Linda Carter wear while playing Wonder Woman. She carried that passion through high school, eventually earning a BFA in Jewelry/Metals from Kent State and an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Baldwin-Wallace University.We cover a lot of ground in this interview, including the time and thoughtfulness Michelle pours into each collection. She meticulously researches her inspirations, documents her process, and carefully sources ethically mined stones. You can truly hear her passion for her craft as she shares this journey.We also dive into resources and information about ethically mined gemstones and metals—something Michelle has spent years researching. She emphasizes the importance of pricing your work for long-term sustainability and truly understanding your value as a craftsperson. We talk about her experience at NY Fashion Week, the rewards of nurturing strong client relationships, the challenges of balancing motherhood and family life with running a business, and so much more.Follow Michelle...Instagram: @michellepajakreynoldsWebsite: michellepajakreynolds.comLove the Podcast?Support an episode: Click here to learn more!Without your support I couldn't continue the Slowmade Podcast. Thank you so much!

Laura Jane Bouton is one of the metalsmith's I've had the pleasure of being in community with for some time now, but there was so much I really didn't know about Laura. I was simply thrilled when she agreed to share some time with me for a long overdue conversation. Laura's mother was a metalsmith and her son studied goldsmithing while they lived abroad in Italy, but it wasn't until she could feel her life as she knew it heading in a different direction that she began exploring the craft. Feeling empowered by the jewelry she was creating, she took a leap to create a business and life that she could be in control of. Laura and I talk about our shared love and emotional connection of creating one of a kind pieces and the personal fulfillment that comes from building a business in the arts. Laura shares how she navigates selling on Etsy as well as Shopify, why she loves teaching others, the unique challenges and rewards of being a self-taught artist, and of course so much more.  Follow Laura... Instagram: @lbouton018 Website: www.ljbjewelryshop.com Etsy: www.ljbjewelry.etsy.com If you are enjoying this podcast consider sharing an episode with a friend or give a one time donation. If you would love to be a part of the conversation please join us in the Slowmade Collective. Visit www.slowmadepodcast.com to learn more! Thank you so much!

In the 79th episode of Perceived Value, host Sarah Rachel Brown takes listeners to the Penland School of Craft, where she's participating in their Winter Residency. During the two-week residency, Sarah never missed an opportunity to enjoy a meal in the dining hall. The Pines, the Penland dining hall, has large, round tables perfect for gathering and enabling conversations over meals. Each meal is an opportunity to sit next to a stranger and potentially meet a new friend - or podcast guest.After enjoying a few meals and conversations, Sarah asked Zahra Almajidi if she would be willing to come on the podcast. The two metalsmiths sat down to discuss Zahra's upbringing and why her family immigrated to the United States, the benefits of living with your parents while going to college, and if it's possible to appropriate a culture that is your own while living in the diaspora.Speaking of Penland….Western North Carolina was devastated by Hurricane Helene. This area is home to the Penland School of Craft and many artists and craftspersons. If you are able, please consider donating to one of the following organizations or platforms providing aid and relief in the area. TREATS STUDIOS: This network aims to connect affected artists and arts organizations with individuals who want to support them.Beloved Asheville: Backed by your support, BeLoved Asheville is dedicating every resource to those most affected by this disaster. Our immediate focus has been on critical necessities like food, water, and healthcare for survival and stability. As winter looms, we are securing warm and safe housing for the displaced. Looking further ahead, recovery from the vast destruction will be a large-scale investment over several years. We believe that we can unite to rebuild a community that embodies home, health, equity, and opportunity for all. OUR GUESTZahra Almajidi is a visual artist and metalsmith raised and based in Detroit, MI. Utilizing both traditional metalsmithing techniques and CAD/CAM processes, her work explores the ways in which objects and adornment allow displaced people to continue to uphold and practice their craft traditions while living in the diaspora.She has worked at several art fabrication spaces in Metro Detroit including Wayne State University where she received her BFA in Metalsmithing, Lawrence Technological University where she briefly served as shop co-manager, and Cranbrook Academy of Art where she received her MFA in Metalsmithing and was awarded the Cranbrook Art Director's fellowship and the Director's Award.She has taken part in the 2021 Incubator Residency program at Talking Dolls Detroit, the Artist + Residents Program at the Arab American National Museum in 2021, and the Winter Residency program at Penland School of Craft in 2024. She's also dedicated to maintaining an active studio practice, and regularly exhibits work. She is currently the Central Materials Lab Coordinator at Cranbrook Academy of Art as well as anadjunct instructor at Wayne State University.Follow: @z.alm.aRATE AND REVIEW US ON APPLE PODCASTS OR WHEREVER YOU LISTEN!SUPPORT PERCEIVED VALUE!www.patreon.com/perceivedvaluewww.perceivedvaluepodcast.com/how-to-support-donate/FOLLOW:Instagram + Facebook: @perceivedvalueInstagram: @sarahrachelbrownThe music you hear on Perceived Value is by the Seattle group Song Sparrow Research.All You Need to Know off of their album Sympathetic Buzz.Find them on Spotify!

Jennifer Lisa is known to many by her business name Quench Metalworks. Born and raised in Maine, Jennifer received her BFA in Jewelry and Metalsmithing from the Rhode Island School of Design. Handcrafted in sterling silver and unique gemstones, her jewelry collections are ever-evolving and draw inspiration from the balance of linear elements and organic shapes. Jennifer took a leap of faith and opened a brick and mortar following a dream she had. During our conversation she shares the ups and downs with owning your own shop and how she was making a move to new location when covid hit leaving her with two places to pay rent on until her lease had ended on the original shop. It was at this time, she began pivoting and working on building her IG in order to reach a new audience… and how she is now finding it necessary to explore other options to reach collectors as IG continues to change.  We talk about this and much more including balancing creativity and productivity, the importance of  having a community to lean on, teaching, and we nerd out a little bit on our favorite things… stones.  Follow Jennifer: Instagram: @quenchmetalworks Website: quenchmetalworks.com Want to continue these important conversations with a mutually supportive and diverse community of jewelry artists? Then please consider joining us in the ⁠Slowmade Collective⁠. It's the best place I know online that can support you and your desire to create a sustainable business that feeds your life.

In this episode of Heart & Hands of a Maker, jewelry expert and business owner Kierston Aiello shares her creative journey and how community, authenticity, and collaboration shaped her success. Kierston opens up about the challenges of entrepreneurship, the importance of finding your niche, and her exciting plans for her new foundry. Tune in for inspiring insights on following your heart and surrounding yourself with supportive, like-minded people. A little about Kierston:  Born and raised in sunny California, Kierston Aiello is a metalsmith and designer with a passion for American craft. While getting her B.A. in Art History at Humboldt State University, she unexpectedly fell in love with Metalsmithing and Jewelry. She has spent the last 12 years working in the Jewelry and Art trades, serving for the last 4 years as the designer and head of Product Development for a well-known manufacturer for the DIY trade. Kierston is now in the process of opening a new business, an artisan pewter foundry and artist collective in Sonoma County. A craft enthusiast to the core, Kierston's hobbies include collecting more hobbies, hoarding shiny things, going to the library, and making an obscene amount of messes.

In the 77th episode of Perceived Value, host Sarah Rachel Brown is at the Penland School of Craft during their Winter Residency this past January. Sarah was awarded the Andrew Glasgow Residency, which provides emerging and established writers, scholars, curators, and storytellers in all mediums with the freedom to write stories and conduct research and interviews on topics designed to advance the field of craft. Sarah took advantage of being surrounded by artists from all over the country and recorded 13 interviews in total. Sarah was delighted to learn that her friend Adam Grinovich had been awarded a winter residency so the two made a plan to connect while their paths crossed at Penland. At the time of this recording, Adam and his wife, Annika Pettersson, who is also a jeweler, were preparing to move to Penland in a few months to begin a one-year residency. The two jewelers sat down to discuss why Adam chose to transition out of his full-time teaching position at SCAD Savannah, how he navigated the logistics of living and studying abroad, and what he hopes his time as a Penland Resident Artist will bring.OUR GUESTAdam Grinovich was born in Boston Massachusetts USA and received his BFA from Massachusetts College of Art in the Jewelry and Metalsmithing program. After working in the CAD/CAM industry for 2 years he continued his studies, receiving an MFA in jewelry from Konstfack University in Stockholm Sweden studying under professors Ruudt Peters and Karen Pontoppidan.Grinovich's career in jewelry is punctuated by travel and exchange. He has assisted in the studios of prominent artists and designers such as Christoph Zellwegger in Zurich, Switzerland and Ted Noten in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He has an extensive list of international exhibitions and inclusion in private and public collections.In addition to his independent studio career Grinovich is a founding member of the experimental jewelry collective A5 , a member of the design collective Critical +.The work of Adam Grinovich deals with the themes of glamour, worth, value, technology, and adornment. His work crystalizes moments into microcosms, investigates the sublime qualities of craft, and collects simple gestures into complex expressions.In addition to craft, art, and design, Grinovich is an educator, working for 5 years as a Professor of Jewelry at Savannah College of Art and Design. Currently he is a resident artist at the Penland School of Crafts in NC, USA.IG: @adamgrinovichhttp://www.adamgrinovich.com/YOUR HOST@sarahrachelbrown@perceivedvalueDon't forget to Rate AND Review us on iTunes!SUPPORT PERCEIVED VALUE!www.patreon.com/perceivedvaluewww.perceivedvaluepodcast.com/how-to-support-donate/Want a chance on the mic? Visit our events page at www.perceivevaluepodcast.com/events to find out when Perceive Value Podcast will be in your area! Instagram + Facebook: @perceivedvalueFind your Host:sarahrachelbrown.comInstagram: @sarahrachelbrownThe music you hear on Perceived Value is by the Seattle group Song Sparrow Research.All You Need to Know off of their album Sympathetic Buzz.Find them on Spotify!

Your boy, JBarber, has been teaching at the Penland School of Craft and now we're back with new Studio Noize! We found David Harper Clemons in a weaving cabin making broaches, print, sculptures and drawings. David is also the HBCU tour coordinator for Penland. We talk about the HBCU tours and how to get more diversity into artist communities. David talks about his curiosity with materials in making his functional and wearable art, the value of Black narratives in objects and what you need to be a great metalsmith. Listen, subscribe, and share!Episode 185 topics include:gettting into metalsHBCU tour at Penland School of Craftbringing diversity to Penlandmetalsmithing vs jewelrythe attention to detailtop 3 skills of a metalsmithcuriosity for materialsBlack narratives in objectsimportance of surfaces and touchDavid was born in El Paso, Texas and spent much of his life in Austin, Texas. Initially he began his undergraduate career attending Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, pursuing a degree program for Biology Art. He attended the program for two years before returning to Austin to complete his BFA at the University of Texas in Austin, with a primary emphasis in painting. He earned his MFA in Metalsmithing in 2007 from San Diego State University. David taught in the art department at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, Arkansas for 10 years. During 8 of those years he was responsible for creating and heading the Metalsmithing and Jewelry Department. In 2018 he relocated to Penland, North Carolina to dedicate his time to be an independent artist and workshop instructor. Much of his work embraces the craft of Metalsmithing and it's collected history of techniques and objects. The resulting works rendered in metal, mixed media, and hand made artist books are vehicles to communicate ideas surrounding identity, narrative, and forays into material and process-based work. He has exhibited in numerous exhibitions including: Craft in America: Expanding Traditions, Different Tempers: Jewelry & Blacksmithing, RE/ACTIONS, and has work in the permanent collection of the Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock, National Ornamental Metal Museum. Yale Contemporary Craft Museum, Ollie Trout Collection at the University of Texas in Austin. See more: David Harper Clemons' website + David Harper Clemons' IG @harperclemons Follow us:StudioNoizePodcast.comIG: @studionoizepodcastJamaal Barber: @JBarberStudioSupport the podcast www.patreon.com/studionoizepodcast

Have you ever wondered how some makers seem to be able to do it all so damn well? They single handedly run what appears to be busy and successful businesses while creating high volumes of work, that their fans snatch up as soon as the pieces becomes available. They have a large, engaged Instagram following… and why wouldn't they? They even do Instagram so well… consistently sharing their work, their lives, and their loves in the most authentic way that leaves you simply wanting more of everything they have to give. Laura Niblack, aka The Wild Pine, is simply one of those artists that I look at in wonder and today I get to sit down with her and ask how in the heck does she do it all? Believe I have questions. Laura discusses the importance of batch work, what helps her move through challenging times, and the marriage of her love of nature and as her experience as a wilderness guide with all the beauty she creates.  If for some reason you don't know Laura, be sure to head over to her Instagram. But give yourself some time because I know you won't want to leave.  About Laura... Laura creates jewelry inspired by the vibrant, colorful landscapes of the backcountry, shaped by her own experiences of finding adventure and solace in the flora and fauna of the wilderness. She uses recycled silver, incorporating colorful stones that have been curated with intention from all over the world. She has a particular affinity for turquoise mined in the U.S.- vibrant and natural, straight from the earth and into your hands. Laura has purposely chosen to utilize traditional methods of metalsmithing: using simple tools and a torch to craft jewelry. This gives each piece a rustic feel, boldly showing the evidence of her own two human hands that have lovingly created a piece of art just for you. Each is one-of-a-kind and unable to be perfectly replicated again. Laura's hope is that her jewelry will become treasured heirlooms, serving as small reminders of the awe-inspiring beauty of our natural world.  Follow along with all of Laura's adventures and see her creations: Instagram: @thewildpine Website: thewildpine.com If this podcast means something to you and you would like to support it, please take a a moment to give it a few kinds word with a written review on your favorite podcast listening platform. This helps me share the podcast with others. You can also share a favorite episode or consider joining our Slowmade Podcast Patreon community. You support literally makes this podcast possible. Thank you so much! You can follow along or reach out to Christine on Instagram: @christinemighion or send her an email at: info@christinemighion.com  

I don't know about you but one of the things I have really enjoyed in talking with other jewelry artists is hearing their journeys of how they found themselves bitten by the jewelry bug. For some, it began with early memories of dress up or rooting through a loved one's collection of jewelry. For others, a series of event brought them unexpectedly to metal but the love for the craft was immediate. I love a good story and a good story teller, and Alix Bluh delivers as you will hear. I connected to Alix's work immediately. We share a love for symbols, patina, texture, and stone, but Alix takes it to another level. And I not only admire her work, but after this conversation I admire her ability to flow and pivot during difficult times to build something even better than she could have envisioned otherwise. Her San Francisco brick and mortar, Modern Relics is a testament to this. I honestly can't wait to visit the next time I'm in the Bay Area. About Alix Bluh... Alix Bluh was introduced to the silver studio at a summer camp in Maine at the age of 12 and that experienced sparked a life long love of creating. Alix moved to San Francisco at the age of 28 where she joined the Sharon Art Studio, a beautiful Victorian stone building in the Golden Gate Park. This is where she began her metalsmithing journey and fell in love with working in sterling silver and gold. After 5 years of practicing her craft and refining her artistic voice in the medium she launched her line. Modern Relics, was born in1999. In 2007 Alix opened her gallery and new studio space, Modern Relics in the Richmond District of San Francisco and hasn't looked back. You can find Alix on Instagram at: @alixbluh or @modernrelicssf   If this podcast means something to you and you would like to support it, please take a a moment to give it a few kinds word with a written review on your favorite podcast listening platform. This helps me share the podcast with others. You can also share a favorite episode or consider joining our Slowmade Podcast Patreon community. You support literally makes this podcast possible. Thank you so much! You can follow along or reach out to Christine on Instagram: @christinemighion or send her an email at: info@christinemighion.com      

You know when I think back to my early days of making jewelry, I could give you the names of two people in particular I followed and admired. Jess Cote would be one of the two, though for years I only knew her by her business name, Rosy Revolver. Even in her early years, she had a signature style that clearly defined her brand. I've really enjoyed following Jess over the years. Her work is ever evolving, yet distinctively displays her finger prints as the artist. When I think of her workin recent years, I see layers of metal punctuated with color and detail. And when it comes to those little details, I distinctively remember when she introduced a series with hundreds of small silver dots and circle. I humbly bow to her patience and dedication to exploring her craft. She has far more patience than I ever will. And I think it's this love of detail combined with her signature style and superb execution that has pulled in so many loyal fans. I've quietly admired Jess from the sidelines, and I was even a bit nervous to reach out to her to see if she would be interested in coming on Slowmade. I was so thrilled when she agreed to sit down with me for a chat that I'm sure I let out a squeal. During our conversation you'll hear Jess talk about the importance of self examination in understanding her “why” and she is keenly aware of how her past continues to inform her artistic vision. She also talks about the importance of leaning into your why and showing up on the days you can't find inspiration. Jess has a lot on her plate most days. She is a busy mama, animal wrangler, artist, course creator, and all around magical one woman show. You'll here her talk about the challenges of keeping it together when you're doing all of things. I know you're going to have some good things to chew on after listening to this conversation. I'm still digesting. Jess wanted to share information regarding a scholarship opportunity for Heart of the Maker. Click here to view a recent video about the HOTM scholarship and here to go to the form where you can nominate a fellow maker for the scholarship for the Summer 2024 cohort. About Jess... Jessica Jordan Coté is a southern metalsmith from Fuquay Varina, North Carolina.  Largely self-taught in the realm of metal fabrication, she has been smithing full time since 2008 and teaching around the country since 2012.  Jessica is the lone figure behind the brand Rosy Revolver, an unflinching line of feminine statement jewelry.  She is a wife, mother, animal enthusiast and lover of all things vintage. Instagram: @rosyrevolver Website: rosyrevolver.com If this podcast means something to you and you would like to support it, please take a a moment to give it a few kinds word with a written review on your favorite podcast listening platform. This helps me share the podcast with others. You can also share a favorite episode or consider joining our Slowmade Podcast Patreon community. You support literally makes this podcast possible. Thank you so much! You can follow along or reach out to Christine on Instagram: @christinemighion or send her an email at: info@christinemighion.com    

I just wanted to bring you an extra mini episode each week on Monday's to give you little something to think about as you start your week off. I want to dive a little deeper into some of the challenges we face as makers and give you some encouragement. And really this is as much for as it is for you.  The "Big I" is definitely not as fun as the "Big O", right? And can I just tell you that I was noticing that impostery feeling welling up inside of me as I was getting ready to publish this episode.  I'm not an expert, but I do have some time on my side and maybe a little crone wisdom. I hope as you listen to this, you will think of me more like a friend and know that this is what I would share with you if we were sitting together talking about this very thing.  If you found this minisode helpful, would you please share it with someone you think might need to hear this too, or post it on Instagram and tag me @christinemighion because I always love reposting.

I will forever be grateful to my sister-in-law, Sandra, who came over every Tuesday without fail to cook dinner and watch our children so I could attend an evening metalsmithing course at our local museum. This opportunity allowed me to not only have some time to myself as my husband was working long hours, but she gave me the gift of being able to follow my dreams of becoming an artist. And a couple years later, it  was this gift that helped me through my grief and anxiety over her sudden death.  My craft has blessed me in so many ways and I'm so grateful for the wonderful jewelry artists I have come to know. This craft and these relationship continues to ground and calm me, and when I have felt deep sadness and uncertainty it has held me. My conversation with Cara Wolff was one that brought me right back to my heart and the gratitude I have for my sister-in-law and for this craft.  Cara began making jewelry full-time in 2018, after the tragedy of losing her sister to cancer and her mother's new cancer diagnosis shifted the lens through which she saw her life and purpose. She left her 20-year career as a Wildlife Biologist and transformed her pain into healing when she opened her small storefront and studio in southern Vermont. Though she came to her career as a jewelry maker later in life, Cara had been fascinated with jewelry and gemstones since she was a child and has made jewelry as a hobby since her high school years. Cara creates unique and sacred adornment from the Earth's finest gifts – all her jewelry is hand fabricated in silver and gold and often features show-stopping gemstones and reclaimed materials. She is inspired every day by the beauty of the natural world and the enduring spirit of her beloved sister, Melinda. Instagram: @carawolffjewelry   Website: carawolff.com   If this podcast means something to you and you would like to support it, please take a a moment to give it a few kinds word with a written review on your favorite podcast listening platform. This helps me share the podcast with others. You can also share a favorite episode or consider joining our Slowmade Podcast Patreon community. You support literally makes this podcast possible. Thank you so much! You can follow along or reach out to Christine on Instagram: @christinemighion or send her an email at info@christinemighion.com

When I began making jewelry 20+ years ago, sharing about your craft wasn't a thing unless you had peers close by willing to talk openly. There seemed to be an underlying fear that if you shared information, whether it was on a technique or a stone supplier, you may find this person doing similar work in the future. Does that happen? Well, I'm not going to lie... it's happened to me a handful of times and it really stung, especially since I believe in sharing.   Thankfully with platforms like Instagram and YouTube information is much more accessible and we can follow and form relationships with our peers. I found April Ottey on Instagram a year or two ago and I saw that she taught classes on organic casting in her area. I reached out to her to see if she did any online teaching because I really was struggling with my own organic casting. Unfortunately for me, she didn't teach online, but I took a chance and asked her if she might be willing to answer a couple questions in exchange for payment. She generously answered my questions while repeatedly ignoring my offer to pay her for her knowledge.  Although we didn't have many exchanges after that, I sensed April was the kind of person I would love to get to know better, so I was thrilled when she agreed to come on the show. April is so very kind and supportive... and this is what I think of when I think about the value of being in community with others. As artists and makers we can all benefit from a healthy community. About April... April Ottey is an artist living in Port Townsend, WA.  She has her studio a stones throw from Discovery Bay where she creates contemporary jewelry inspired by the natural world. Her close up inspection of various stages of birth, growth, death and decay in forests, rivers and beaches has shaped who she is as an artist. She casts, fabricates and incorporates the textures and intricate shapes found in nature to create jewelry that places nature into a new context.  April's work can be found in various galleries throughout the Northwest.  She is a member of the Northwest Designer Craftsmen Guild and the Seattle Metals Guild .   She has an MFA from Central Washington University and an undergraduate degree from Montana State University.  She taught jewelry and metal smithing at an alternative high school 10 years until she decided to pursue her own work full time in 2015. Instagram: @april_ottey_jewelry    Website: aprilottey.com      Love the show? Please consider supporting the podcast by joining our Slowmade Community on Patreon. Thank you! You can find Christine on Instagram @christinemighion

Explore the intersection of art, conservation, and hunting in this episode featuring Charity Wanecheck, a talented metalsmith, jewelry maker, and passionate outdoors woman. We delve into Charity's journey into the art of custom jewelry making, where she shares her unique approach of using locally-sourced stones and pieces from the mountain west area. We then discuss the complexities of conservation and finding solutions in an imperfect world, while emphasizing the importance of collective effort in making positive change. Finally, Charity speaks to her business model, highlighting her commitment to giving back in meaningful ways.

In this episode I had the absolute pleasure of chatting with Jess Guerrieri, or maybe better known by her Instagram name JessJewelry. Jess shares her challenges with balancing creativity, the demands of sustaining a viable business, and the burnout that often comes along with this. We cover so many other good things including building lasting friendships within the jewelry community, collaboration, and organically growing her Instagram follow by connecting with her fans through reels.  About Jess Guerrieri... Jess, a committed metalsmith since the early 2000s, calls Palm Harbor, FL, home with her husband, two boys, and Ziggy the dog. Graduating with a BFA in Crafts in jewelry and metalsmithing from the University of the Arts in 2006, she kicked off her career as a goldsmith in a Pennsylvania jewelry store, perfecting her skills in commercial jewelry. By 2009, Jess had relocated to Florida, where she delved into the world of art jewelry, drawing inspiration from the surrounding nature. Her pieces showcase delicate floral forms, brought to life through techniques like enameling, engraving, casting, beading and etching, resulting in truly unique, one-of-a-kind creations. Instagram: @jessjewelry  Website: jessguerrieri.com   Love the show? Please consider supporting the podcast by joining our Slowmade Community on Patreon. Thank you! You can find Christine on Instagram @christinemighion

Summary: Chris and I discuss exhibit design and construction at Marbles!Big Take Aways:-The difference between goldsmithing and silversmithing.- The power of “we didn't know what we didn't know.”- Exhibits as “working prototypes.”________________________________________________________About Chris: Chris Alexander is the Vice President of Exhibits at Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh, NC. His passion for designing and fabricating playful and engaging learning environments is driven by his curious nature, desire to problem solve, and the unique challenge of designing for a young and diverse audience. After receiving a BID in Industrial Design from the NC State College of Design in 1993, Chris helped found the Antfarm Studios- a still operational creative collective for artists and designers in Raleigh's Boylan Heights. It was during this time that under the mentorship of acclaimed Goldsmith Mary Ann Scherr, that Chris continued his education in design by exploring metalwork through jewelry as inspiriting and interactive wearable objects. The ability to play with scale, material, color, and whimsy eventually led him to his current work with Marbles creating exhibits that spark imagination, discovery and learning through play. Chris continues to engage and collaborate with the creative community in Raleigh, he has taught Design Camp sessions at the College of Design at North Carolina State University, and Metalsmithing at Meredith College as well as Penland School of Crafts. He has spoken on “Fear and Failure in Design” at Hopscotch Design fest. Chris designed and built his home employing adaptive reuse techniques to blend modern design with existing traditional structures. Most importantly, Chris is doting father to his daughter, Tess and husband to wife Emily. He believes in the power of play to transform children's lives, and the power of design to create extraordinary experiences for children, families and communities. Connect with Chris: Website | LinkedIn Mentioned in the show:- Mary Ann Scherr- NCSU College of Design- Antfarm Studios- Giving at Marbles________________________________________________________Show Notes: Welcome to Dirt NC where we talk all about the places and spaces of North Carolina and the people who make them awesome, I am your host Jed Byrne.Throughout my career in engineering, construction, finance, and development, I have covered just about all sides of the land use ecosystem. This show creates an opportunity for me to share what I have learned with you as well as introduce you to some of my friends, both new and old who are doing transformative work.With each episode of Dirt NC my goal is to make sure you walk away learning something new about land use. I promise to keep it simple and straight to the point.As always, I am grateful that you have chosen to share this time with me! If you have comments/questions/suggestions about Dirt NC or anything land use related you can find me on twitter at @OakCityCRE and if you want a simple and to the point update on Raleigh commercial development you can subscribe to The Top Five, my free weekly newsletter at www.oakcitycre.com 

There are few things I find more enjoyable than having a really good conversation with someone who truly understands the magic of creating. That feeling of excitement when you something catches your eye (or your imagination) and you know that is the breadcrumb you need to follow. And of course, then there is the feeling once you have fully birthed your creation and cut the cord to your own soul.  This week I had the absolute pleasure of talking to Susan Fauman. We talk about the alchemy of creating a piece of jewelry and how we weave our medicine into our work. We talk about the joy of harmoniously blending our lives with our craft and the importance of building a community of peers around you as our work is often solitary.  There's a lot I'm still unpacking from this episode, but it just reinforces why I love having these honest conversations… and I hope you are enjoying them too.  Susan Fauman is a mama and maker of many things, working out of her studio in the NY Hudson Valley. She draws inspiration from her 15+ years working as a yoga instructor, bodyworker and herbalist to bring healing intention to her jewelry and other creations. Her mission is to make people feel connected to something bigger than themselves, with a side of playfulness and wonder. Website: https://www.susanfauman.com Instagram: @susanfauman Please consider supporting the podcast by joining our Slowmade Podcast Community on Patreon. Your support makes the podcast possible. If you have a guest suggestion or topic for the podcast, please reach out to Christine at: Instagram: @christinemighion Website: https://www.christinemighion.com

This week Wes and Todd sit down with Josh Davy. Josh discusses Next Gallery, oil painting, getting back to making things for fun, pushing himself, sitting with the work & feeling where it's going, buildings, ceramics, his art roots, glass blowing, symbolism, bridges, cathedrals, connection, Christianity & religion, empathy & grace, being human, robots, process, photography, artist talks, his exhibition “Lost Along the Way, faith, prayer, prison, failure, technology & artificial intelligence, pricing, and services he offers Artists. Join us as we talk art, philosophy, and life with Josh Davy.  Check out Josh's work at his website www.joshdavy.com  Josh's exhibition “Lost Along the Way” opens Friday, August 25th at Next Gallery. “Lost Along the Way”August 25th – September 10th, 2023Next Gallery6501 W. ColfaxLakewood, CO 80214www.nextgallery.org  Follow Josh on social media: Instagram - www.instagram.com/jndavy/@jndavy Facebook - www.facebook.com/jndavy

Hello! This week we're taking a deep dive into the shiny world of metals. Dr. Lex tries to define a metal and takes on a tour of their internal structures. Dr. Dimos talks all things iron, including why iron deposits indicate life on Mars. Join us for the all the nerdy fun! 1:31: Dr Lex introduces what smithing is and what metals are. Can you define a metal? Did you know that many elements are metals such as calcium and sodium? What in the world is grain structure? Make sure you have your periodic table with you for this segment. 10:27: Dr. Dimos dives into the world of iron. Where does iron come from? How is it found in nature? How have humans been working with iron over the centuries? How is it used by scientists to indicate life on Mars? 26:50 - Dr. Lex is back with a primer on copper. What forms does copper take? How is it extracted from the earth? What techniques are used to fashion copper into all sorts of beautiful objects? Dr. Lex also talks a little bit about the immunology behind why she has an allergic response to metals. 31:43 - Glossary words! 33:47 - Our favorite part - fun cocktail party facts Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review where ever you listen. It's the best way to support the show. Theme music - Harlequin Mood by Burdy Follow us: Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/luxescipod/⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/luxescipod⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTz4WrIEalCH7NlDgkRdICQ⁠ Blog posts and show notes: ⁠www.erevnamedia.com ⁠

There are so many ways to learn silver jewellery making, so how do you know which methods and teachers are right for you? In this episode, jeweller and Jewellers Academy mentor Kim Thomson shares 7 of her tips for anyone getting started with silver metalsmithing. She talks about characteristics to look for in a teacher, the importance of community, overcoming imposter syndrome, and much more!    Episode Description: This week Kim Thomson is sharing her top tips for silver metalsmithing (1:19) 1. Identify your aims and priorities (4:31) 2. Learn sequentially (7:28) 3. Build a strong foundation (9:45) 4. Community is invaluable (14:40) 5. Ask “why” (19:30) 6. Be honest about what you don't know (27:00) 7. Remember the people who taught you (32:25) How to learn more (39:26)   Resources: Learn more about Jewellers Academy Watch this episode on YouTube Join the Jewellers Academy Facebook Group  Order your copy of “Start and Grow a Profitable Jewellery Business” Sign up for one of our diplomas Silver Jewellery Making for Beginners 10 Days of Silver Jewellery Making Follow Kim on Instagram   Find Jewellers Academy on Instagram and Facebook

About the ArtistEllen originally studied Jewelry Design and Metalsmithing at Texas Tech University, though she didn't always know that jewelry making would be her artistic calling. It wasn't until she worked under a jewelry designer in Portland that she fell in love with jewelry making and began a fascination and deep appreciation for the design process. With a background in painting and a career in jewelry design, Ellen Mote now enjoys practicing both crafts out of her studio in Waco, Texas. Her love for painting was reignited after stumbling across a purple weed growing out of a road in her neighborhood. Navigating a difficult season in her own life at the time, Ellen was moved by this picture of beauty rising out of an unlikely place. She picked the weed, brought it home, and used it to create the first of many paintings as she set old dreams in motion. Inspired by nature and designed with unexpected compositions, Ellen's paintings are crafted using cyanotypes, acrylic paint, and unprimed canvas. For every person who invites her art into their lives, Ellen hopes it reveals the everyday beauty all around them—because everyone is worthy of having beautiful things they love in their home.Ellen's art website Ellen's Jewelry website  Subscribe to the Art Biz Talk NewsletterApply to be a guest Ask a question for the show Become part of the community for professional visual artistsIf you're a late emerging or mid-career visual artist earning $5K or more a month and are ready to scale your studio practice, Art Biz Pro is the place for you. (Re) Emerging ArtistsStarting to build your full time studio practice and need a DIY guide with templates for your artist statement, Press Kit and pricing your art? Sounds like you need our Artist Starter Kit. CREDITSOriginal Music composed by Hillary Albrecht at Rhapsody on MarsArt Biz Talk is hosted by Andrea La Valleur-Purvis, Artist and Art Business Coach at Vivid Creative

About Jeremy Shepherd, Hisano Shepherd and Pearl Paradise: Jeremy Shepherd is a leader, innovator, and a disruptor. From an early age he struck out on his own to satisfy his fierce independence, need for adventure, and a more satisfying way of life. As a teenager, he traveled to Japan alone and stayed to attend high school. He is self-taught and fluent in Japanese, Spanish and Micronesian. Through college, Jeremy worked for Passport to Languages as an interpreter of all three languages. To continue his world travels, became a flight attendant in 1996 and soon began importing pearls during his runs to Asia. In a sector dominated by generations old family businesses, Jeremy endeavored to become a first generation, self-taught pearl importer, dealer, and internet reseller. Over the past 20 years, he has traveled to pearl producing areas all over the world creating relationships with pearl producers, exporters, and people dedicated to support the pearl industry. He is an entrepreneur and e-commerce expert who has spent more than 25 years in the digital space. My experience includes developing, curating and launching direct-to-consumer, televised deal segments for NBCUniversal and TelevisaUnivision, and building one of the largest direct-to-consumer pearl brands in the world. Hisano has been fascinated by the art of jewelry making since early childhood. In pursuit of this passion, she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Jewelry and Metalsmithing from California State University of Long Beach and then followed this with a Masters of Fine Arts in Jewelry at State University New York at New Paltz. After graduation, Hisano put her passion and education to work in the jewelry industry as a designer and educator, finding a part time position at PearlParadise.com, Inc, and teaching metalsmithing and jewelry design at two separate colleges. Today, Hisano is a permanent, full time member of the team and has since become the Chief Creative Officer overseeing all design, production and purchasing. Hisano also launched her personal line, little h, in 2012. Her pieces have won tremendous acclaim and have found fans from the First Lady of the United States to superstar Taylor Swift and many others. Founded in 1996 and brought online in 2000, Pearl Paradise has grown into the world's largest online pearl company. With a custom-built, 1,300-cubic-foot vault filled with pearls, we offer a selection of pearls unlike any other pearl seller, online or off. Our commitment to offering prices 80 percent below retail has accelerated our growth. With more than a quarter million satisfied customers to date, we have benefited greatly by word-of-mouth advertising. Our commitment to quality, customer service and unbeatable pricing and selection has helped us become the Internet's premier source of pearl jewelry. The reputation we have built based on the quality of our merchandise has attracted the attention of journalists around the world. We have been blessed with glowing articles in The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, USA Today, Entrepreneur Magazine, Investor's Business Daily, and Inc. Magazine, to name just a few. The pearl and jewelry industry has followed our growth and featured us in respected industry publications like Modern Jeweler, Jewelry News Asia, and JCK.At Pearl Paradise, we are all world-class pearl experts. Every team member is required to complete the Gemological Institute of America's pearl diploma program. In addition, our entire team has completed the Pearls as One, Cultured Pearl Association of America's Pearl Specialist Certification. This course was written and created by our own CEO, Jeremy Shepherd.

Basia Adamiec is a metalsmith and silversmith who crafts fine jewelry and shares her work with the world on her YouTube channel, The Art of Metalsmithing, a great resource for learning the tools and techniques needed to make your own jewelry and become a jeweler. Check out her work:   https://www.youtube.com/@TheArtOfMetalsmithing    Support The WTS at https://www.patreon.com/thewts    Website: https://www.thewtspodcast.com/ 

What you'll learn in this episode:   How Wayne used his trip around the world to learn the art and science of metalsmithing Why it's important for emerging metalsmiths to understand they are part of a global mosaic of creatives How Wayne made jewelry for the Grateful Dead and Blues Traveler Why Wayne is selective about the jewelry shows he attends Why teachers benefit from living as an artisan before teaching   About Wayne Werner Jeweler, goldsmith, and educator Wayne Werner is a third-generation metalsmith from Maryland. He has been jewelry maker for over 30 years with clients worldwide.   Wayne Werner has traveled around the world to learn with metal workers from Italy and Egypt to Java and Bali. Specializing in cold forging precious metals, Werner has incorporated the traditional techniques of gold and platinum smithing with his artistic vision of paying homage to the fertility cults of the ancient world.      Werner's work explores the relationship to metals liquid opus and the opus of mankind, both being a product of the earth cooling down. Through his work Werner attempts to remind people of the miracle of life and the cosmic happening that we all are.      Primarily making a living retailing his work, Werner has participated in over 250 high-end craft shows nationally. He has received many awards for his work including the World Gold Council's Gold Distinction award and the MJSA Vision award for Mokume Gane. Werner is a former instructor at the Fuji Studio in Florence, Italy, and was adjunct faculty at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore for 17 years. He has also taught over 100 workshops in universities and craft schools around the country. In 2006 he was asked to demonstrate his craft at The Mint Museum of Craft and Design in Charlotte, NC, an event marking his 40th birthday. He is founder and host of THE ALCHEMIST PICNIC, a metalsmithing retreat at Touchstone Center for Craft, now in its 6th year. Werner is also an accomplished musician who has appeared on both television and movies as himself. His clients are some of the most interesting people on earth. Photos Available on TheJewelryJourney.com Additional Resources: Website Instagram Facebook Transcript Known for his psychedelic designs that reference ancient myths, fertility cults and the splendor of the sun, it's no wonder that metalsmith Wayne Werner has connected with clients like the Grateful Dead. A self-taught jeweler who learned traditional techniques by visiting metalsmiths around the world, Wayne has found success by selling his pieces at craft shows. He joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about his tips for building a long-lasting career in the jewelry industry; how he chooses the shows he attends; and why metalsmiths are all part of a global creative community. Read the episode transcript here.   Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the second part of a two-part episode. If you haven't heard part one, please head to TheJewelryJourney.com. Today my guest is Wayne Werner. Wayne is a very unusual and accomplished goldsmith. He is self-taught. As well as a goldsmith, he's an educator, artist and world traveler. Welcome back.   Wayne: I'm so lucky to have that energy be part of me profiting from a passion I have. I'm probably diverging. I'll have a sip of bourbon.    Sharon: You were talking about developing your niches. One of the things you told me was that you limit shows. You say you pick and choose your shows so you don't have to go to a hundred shows. Yes?   Wayne: Yes. I'm at the ripe old age of 56 now. I started when I was, I think, 21. I've done over 350 shows. I did actually count them a few years ago. There were 350 shows all over the United States. I had some gallery representation for a while. It was something I didn't need as much of if I were doing lots of good retail shows. These are everything from a museum show and sale to the American Craft Council's show and sales to arts festivals or even just art in the park. I had gone out and done these and ran myself ragged. I decided what I was willing to do and not willing to do.    In the course of that, I met my wonderful partner, Barbara Bayne, who is also a silver and goldsmith. Now we talk to each other and have these little executive board meetings in the hallway or wherever in the house. We say, “What do we want to do this winter? Let's apply to some shows in Florida. Where do we want to find ourselves in August? How about Sausalito Arts Festival”—when that was happening—"or go up to the mountains in Idaho.” Now Barbara works with me, and she has a lot to say about setting the course. We go out and do shows in spurts.    She's really good at throwing the applications out there, and we're really good at traveling together. Sometimes we'll share a booth, or we'll have separate booths and just help one another, but we're getting really selective. There are a lot of reasons. Sometimes it's places we want to be because they're pleasant at that time of the year. Sometimes it's the safety or the not safety of being in a big city. I have to acknowledge that running around America with all your work in a backpack can create some stress, let's say. I've never been robbed, but I'm always aware.    Now we're doing between five and eight shows a year, the ones we want to do, the ones where we love and respect the promoter and we feel the love and respect back from the promoter. That's very important to me, because what I really want is that warm feeling. I made it and you bought it, and there's no middleman. I have grown to cherish that. It's become a focal point of my business, to say, “I make it, you buy it.” There's nobody between the love or the affection towards my work.    Michael Good grabbed me and said, “You know what your job is, Wayne? Your job is to connect and reconnect with the people that connect with you and your work.” He walked away and I said, “Wow! Good lord, that's it! He just boiled it down.” I thought about the Ramones; they're a punk rock band. They knew like four chords. All the songs sound about the same. It's just a bunch of guys with leather jackets, but they found a way to connect and reconnect with people that connected with them. They weren't the greatest at what they did, but they kept doing it and they made it available to their fans, their people, by doing shows and things like that.    I've done a lot of shows around the United States. A lot of them were not worth my time, but I did learn from them. At a lot of them I met the most amazing traveling artisans of my life. The biggest and best influences I ever got were from visiting my mentors between shows and seeing their studios. I'd say, “Wow! This is what you get to do for a living.” A couple of them said, “Yeah, it's a living, but you've got to be on top of doing this stuff. You've got to have that business thing going.”   Sharon: Did you start becoming a teacher and educator because you wanted to share what you were doing? Was it because they inspired you, or it was happenstance?   Wayne: It was happenstance. It was a combination of a number of things. It was like finding another facet to your existence, another flickering point of what you were doing. In 1996, when I traveled around the world, I went to Florence, Italy and fell in with Kathy Knipple and Fuji Yamamoto. They had the Fuji Studio in Florence, Italy. I did a little residency there. They asked me to teach, and I said, “O.K., I haven't done that much teaching.” In the back of my mind, I always felt that some teachers should make a living as an artisan before they teach. I thought, “Well, I'm going to try to teach,” and I stumbled through it with Fuji Studio.   When I was back in Maryland, within a year or two after doing that, a friend of mine was working at the Maryland Institute of Art. It's a pretty prestigious private art school. It's a cornerstone of Baltimore and all the artisans there. I said, “Yeah, I'll come down and teach at the Maryland Institute of Art, but I have no master's degree. I have no degree in art at all.” They said, “That's O.K. We're going to do it by recommending you. We're going to offer you an adjunct position.” I didn't know what the hell that meant, but I knew this much: The person who hired me said, “You're going to make some waves here because you've got a job teaching with no degree.” I said, “Then I want to do it. But I'm warning you. I'm going to use you all as my guinea pigs. I'm going to learn to teach here and get paid for it, and then I'm going to go and teach all over the United States at art centers and craft campuses like my mentors, like the people I know that are mainly artisans, but they go out and teach a few workshops.”    So, I started offering the workshops. The first thing I learned immediately was I wasn't a teacher. I was a maker. People got to watch me work and then I helped them work, but I would always say, “Mistakes are good. You need to make them. I'm not here to make your piece for you.” Teaching was just another facet to polish up, and it's been very rewarding. It's been a little frustrating. I probably learned more about myself than anybody in the class doing metalwork, but I cherish the students and young people.    These workshops are all ages, so you learn how to be in a group environment where you're not in control. It's very different than being in the studio or being at an art show. I joked and said, “At least in the studio, I can leave or ask somebody to leave.” When you're in a room with 10 people and they paid money to learn to set stones, I'm a jester in the deck or a loose cannon. I've got to watch what I say. I can't joke around as much. There are powers that be that won't appreciate certain things I might say or do.    It's interesting seeing somebody on the path they're on, and then I get to play the part of the person who gets to take them a little further down their path. It could be somebody who's just retired that always wanted to make a ring, or some 20-something-year-old kid that I look at and think, “He reminds me of me when I was that age. What an asshole he's going to end up being. He knows it all and he doesn't know anything,” and then I get to be the big brother or the mentor figure. I've got some great relationships like that all over the country, all over the world now. I tell people, “Call me.” I've made that mistake before. “Call me. I'm your pal. You don't owe me anything. Call me.”    I'll tell you this funny story. In 1986, I sold my work in the parking lot of a Grateful Dead concert for $20.   Sharon: Say that again. You sold what? Something for $20?   Wayne: Yeah, I sold hippie jewelry in a parking lot when I was young. Within 10 years from selling hippie jewelry in a parking lot at a Grateful Dead show, I was selling to a gallery on Madison Avenue in New York City. That still blows my mind, but anyhow, last summer, I went up to Philadelphia and I swear I saw myself. I met this young kid from Idaho. He was doing some crystal wrapping and casting. I said, “Wow, man, it's like meeting myself years ago.” The young man came to my house a few days after this concert, and I gave him a bunch of tools and a little goldsmithing lesson. It feels great. It really makes me feel good.   Sharon: It makes you feel good because you're helping to put somebody on a path?   Wayne: Yeah. There's a vibrant community of makers around the country, making things and making jewelry, but goldsmiths and platinum smiths and stone setters, there's real demand for it. There's a big DIY movement that's been happening for many years, but there are going to be plenty of jobs for someone who wants to be self-sustaining as a metalsmith if they have experience in goldsmithing and stone setting and what I would call applicable skills to the trade. Now, you take those and do that and make a coin, but then you have money to go out and do far-out, really weird things or explore some other aspect of your libra. I'm a Libra, so I look for that balance. I still size rings and do antique restoration, but at the same time, I'm making pieces for an upcoming show I'm doing at the Boca Museum for an upcoming touring exhibition. I don't make money off my art jewelry is what I'm trying to say. I don't think my interesting pieces pay my rent and keep my boat afloat. I have to do production work to have at a show, and I do some repair and antique restoration. I spread it out.   That's kind of the thing I like to instill in these little creatures that say, “I'm going to be a metalsmith.” I say, “Well, if you have this fantasy like I did about having a surreal job with rainbows and butterflies and psychedelic lights and everybody's going to throw money at you, well guess what? You'll come down off that cloud and you're going to say, ‘Oh shit, today I've got to sweep to floor. Today, I've got to apply to shows. I've got to do my taxes or keep myself busy.'” That serpent that eats its own tail, that is the death of itself.   Sharon: Is that why you say you're the joker in the pack, the joker in the deck? You've used that expression with me.   Wayne: I think you had been to my website and looked at some of these crazy little pods and this fertility goddess worship I try to bring into my work. I heard a great word the other day, “cryptographic.” They're little stories or things I like to put down about my fascination with life, with sperm swimming to eggs or our liquid opus, everything being liquid. A lot of my pieces, they're sexy; they're fluid; they're pods; they're coming from an ancient fertility goddess world. I always thought the joker in the king's court was pretty cool because he could be a fool and make a fool of himself, but at the same time he could speak divine truth, and because it was a ha-ha joke, he wasn't put to death by the king.    When I talk about this infinite jest in making pieces that revolve around how amazing it is to be alive in the first place, a lot of people say, “Oh, this joker's just making these little designs, pressing buttons, trying to get people to think about stuff.” That's really what I want. I don't mind doing that as long as the message gets through. I think you'd have to look at my work to delve into it and understand that, yeah, I'm putting these things together. They are sperm; they are egg; they are all about life and the creation of life. Joker in the deck. If that's the job to do today, I'm here showing up and punching my card.    Sharon: Do you think about that when you start a piece? Do you have something in mind when you make a piece of jewelry?   Wayne: Yeah. The last cool piece I made—I think I sent a picture of it—was for the Tellus Museum. Elyse Zorn Karlin had a wonderful show at the Tellus Museum, and she was nice enough to tell me what it was about. It was called “Jewelry in the Space Age.” They were looking for alternative materials, so I used some meteorite in a couple of pieces. With the meteorite, I also did this little design in the middle of a pod in the form of an egg being born in the top. In the middle of the pod was a little sun. The sun was shaped like little sperm swimming at the center of the piece, so it looked like sun rays. This was something that Rick Griffin, a psychedelic poster artist that worked for the Grateful Dead—he did the Aoxomoxoa album cover for the Dead—he had done that. So, I threw that into the piece.   The curator came to me and said, “O.K., how does this fit into my show?” I said, “Well, there's meteorite in the piece and it talks about star seeds and things like that. If you go back to ancient Egypt, you end up with this idea of splendor solis, the splendor of the sun, and how we are all creatures that are made possible by the splendor of the sun, the fertility of the earth, plants, animals, everything. It all goes back to the sun and sun worship. I used this sun pattern that came from ancient Egypt. I used meteorite, but I also wanted to use these other symbols of eggs and being born and gestation phases and things like that.” She scratched her head and said, “Nobody's going to get that. Nobody's going to see that in your work.” I said, “That's O.K. If they want to talk about it, that's O.K.,” but I do think about that.   I've been told by different people, “You've got to get away from this theme of sex and fertility and things like that. You should get away from that theme,” and then I said to myself, “Well, why? This is an ancient idea. Hermes and Mercury and Thoth and all these enlightened deities, that's what they were talking about.” I try to stay true to it, but it creeps in all the time. I want to try to be a visionary goldsmith. I would like to have people scratch their heads a little bit, but whenever they get into it, they say, “Oh, that's interesting.”    Take a second and think that we're all cosmic miracles and little happenings under the splendor of the sun. If people thought about that more, I think they'd think less about walking into a grocery store and shooting up a bunch of people or going into a school and doing this. It's so disturbing to watch the news every night and see some of this creep up. If we would all just take a minute and walk around with our jaw open and go, “Wow! Far out! We're all a bunch of little miracles and cosmic happenings.” We need to find a way for this to work, for us to appreciate each other and live with each other. Deep down a rabbit hole, Alice. Here we go.   Sharon: Is that the suggestion or advice you would give someone at the beginning? Somebody who says, “I don't know. This is a really hard path. Should I do this or should I go get a job?”   Wayne: Like advice for young people?   Sharon: What's your advice for emerging jewelers, let's say. People who are just emerging, just starting out.   Wayne: I'd say you're just as lucky as I am to have found this stuff and picked it up and touched it and for it to touch you back. Automatically they're lucky. Some people aren't going to do this for a living. They just want to explore the craft. Some people are like, “No, this is my living.” I think a young person needs to know what they know and what they don't know, which means they can go about making jewelry with their skillset, but when it gets out of their comfort zone, maybe repair or doing something else for somebody, they need to know when not to do that. Hopefully they have in their group of friends or their tribe an older person or a younger person who knows how to do that.    Another thing—I had this conversation with a fellow not long ago because he was frustrated. I said, “Look, we are a big mosaic. Metalsmithing and jewelry making is a big mosaic, and we all make up the picture. You're never going to know it all, do it all, be it all. It's not all about you or me. This is about a collective community that has been lucky enough to find materials and to have the patience to make things. Look at it like a big mosaic, and don't be so upset that all eyes aren't on you all the time, because it's not going to be that way. It's very flattering to be speaking to you right now at a heart-to-heart level. It's very flattering, but tomorrow, I'm going to be just another monkey on the vine of this big banyan tree of other metalsmiths.”    I have to realize that even the metalwork I don't like, I have to find something about that metalsmith or that work that I appreciate or respect, just because they're out there doing this stuff. The big mosaic is something I like to remind people of. I like to remind young people that it's the jewelry business. It's half business, half art, and if you have to split your day up that way, have at it. I'm a musician as well, and one of the best things I learned from one of my musician friends was, “You've got to be it all the time. You've got to take care of your business. You've got to plan what you're doing six to nine months from now today.”    Today, you have to concentrate on where you're going to be six to nine months or a year or five years from now. You need to consciously address that, whether it's applying to shows or getting your résumé together or getting slides taken or documenting or putting it on, whatever the hell it is. You need to think about what's far down the road, and then stop and go to the bench and do whatever the task of the day is, making jewelry or whatever. You need to have time to wear the hat of the businessperson. If you're not willing to do that, you've got to get somebody to do that for you, because business is everything; everything business. If you want to have a surreal job and be surreal busy, you've got to ride that surreal white horse to that job and do that job.    Sharon: That's a great piece of advice—well, pieces of advice, but the last one resonates with me in other areas, not just jewelry. Thank you very much for being here today, Wayne. I greatly appreciate it.   Wayne: Thank you. Again, I'm flattered to be here, and I love what you're doing.   Sharon: We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out.   Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a rating and review so we can help others start their own jewelry journey.

Thelema, NOW! host Harper Feist speaks with Occult Blacksmith Marcus McCoy of Troll Cunning Forge. Listen as Marcus and Harper discuss alchemy as it applies to Metalsmithing and the Natural Philosophy of Henry Cornelius Agrippa! During their conversation the Winter Solstice dawned in the Eastern Standard time zone. The days will be getting brighter...

Experimentation is an important part of an artist's studio practice; stepping outside of your main focus and venturing outside of your comfort zone with unfamiliar materials and unrelated art fields has the potential for tremendous growth as an artist. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/fyebHHpiBt4. Discussion with Art Prof Clara Lieu, Teaching Artist Cat Huang, and with Guest Artist Dorian Epps. Support Art Prof on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/artprof  or make a one-time donation on Paypal:  https://www.paypal.me/artprof  or on Venmo: https://account.venmo.com/u/artprof  

In this series we engage Makers from all areas of the maker movement to share how successful makerspaces' have forged their story. Makerspaces are unique to their community, and grow based on those who use them. The Workbench is a community space in Denton, Texas. At Workbench, you will find a friendly, approachable, community-based, and socially conscious space. They teach traditional workshops as well as provide one-on-one sessions. They offer gallery and retail space by invite and application. They are members of the Denton Chamber of Commerce, local art collectives, UNT faculty and staff, and Denton Main Street Association. Guest: Caron Dessoye is currently a Denton-based artist. In 2017, Caron moved here from the Philadelphia suburbs to achieve her dream of an MFA in Metalsmithing and Jewelry from the University of North Texas. After completing her MFA in 2020, Caron was an adjunct professor in UNT's Metalsmithing and Jewelry Program in addition to continuing her own art practice. In July 2021, she rented an unassuming space at 813 North Locust Street in Denton. One of the first tasks was to hire a mural artist to take her space from unassuming to incredible! And that is just the outside. Currently, the community can take courses, rent studio time, and sell their work in their quirky retail area. Workbench continues to evolve as it works to meet the community's needs. The goal is always to make art accessible and welcoming. It is an incubator for ideas, people, and community development. In a city where art has a strong representation, especially being the home to two Universities with strong art programs, Workbench compliments and engages people in an approachable and friendly way. Host: Jerry Johnson, Liberty Walker Sound Production: Jerry Johnson Producer: Judy Hunter, Jake Jacobson, Alondra Lopez Music: A jazz piano by Music for Videos on PixaBay Pixabay - A Jazz Piano | Royalty Free Music

San Francisco resident Maya Kini is a visual artist, a poet and a mother of two.  She has an MFA in Metalsmithing & her favorite material is gold. Maya was diagnosed at 41 with Stage III breast cancer, and also carries the PALB2 genetic mutation. Today Maya reads her story “Rip Curl” from Wildfire Magazine's 2022 “Body” issue.  Her story is about hope and grieving, and accepting body changes while bathing suit shopping in Hawaii.  April and Maya will discuss not ending up with the breast reconstruction that was intended, getting used to a new body, and the parallels between the body and the work Maya creates in metalsmithing. This episode contains explicit language. More about Maya: https://mayakini.com/ (https://mayakini.com) Get the free Wildfire email newsletter: https://www.wildfirecommunity.org/ (https://www.wildfirecommunity.org) Learn about Wildfire writing workshops: https://www.wildfirecommunity.org/workshops (https://www.wildfirecommunity.org/workshops) Shop Wildfire merch & more: https://www.wildfirecommunity.org/shop (https://www.wildfirecommunity.org/shop) Send your voice recording testimonial to editor@wildfirecommunity.org *Free* The Burn Writing Companion: Guided Prompt Journal (Vol. 1): https://www.wildfirecommunity.org/the-burn (https://www.wildfirecommunity.org/the-burn)

On today's episode, we'll be visiting with Lucky Star instructor, Carolyn Marco.✨ Carolyn is a Dallas native with a passion for creating, teaching, and helping others.  Former Creative Director and Jewelry Designer for Fossil, she traded the corporate world for a chance to focus on more creative experiences through her business, Kiki Knows Art.  She enjoys experimenting with new techniques and materials to share with groups of all ages.  From youth art camps at the Dallas Museum of Art, family programs at the Nasher Sculpture Center, maker workshops at the Perot Museum to facilitating workshops at local breweries – Carolyn enjoys any opportunity to create with others.   Committed to putting less waste in the world, she primarily shapes projects based on material donations received and re-purposes old or worn items into something new.  A forever student, Carolyn explores various creative outlets, from glass painting to paint pouring, fabric design to weaving and macrame, jewelry making to stained glass.  A frequent traveler, museum-goer, coffee-drinker, beer-sipper, concert-goer, sun-worshiper, mermaid-in-training, she enjoys any reason to be outdoors or to spend time with friends and family.   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kikiknowsart (kiki_knows_art) Instagram: https://instagram.com/kiki_knows_art?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= (@kiki_knows_art) Website: www.kikiknowsart.com Lucky Star Classes: Intro to Metalsmithing, Soldering Crash Course, Upcycled Holiday Ornaments *********************************************************************************** Lucky Star is a women's art and whole living sleepaway camp that takes place each fall in the Texas hill country. This is no art retreat in a hotel conference room…and no, we're not camping in tents… we're actually “glamping” in climate controlled cabins that are built into the hillside overlooking the Guadalupe River, and we're eating gourmet, chef-prepared food in a dining hall like we're at Hogwarts!  We're fully immersed in creative workshops like jewelry making, astrology, mixed media collage, apothecary, abstract painting, writing, sewing, yoga, welding, pottery, and we've even had classes on raising alpacas and tomahawk throwing!  No dishes, no laundry, no driving kids, and no deadlines or demanding bosses.  Just a solid five days to be YOU because we believe in the importance of discovering/reigniting the authentic part of you that makes you feel ALIVE and we know that CREATIVITY can be a powerful catalyst for growth, healing, self-care, connection, and just the spark you need to thrive.  When we're not at camp learning, laughing, making, and singing by the campfire, we're a thriving creative community of supportive women known as the Lucky Star Galaxy and we'd love for you to join us!   For dates and more information about our upcoming camps, visit our website at https://my.captivate.fm/www.luckystarartcamp.com (www.luckystarartcamp.com). Upcoming Camps— Lucky Star Art Camp - November 2-6, 2022 Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luckystarartcamp/ (@luckystarartcamp) Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/luckystarartcamp (@Lucky Star) or Search https://www.facebook.com/groups/1104922463040763 (Lucky Star Galaxy)

Hobbies are exhausting. I know because I have one, it's this podcast, and I'm literally tired all the time. Now just imagine having enough hobbies to own and operate 17 [seventeen] different Instagram accounts. This week on the pod, I'm joined by my internet acquaintance turned real-life friend Sigra to chat about all of her various avocations which range from bands to bugs. She's 10x more interesting than I'll ever be, so trust me—you won't want to miss this one besties!Get silly with us on social:FOLLOW THE PODCASTInstagram: @pessimisticatbestFacebook: @pessimisticatbestWebsite: pessimisticatbest.comFOLLOW SAMANTHAInstagram: @samgeorgsonTwitter: @samgeorgsonWebsite: samanthageorgson.comFOLLOW SIGRAInstagram: @__sigraTwitter: @sirsigraBand: @mqbs.coBugs: @27.bonesSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/pessimisticatbest)

What you'll learn in this episode: How we can examine almost any political topic through the lens of jewelry Why it's important that jewelry be embraced by academia, and how every jewelry enthusiast can help make that happen (even if they're not in academia themselves) Why a piece of jewelry isn't finished when it leaves the hands of its maker How matt works with collaborators for their column, “Settings and Findings,” in Lost in Jewelry Magazine How jewelry has tied people together throughout time and space About matt lambert matt lambert is a non-binary, trans, multidisciplinary collaborator and co-conspirator working towards equity, inclusion, and reparation. They are a founder and facilitator of The Fulcrum Project and currently are a PhD student between Konstfack and University of Gothenburg in Sweden. They hold a MA in Critical Craft Studies from Warren Wilson College and an MFA in Metalsmithing from Cranbrook Academy of Art. lambert currently is based in Stockholm Sweden and was born in Detroit MI, US where they still maintain a studio. They have exhibited work nationally and internationally including at: Turner Contemporary, Margate, Uk, ArkDes, and Sven-Harrys Konstmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden, Museo de la Ciudad, Valencia , Spain and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, US. Lambert represented the U.S in Triple Parade at HOW Museum, Shanghai, China, represented the best of craft in Norway during Salon del Mobile, Milan, Italy and was the invited feature at the Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece during Athens Jewelry Week. Lambert has actively contributed writing to Art Jewelry Forum, Garland, Metalsmith Magazine, Klimt02, Norwegian Craft and the Athens Jewelry Week catalogues and maintains a running column titled “Settings and Findings” in Lost in Jewelry Magazine. Additional Resources: matt's Website matt's Instagram Photos: Brooches 2019 Made in collaboration with Maret Anna Sara Image credit: Talya Kantro https://maretannesara.com/pile-power/ Pile Power is a new, elaborative section of Máret Ánne Saras bigger body of work: Pile O ?Sápmi. The project has developed into a multi prong exploration using the remaining material from Sara´s Pile O' Sápmi as shown in Documenta 14. Sara invited matt lambert to enter a dialogue with the intent for finding methods to use all available material that was remaining from earlier pieces. Matt Lambert is recognized through international exhibitions in platforms such as craft, jewelery, performance, design, sculpture and fashion, and has been listed on the top 100 designers for jewelry and accessories by the Global Jewelry and Accessories Council as well as receiving the Next Generation Award from Surface Design Association.  Sara invited Lambert to collaborate using the materials remaining from the Pile O´ Sápmi project after finding a connection through a conviction for socio-cultural sustainability as well as minority comradery between indigeneity and queerness. The Pile Power collaboration is producing larger performative objects using the remaining jaws of the reindeer skulls used in Saras earlier work, as well as more wearable works from the remaining reindeer-porcelain skulls that Sara commissioned to her Pile O' Sápmi Powernecklace shown at Documenta 14. Both of these veins of working promote the conversation around sustainable practices of indigenous  peoples. In Pile Power, body and material form a new basis for approach for themes addressed in the Pile O ?Sápmi project. Based on creative dialogue, a thematic jewelry collection will nomadically carry a new segment of an urgent discourse through bodies and humans. the integumentary system as dialogical fashion installed at  IASPIS Stockholm Sweden 2017 8 x 5.5 x 3 feet Comprised of 15 wearable objects temporal drag only accepting gaudy currency, saving for kitsch omega and sugar free nirvana installed at  IASPIS Stockholm Sweden 2017 10 x 5.5 x 2.5 feet Comprised of 55 wearable objects Tools of Ignorance As installed at Pried The Society of Arts + Crafts Boston MA USA, 2019 Transcript: matt lambert doesn't just want us to wear jewelry—they want us to question it. As a maker, writer, and Ph.D. student, matt spends much of their time thinking about why we wear jewelry, who makes it, and what happens to jewelry as it's passed from person to person. They joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about the inspirations behind their work, why jewelry carries layers of meaning, and why wearing jewelry (or not wearing it) is always a political act. Read the episode transcript here. Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the second part of a two-part episode. Today, my guest is Matt Lambert, who is joining us from Stockholm. Matt is a maker, writer and performer currently pursuing a Ph.D. Matt's jewelry journey has taken them from country to country. If you haven't heard part one, please go to TheJewelryJourney.com. Welcome back. You're still making though, right? matt: I am. I am definitely still making. It has not left my bones. It will probably never leave my bones, but it is something I constantly question, like what does it mean to make? What are we making? Sharon: Do you think about where you're making your jewelry? Like you were just in a show in Finland. matt: Those objects also push an interesting thing into play. I was having some hand problems because of Covid. I sleep in a very precarious position for my hands, and I was losing feeling in my right hand because I have an anxiety disorder. When I'm stressed, I basically ball up my hand, and I was pinching a nerve. I was thinking about Covid, the spike in the Black Lives Matter Movement, so many other incredible layers of politics and body awareness and attempts to consciously raise our awareness of what's going on in the world. So, I started a dialogue with someone who's trained in a lot of work but specifically in box making, which is a totally different skillset. We share knowledge of material, and I cast my hands in different gestures of resistance or solidarity. There are three that are new, which is the fist for resistance, the peace sign, and the opening/offering hand. I cast them, and I worked with the box maker to make jewelry boxes for my hands that are actually wearable on my hands. There's a hole, and I can buckle a box around my hand. A lot of my work questions what jewelry is. Is this jewelry? Is my hand the jewel, or is the box that's worn around my hand the jewel? I'm interrogating what a piece of jewelry is or what could it be. I also spoke at KORU7, the Finnish jewelry triennial, which was very meaningful to show and speak at because that's the first place I ever went outside of North America. I told myself, “I'm going to be here one day,” and I got into the exhibition, so that was very emotional. Then they sent me an invite to ask if I would speak, and that was a proud moment. These are milestones in my career, and I have gratitude for the invitations. They mean something in that way of feeling herd, or at least wanting to be listened to for a moment. Sharon: I saw the boxes on Instagram, and I thought, “Oh, those are beautiful boxes,” but I was going, “O.K., do you stick your hand in them or wear them around? What do you do with them?” The leather was beautiful. I thought, “Wow, gorgeous purse!” matt: Those are probably more theoretical and abstract works in jewelry, but it's questioning self-care and preservation. When we make gestures, when we show someone the peace sign or we have the fist of resistance or we offer someone something, do we mean it? Are we trying to freeze it in time? When does a gesture become shallow? It becomes commodified. Through jewelry, when you just consume it, when does our body also become that? It was me saying, “Hey, jewelry can talk about this,” and a lot of my work now is saying jewelry can do this. I call it a not-so-solo show that will be going up in the spring at Bornholm, which is a craft center on an island that is technically Danish. It's between Denmark and Germany. I'll have a larger solo show, but it's a not-so-solo show. It will talk about the different collaborations I have with Masada, who's indigenous, Sámi. Our work is talking about the rights of indigenous people, and there will be new collaborations: one set I've already been doing, one of the hand boxes will be there as well, and the work I do with the choreographer Carl Berg. It's me playing with the elasticity of what jewelry is. There's always some sort of wearable thing, but then it's like, is that the work? Is it a marker of the work? Does it represent my research? Is it a token of that? Is it a souvenir? It's also challenging you as the wearer. When you wear my work, to me, you're also carrying what I stand for, what I believe in or what I'm doing, so we share something together. When people ask, it gives you an opportunity to share the possibility of jewelry, and that's also what I love. When you wear my necklace, I want to know what you tell people. The best part is when I'm with people and someone goes, “What do you do?” at a dinner party, and whoever I'm with that knows me usually loves looking at that person. They go, “What do I do?” Sharon: That's not an easy question to answer. What do you say? matt: I don't. I literally look at the person next to me. I go, “What do I do?” And I love the multiplicity because my work exists. I teach now. I write. I will be announcing being an editor for publications. There are always 12 projects. I make wearables. I make unwearables. I work with dancers. I work with choreographers, so I'm a performer now. There isn't an easy way, and that's a challenge under capitalism. We want to define people by what they do, especially in a U.S. context. It's not super common in Europe to be defined by what you do as it is in the U.S., so it's challenging. I'm just me. I exist. That comes with its own set of consequences, but you're talking about someone who wants to know. It's also a very liberating space to be in. Sharon: Yes, I can see how it would be the most satisfying answer if I'm asking what you do at a party. Let me ask you this, because you mentioned Lost in Jewelry Magazine. Is that only an online publication? matt: Yes, that came out through Day By Day, which is a gallery in Rome. She approached me because she comes from a design background and has graphic design experience, and she discovered jewelry and became an addict like me. I think some people find it and it's like the back of your head falls off, and you want to read as many books and info and see everything you can. I see you at all these events too, and there's always something to learn. She wrote me and said, “Hey, you have a voice. What do you want to do with it? Could I give you space, and what would it look like?” So, I proposed a running column called Settings and Findings. Sharon: What did you mean by that, Settings and Findings? matt: It's a play on words. There are categories if you go to purchase materials for jewelry. A setting is what usually would hold a stone, but it's word play. You have a table setting.  What are you holding on to? What are you making space for? And a finding is a component in jewelry, but it's also what you're discovering. I write about different people that have different projects. I like research projects, collaborations or specific bodies of work, looking at things that aren't in the main canon. I often give people a space to say, “What are you setting and finding for this particular moment or for this project?” It's a way to also show that we are doing artistic research, whether we're aware of it or we frame it as that or not. It's become a tool for me to see how different people talk about their research. There are some coming up that are poems. Some people have written beautiful, long things, or sometimes I help them write it. It's finding that balance, since not everybody writes, but it's working with and taking time with someone or a group of people to talk about research in the field, about using the word research. It's a thing to point to in my Ph.D. as well. It's an investigative tool. Normally when you do academia, you do what's called literature review. You say what exists in the books. It's a way for me to say, “This is research that already exists. This is stuff that's happening.” I'm not alone in this and people might not contextualize it in an academic way, but I'm using my position to contextualize in that way if they aren't. I'm putting it in a space so they can say, “This is research. We don't need academia to do research as jewelers, but we could frame it as that.” Sharon: I can understand the settings and what are you holding onto. The findings are what you're finding out about yourself or the pieces you're making? matt: Really, whatever you want. I think there's one article up by Viviana Langhoff who writes jewelry and adornment theory. She wrote a very beautiful, more poetic piece of writing about settings. She has built a platform to talk about equity and inclusion for diversity in the field, both in fine jewelry and in art jewelry, and she mixes the two in her space. She has a gallery in Chicago. The findings are about what you find when you do that. What is happening because you're doing that? What are you discovering or what have you discovered through your work? She's somebody who has created a space. So, what happens? How does the community respond? Who comes into that? If it's an individual person, what have you learned by making this work? Where are you at now? You did this. You felt the urge. What are you holding onto? Your finding is what you find out there, where the setting is or what you could share. It's purposely ambiguous because it's to invite commercial jewelers and groups and galleries and spaces and art jewelers to share a space. There are some coming up where it's like four sentences, and then there are people that have written me an essay. That's what I think is beautiful, that we all can exist together in this one location. Sharon: It's interesting. As I said, I hadn't ever seen it before, Lost in Jewelry. Let me ask you this, because in introducing you or when you were writing the introduction, I need a translation of this. You're described as a nonbinary trans collaborator and co-conspirator working towards inclusion, equity and reparation. I don't know that means, I must say. matt: Yes, my body, as I identify, I am white; I am part of the colonial imperial system in that way. I identify as nonbinary, which is under the trans umbrella, as in transgender. Primarily, from where my body stands, I don't believe in the gender construction. Like I said, my original background is in human sexuality and the psychology of it. It's not a conversation I'm interested in defining, which then leaks into jewelry and gender and who wears jewelry. As we're talking, that's probably a big reason why jewelry also interests me. Co-conspirator and collaborator— Sharon: I get collaborator. Co-conspirator— matt: Co-conspirator, I'm interested in working with people that have goals or missions or focuses that are towards equity and decolonizing. I'm for reparations, and so I work, like I already mentioned, in the fight for indigenous rights in Scandinavia and Norway. The co-conspirator, that's a goal. It's conspiring to say, “This is what we need to do.” I'm on the equity train, and people that are seeking to find that and use jewelry as a vehicle, I want to co-conspire with those people to figure out what projects need to happen, what happenings need to happen to do that. I want to see jewelry do that, and I want to selfishly keep it in jewelry and see what happens when we do that through jewelry, because I think it's where the potential is. I think jewelry's the best from where I sit, and with my knowledge of these things, I want to see that happen. One of the other pieces for Settings and Findings is by SaraBeth Post, who's a Penland resident in glass who is making necklaces out of simple glass pendants, but she was auctioning them off to raise funds for certain court cases or for other notable movements within Black Lives Matter. That's a way of using more commercially-driven, wearable work to move to a different area. There are so many incredible ways to use jewelry. It disrupts and it challenges, and that's why I'm excited about jewelry. Sharon: Do you think everything you're saying about jewelry and how it affects people, the connections—the mining and the metal and all that—do you think it's more accepted where you are in Europe? Are you in an environment where people talk about this, or do people look at you like, “What are you talking about?” matt: The United States, as far as talk about equity and those conversations, is very ahead of where it is, but that's also because the U.S. is founded on imperialism and slavery, so it has no mechanism of denial. There are places in Europe that have that, and there are other places that do not. So, yes and no would be the answer. It depends on whom I'm speaking with or where we're at. It is challenging because in the U.S., these are more contemporary conversations than we're having where I'm based now in Sweden. They also exist differently because their history and involvement in colonialism and imperialism is different. It exists. That's actually what I wrote my thesis on for my critical craft master's. I was looking at examinations of the history museum in Sweden and representation within it. It's a different conversation, so that's been a challenge, but it's a great learning experience for me because not everybody has the same knowledge. I think these conversations add an academic level. You see jewelry in a room and academics are like, “Wait, what? You want to play with jewelry?” Sometimes I find myself in this weird gray space, because you're fighting a different wave, like, “Yes, let's do this.” How do you make it make sense for everybody? I'm excited to see more people do what they love to expand the field so all of us can home in on exactly what we love doing. But it is a challenge right now because the conversations, there's a lot of potential we could say in them. They've been going on, but I think there's still a lot of potential. I think that's the amazing thing with this idea around jewelry. Is it a field? Is it a format? What is it? What can we do with it? Sharon: As you're making things, are you thinking about how you can express some of this through what you're making? I'm thinking about the laser-cut leather necklace. To me, it's a fabulous necklace. That's why I say I'm fairly shallow. It's a fabulous necklace; I don't look at it and go, “What does it mean in terms of equity?” Do you think about those things? Are you trying to express these things through your jewelry? matt: I think I'm more in the camp of my body lives, breaths, eats and sleeps this, so whatever I make, it's already going to be there. I don't make things with the idea of “This going to be about this.” It's more of, “What do I feel in my body and is this going back to being a craftsperson?” Sharon: You're saying that because of who you are and because it's what you live and breathe, it's in your jewelry. You don't have to say, “Oh, I think if I braid the leather this way, it means A, B, C.” matt: Yeah, no. I think there's a lot of talk in the world now about being authentic and living your authentic life and going down those rabbit holes, but I think there are many different ways to be a craftsperson. I think you could love a material and use it throughout your whole life; I think there could be people that can stretch across them. I think we need everybody to sustain and talk about it as a field. I have a deep concern about jewelry being a field and how we continue that. I think how we broaden that is the biggest thing, not coming from a point of scarcity. I'm at a point in my career where I trust my body. It's the same as trusting your gut. Also, sometimes, it just makes you feel good. There's nothing wrong with art if it just makes you feel good. When I made that leatherwork, I knew nothing about computers. I had briefly worked and tried to be a woodworker. It was not for me. I like my fingers. I don't like getting up at 4 a.m. I tried to work for a prestigious cabinet making company. I have a lot of respect for woodworkers; it's just not a frame of craft that I can make or produce in. When I went to Cranbrook, they were like, “Oh great, you can go work in the woodshop then.” I worked in the library—you know me; I read everything—which I loved, but then they were like, “Great, woodshop,” and I was like, “Oh, O.K.” and then they were like, “You're going to be the laser cutting technician.” I've made it a point in my whole career to use things that don't plug in. I grew up half my life in the woods where the power went out easily, and I wanted to be able to make my work without an electrical cord. So, that was a challenge, but that series also developed. I was sitting there and thinking about the simple sash chain you get at the hardware store. It's like one-on-one aluminum link, a very affordable, cheap, go-to chain, and then my brain was like, “What if I tweak it and do this and this?” If you look at the leather, it's not mathematically proportionate; it's hand-drawn. It comes from that. Then I was speaking to friends and all of a sudden, it was like, “This is what it could mean.” You see meanings after you do it when it's done. What I also love about that work is that I can't tell you how long it takes, because those pieces are family for me. I would lay out patterns, and then I would buy everybody pizza and beer and call my friends and I would prepare them. They have to be soaked in certain things, and other things we were figuring out the best way to weave. Everyone would sit around in a circle and weave necklaces. For me, it's about family and community and the linking of things. That's for me, but if you like my work because of something else, there is nothing wrong with that.  That's the research I'm interested in now. It matters why we make, but it also matters why we wear and why we buy. How do we talk about all of that together? That is what I think of as the work. As craftspeople, yeah, the work is the object we make, but even after we die, the work continues. How do we think about or frame what it means to you, then, to wear my necklace, and what do you get out of it? What fulfills you could be totally different than what I do, but that adds to what the work is. I think my jewelry is so beautiful because it could have this life. After you wear it, what happens to it? Does somebody else wear it? Do you give it to somebody? That adds another stratum of meaning, so over time, you continuously compress different meanings. Even if it goes behind a museum case—I'm not saying my work will do that—but when people's work goes behind a museum case, when you see it and when a five-year-old sees it versus a 70-year-old, versus someone from one country and another, that's another meaning: how they relate to it, how they could think of themselves wearing it, what they think it's about. It just piles more and more meaning. It all goes back to someone's body, not the body or a body, but all of our bodies. So, all of a sudden, you have objects that have this compression of people. If that doesn't allow you to have a point to talk about equity and humanness and labor and class and all those complex things, that's jewelry. It ties directly to us as people. It's important what you get out of wearing my necklace, why I made it, but it also almost doesn't matter in a way, because we're contributing to the pile. In theory that's called thickening, the thickening of a history. There isn't one history of something; it's historiography. It's the multiple possibilities of something. When you see jewelry, you can project yourself onto it. You can say, “I'm going to wear that to this party. I'm going to wear it to this thing, to this wedding, to a christening, to a birth, to this grocery store.” That's a potential history when you see it, and what if we tied all of those together? Even when you look at an object, that's why I love jewelry. Sharon: Matt, thank you so much. You gave us a lot to think about. I could talk with you for another hour. Thank you so much for being with us today. matt: Yes, it's a super pleasure again. Like I said, you're one of my very first collectors I ran into in Stockholm by happenstance. Sharon: It's a great happenstance. Thank you so much. matt: Thank you, Sharon. Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a rating and review so we can help others start their own jewelry journey.

What you'll learn in this episode: How we can examine almost any political topic through the lens of jewelry  Why it's important that jewelry be embraced by academia, and how every jewelry enthusiast can help make that happen (even if they're not in academia themselves) Why a piece of jewelry isn't finished when it leaves the hands of its maker How Matt works with collaborators for their column, “Settings and Findings,” in Lost in Jewelry Magazine How jewelry has tied people together throughout time and space About Matt Lambert Matt Lambert is a non-binary, trans, multidisciplinary collaborator and co-conspirator working towards equity, inclusion, and reparation. They are a founder and facilitator of The Fulcrum Project and currently are a PhD student between Konstfack and University of Gothenburg in Sweden. They hold a MA in Critical Craft Studies from Warren Wilson College and an MFA in Metalsmithing from Cranbrook Academy of Art.  Lambert currently is based in Stockholm Sweden and was born in Detroit MI, US where they still maintain a studio. They have exhibited work nationally and internationally including at: Turner Contemporary, Margate, Uk, ArkDes, and Sven-Harrys Konstmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden, Museo de la Ciudad, Valencia , Spain and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, US. Lambert represented the U.S in Triple Parade at HOW Museum, Shanghai, China, represented the best of craft in Norway during Salon del Mobile, Milan, Italy and was the invited feature at the Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece during Athens Jewelry Week. Lambert has actively contributed writing to Art Jewelry Forum, Garland, Metalsmith Magazine, Klimt02, Norwegian Craft and the Athens Jewelry Week catalogues and maintains a running column titled “Settings and Findings” in Lost in Jewelry Magazine. Additional Resources: Matt's Website Matt's Instagram Transcript:  Matt Lambert doesn't just want us to wear jewelry—they want us to question it. As a maker, writer, and Ph.D. student, Matt spends much of their time thinking about why we wear jewelry, who makes it, and what happens to jewelry as it's passed from person to person. They joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about the inspirations behind their work, why jewelry carries layers of meaning, and why wearing jewelry (or not wearing it) is always a political act. Read the episode transcript here.    Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is a two-part Jewelry Journey Podcast. Please make sure you subscribe so you can hear part two as soon as it comes out later this week. Today, my guest is Matt Lambert, who is joining us from Stockholm. Matt is a maker, writer and performer currently pursuing a Ph.D.    Matt's jewelry journey has taken them from country to country. What sticks in my mind is one of my first encounters with them on an Art Jewelry Forum trip. I saw them in a hotel lobby in Sweden wearing one of their iconic creations, a laser-cut leather neckpiece I flipped over. We'll hear all about their amazing jewelry journey today. Matt, thanks so much for being here.   Matt: Thanks so much for having me, Sharon. It's a pleasure.   Sharon: Your jewelry journey has taken you all over the world. I'm always amazed when I hear how you hop from country to country. So, tell us about it. How did you get into it?   Matt: Originally I was trained as a psychologist.   Sharon: Wow!   Matt: It's kind of strange, but it makes perfect sense for what I do now in human sexuality and gender. I was researching body politics and what it means to be a person and be represented through media or in other cultures. I started off in that community, and I took a metalsmithing course on a whim. There was a woman in one of my classes who was taking it as her art elective. I thought we were going to be making something completely different by forging silver. I was like, “Wait, what? You can do that?” I really fell into it.   I was a researcher for the APA doing government research—   Sharon: APA being the American Psychological—   Matt: The American Psychological Association. After community college, I went on to Wayne State and studied under F.M. Larson for metalsmithing. At the very end, Lauren Kalman joined. She is tenured and was well-known at Wayne State University in Detroit.    The work I was doing was very rigorous. I worked in a rape and trauma research lab with no windows in a basement, and I wasn't finding a way to talk about people and bodies and those things in the ways I had hoped. It was fulfilling me, but not in every aspect of my life.  So, I kept pouring myself into this strange thing of contemporary jewelry.    I never thought I would go to grad school. I wound up going to Cranbrook Academy of Art, which is just 40 minutes down the road from Wayne State. Even then, I thought I was going to go across the country for art school. I fell in love with the program at Cranbrook. Iris Eichenberg, who teaches there, told me, “You have to fail really bad in order to learn what's good and what's good for your practice.” It was so liberating that I could apply all the research I learned and used and still use it today, but to put it and manifest it in jewelry. That opened Pandora's box.    Sharon: How did you decide to go from studying psychology and being at Wayne State to go to such a renowned art school that you don't know? It's for art jewelers, basically.   Matt: Yeah, it's renowned. I think it shares the number one space for metalsmithing and jewelry, and it's renowned also for hollowware and gate making. It has a long history of Americana metalsmithing. With Iris being there for contemporary jewelry, it sounds a little bit pretentious.    The relationship I was in wanted me to stay local. It was like, “You should apply.” I really thought through everything weird and wonderful that I wanted to be doing, and I was like, “If I'm going to stay, then you have to take this all on.” Iris was like, “O.K., let's do it.” Even if didn't work out, it was like, “I can just go back to psychology if this doesn't work.”   Cranbrook has an international reputation which also meant traveling a lot. In between semesters, I was the assistant for Christoph Zellweger, who's based out of Zurich, Switzerland. I don't know if they're still there now, but at the time, I was their assistant in Switzerland during my years there. My partner was Monica Gaspar, so I got a theorist who I also got to work with. Then I kind of traveled everywhere. Before I started at Cranbrook, the first time I was in Europe, we had to go to KORU7, which is the jewelry triennial in Finland. They also do seminars. So, for me, it became a very global, European to North American perspective.   Sharon: I'm always amazed at your country hopping. Was this something you were considered a natural at? Were you finger painting at age five and your parents were saying, “Oh, they're going to be an artist”?   Matt: I do have a background in wildlife illustration. I was homeschooled until sixth grade, but I was put in a lot of enrichment programs, so I did have ceramics; I had languages; I had all sorts of courses and electives. Growing up I trained in something called monart, which is not taught in public school; it's only for private training. It's a way of drawing where you draw from negative space, which I think contributes to my work, as I think through negative space. I was doing a lot of wildlife illustrations. I have quite a few childhood publications, like realistic waterfowl and birds of prey. I dabbled a little bit with Sidney Shelby. The Shelby has an art program for auto illustration, too.   So, there is some of that. I thought I was going to go into drawing and painting before I went into psychology, but I had an evaluation at community college when I started and they kind of broke my dreams. They said I was terrible and said, “You shouldn't be an artist.” I would always say, “If you're told you shouldn't be an artist, you probably should be.” So, I went into psychology as a shelter to do that.    I'm a big advocate for trade schools and community colleges as places to find yourself. I fell in love with metalsmithing there, and I knew I would never leave it. My mother's cousin was actually a former a Tiffany's jeweler, so there is a little bit in the family. She was a cheerleader for me. She was like, “You're doing what? Oh, have you found a hammer and silver? Great.” She trained under Phil Fike, who was at Wayne State University when she was there. It's always interesting what she thinks I do because I'm not a very technical, proper silversmith like she was. When I finally went to school and said I was going to do this officially, she gave me her studio.   Sharon: Wow! You have two master's degrees and now you're working on a Ph.D. Can you tell us about that? One is critical art, or critical—   Matt: Yeah, critical craft theory. I graduated Cranbrook in 2014 from metalsmithing and jewelry, and I had electives in sculpture and textile. At the same time, I should say, I had also apprenticed as a leatherworker doing car interiors, like 1920s period Rolls-Royces, so I had a leather background I was able to bring to Cranbrook. A lot of my work was varied, but there was a lot of leather involved. After that, I had a partial apprenticeship in semi-antique rug restoration. There's a lot of training in leather-working material.   So, I graduated, and I met Sophia. We had met a few times, and then she ended up being the evaluator/respondent for our graduation show. So, she saw my work as I wished it to be, and she offered me a solo show. She said, “An agent is coming to see the gallery. Come help out. Come see this world,” which is how we met.   Sharon: And her gallery is in Sweden, right?   Matt: Her gallery is in Stockholm, yes, in Sweden. I had a show, and that was amazing. There's a government program called IASPIS, which is an invite-only program that the Swedish government runs. It's the international arts organization. I was invited there because they were looking for—they added applied arts, and I was the first jeweler and metalsmith to be there. That's a three-month program where you're invited to live and work, and that gives you great networking opportunities not only with Sweden, but also with Scandinavia at large for museums and shows. I was the first foreigner at Tobias Alm, who was a Swedish jeweler and the first Swedish artist in jewelry to be there. That just upped and changed my life. I got into museum shows and met people and had a career for about four or five years and loved it; it was amazing and I wanted more.    I love theory. I am a theory addict, so I was like, “A Ph.D. is the next logical thing.” I was applying and making finals, but jewelry is a hard sell, if you will, in academia. Warren Wilson College is in North Carolina in the States. There is a think tank out of the Center for Craft, which is located in Asheville, North Carolina, and they deal with all kinds of craft. They're a great epicenter and source of knowledge for American craft discourses. Out of this came this development of this program. They partnered with Warren Wilson College to create a master's, which is a two-year program at Warren Wilson College, which is just 20 minutes away from Ashville.    It's low residency, so there's two weeks per term you'd be in person and the rest you could live anywhere, which was perfect for me because I was traveling so much. So, you do two weeks on campus in the summer and live in the dorm, and then you do two weeks—when I did it, at least, it was with the Center for Craft. We had a classroom there. Namita Wiggers is the founding director, and we got to work with amazing theorists: Linda Sandino, Ben Lignel, who's a former editor for Art Jewelry Forum, Glenn Adamson, the craft theorist, Jenni Sorkin, who lives in California teaching, Judith Lieman—this is an amazing powerhouse. There's Kevin Murray from Australia, who runs the World Crafts Organization. I was a bit part in it. He also edits Garland, which is an Australia-based publication for craft. It was an amazing pulling together of craft theory. At this time, I also thought I was dyslexic, so I was trying to find a new way to write being neurodivergent. Writing has now become—   Sharon: You do a lot of it. When I was looking last night, I could see you've done a lot of writing. My question is, why did you not stop and say, “O.K., I'm going to make things I like”? What was it that attracted you to theory? Maybe it's too deep for me.    Matt: I think we've positioned the Ph.D. to be the next step always, but I don't think academia is for everybody. A master's even, I always questioned, do we as makers always need to be in academia? For me, though, my drive is that I think jewelry is in one of the best theoretical positions to talk about a lot of very difficult contemporary issues. Craft in general, but I think jewelry because it's so tied to the body. It's so blurry because it's design; it's fashion; it's craft; it's art; it's a consumable good; it can be worn. It challenges how we exhibit it. If you need to wear it to experience it, how does a museum show it?    For me, it's this little terror or antagonizer that I think theoretically, from my background, is a great place to stay with, and I think that it's been neglected in certain spaces. It's the only field to not be in the Whitney Biennial. It ties perfectly with certain forms of feminism and queerness, which is the theoretical basis I come to it from, to talk about these things. It can't be always defined, and that's what I love about jewelry. People find it surprising when I'm like, “I love talking about commercial jewelry or production jewelry,” because if that's what turns your gears, what you love to wear or buy or make, I want to know why. I want to see jewelry expand and envelope all of this, so that we can be at the Whitney Biennial. We also could be everywhere else.   Sharon: Can't you do that without the Ph.D.? I'm not trying to knock it. I'm just playing devil's advocate.   Matt: Yeah, I think someone else can do that as well. For me, though, I truly love theory. I love the academics. For me, that is an actual passion. It's what drives me. It's not necessarily the physical making; it's the theory behind why. I'm actually questioning my practice. Should I be making physical objects now, or should I just be celebrating people that make physical objects? My making practice is almost entirely collaborative now, working with other jewelers or performers or choreographers or educators and using jewelry as a way of introducing or as producing an output.    How does jewelry fit into research? I think research output is an interesting thing for me. I can go on about this all day. So, for me, I want to make an academic foothold for jewelry. I want to do that work. I see that as my facet. I don't think everybody needs to go and do that. I want to see everybody find the thing they love as much as I love academia and theory. I want to push on so we can expand the field together.   Sharon: I think that's great. It's great to hear, because it's a strong voice giving credibility to the field, as opposed to, “Oh, you must be interested in big diamonds if you're talking about jewelry.” You're talking about it on a much deeper level. It's hard to explain to people why you like jewelry or jewelry history, so it's good to hear.    Last night—I say last night because I was refreshing my memory—I was looking at one of your articles about the “we” in jewelry. Can you tell us about that?   Matt: Absolutely. I write for multiple publications: Metalsmith Magazine, which is in the U.S. and is part of SNAG, the Society for North American Goldsmiths; Norwegian Craft; Art Jewelry Forum. I run a column called Settings and Findings out of Lost in Jewelry Magazine, which is based in Rome. I also write for Athens Jewelry Week catalogues, which has gotten me into writing a series for Klimt, which is a platform for makers, collectors, wearers, and appreciators based out of Barcelona. They invited me to write a five-part series after they had republished an essay I wrote for Athens Jewelry Week. Those people gave me an amazing platform to write, and then Klimt was like, “What do you want to do?” and I was like, “Five essays about what we do with jewelry.”    One of them is the “we” article. That came from being in lockdown and the theorist Jean-Luc Nancy, who wrote about something called “singular plural.” It's just saying that we don't ever do anything alone, and I think jewelry is a beautiful illustration of that. I moved during the pandemic to do the Ph.D., and I found myself wearing jewelry to do my laundry because I got to do it with a friend. It's so sappy in way, but it's true. It's a way to carry someone else with you, and jewelry is not an act done alone. I mean, we're trained as jewelers. We're trained by someone, so we carry that knowledge with us. We are transmitters as makers, but then we have collectors and wearers and museums and other things, and they need to be worn. It needs to be seen in some fashion or valued or held.    My personal stance is that jewelry, once it leaves my hands as a maker, isn't done. I'm interested as a researcher, as a Ph.D., in how we talk about that space in between. If you wear one of my pieces, and someone listening wears one of my pieces, and that same piece is in a museum, how we understand that is completely different. Jewelry creates this amazing space to complexify, and that's when you talk about bodies and equity and race, sex, gender, size, age. All the important things that are in the political ethos can be discussed through jewelry, and that's the “we” of jewelry.    We have this controversy about the death of the author and authorship doesn't matter, but speaking through craft, we are never alone. To me, it's like I make through the people I've learned through. I am a transmitter to the people that I teach and to me, that's what craft is. Also, craft is a way of looking at the world, at systems, and who we learn from and how we learn. I think jewelry is one of the most obvious “we's.”   Sharon: This is a question that maybe there's no answer to, but is jewelry separate from craft? There's always the question of what craft is. Is craft art? Is it jewelry?    Matt: That depends on whom you ask. I personally do not believe in the art versus craft debate. I am not in that pool. I believe craft is a way of looking at anything in the world. I think craft is learned through material specificity. I usually enjoy metalsmithing. It's through copper or silver, but it's really spending time with something singular to explore its possibility. It's a way of learning how things start, how things are produced, how labor works, where there are bodies and processes, so you can pick up anything in the world and look at anything and see people and humanity. Even through digital technology, someone has to write a program. It gives you a skillset to look at the world, and that's how I approach craft.    You're going to find so many different definitions, but coming from that perspective, that is what I believe, and that's why I think craft is so valuable. To answer if jewelry is craft, yes and no. You can talk about jewelry through craft, but you could talk about jewelry through fashion. You can talk about jewelry through product design. Again, I think that's why jewelry is beautiful and problematic, because it can be so many things at the same time.    Sharon: I'm intrigued by the fact that you're interested in all kinds of jewelry, whether it's art jewelry or contemporary jewelry. When you're in the mall and you see Zales and look in the window, would you say it all falls under that, with everything you're talking about? Does it transmit the same thing?   Matt: Through a craft lens, you can look at any of that. You can go to Zales and the labor is wiped out. You're no longer going to your local jewelry shop. The person is making your custom ring, but when you look at that ring, you have an ability to go, “Someone had to facet the stone and cut it, a lapidary. Someone had to make the bands. Someone had to mine the stone. Someone had to find this material.” It allows you to unpack where objects are coming from and potentially where they're going.    You can understand studio practices because you're relating more directly to a maker, who has more knowledge of where their materials come from, rather than the sales associate at the Zales counter. It's a simpler model, but it is the same thing to me. The way I look at it, that is craft's value to my practice. I'm very careful to say it's my practice because there are so many definitions, but that's what I think is sustainable in this training. You can be trained as a jeweler and not make jewelry, but it's still valuable in your life because you can apply it to anything.   Sharon: I was also intrigued by the title of an article you wrote, “Who Needs Jewelry, Anyway?” So, who does need jewelry?   Matt: Yeah, that's one that kicked it up to the next level. There are moments in my career where I can feel the level upward, like I enter a space that's different. That was an essay that was written for Athens Jewelry Week. That was the first essay I wrote before I had the feature at the Benaki Museum. At Athens Jewelry Week, those women worked their tails off to make that event happen.    I wrote that when I was at the tail end of my second master's, and I was frustrated. I think we see that students are frustrated and people are questioning, especially during Covid, especially during Black Lives Matter, especially during the fight for indigenous rights, do we need jewelry? What does this mean? It's a commodity. It can be frivolous. It's a bauble. It can be decorative. Like, what are we doing? I think that is something we should always question, and the answer for that can be expressed in many ways. It can be expressed from what you make, but also what you do with what you make. How do you live the rest of your life?    There isn't a one-lane answer for that, but that's what that essay was about. We don't need jewelry, but we really do. The first half of the essay is saying what the problem is, but the problem is also where the solutions sit. It's all about how you want to approach it. That is what that essay was saying. You can consume this and wear it; it is what it is, and that's fine. You can participate in systems and learn and discover and know who you are wearing and support them. Wearing jewelry is a political act no matter what jewelry you're wearing. Where you consume is a political act. Political neutrality is still a political statement. That article specifically was for art jewelry, and it was saying, hey, when you participate, when you buy, when you wear, when you make, it means something. You're bringing people with you; what people are you choosing to bring? It was stirring the pot, and it was very intentional to do that.   Sharon: I couldn't answer the question about who needs jewelry. You're asking me, but certainly I can think of people who say, “I don't need it,” who have no interest or wouldn't see the continuum behind a ring or a piece of jewelry.    This is a two-part Jewelry Journey Podcast. Please make sure you subscribe so you can hear part two as soon as it comes out later this week. 

Andrea is a Mexican-American artist based in Texas. She obtained her BFA in Studio Arts from the University of Texas and has received multiple awards, including residencies at Ox Bow School of Art and Penland School of Crafts. She has worked and exhibited internationally and currently teaches metalsmithing in several institutions in Texas. With metalsmithing she creates sculptural pieces as well as knives. She is also pursuing a passion in scientific glass blowing. You can follow along with Andrea on Instagram and her Website.

The first time I met Susan Lenart was in a cold connections workshop at an art retreat. Her class blew my mind – she taught us to infuse found objects, wire, hand tools, and other jewelry-making bits and pieces with kinetic energy - but to attend to them with intense focus and skill. It was like a journey we all went on together, with Susan as our guide. In addition to being an accomplished artist and jeweler, Susan is also an author, instructor, and expert at product development. In this episode, Susan and I talk about her metalsmithing lifestyle and how listening to her artistic voice is the key to her success.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode, we had an inspiring and fun conversation with Maine jewelry designer Ebenezer Akakpo. We talked about his journey from dreaming to be an architect to becoming a jewelry designer, how he creates his new pieces, his inspiration, how he's helping people, and more!   ABOUT OUR GUEST: Ebenezer's portfolio spans various mediums and processes; when combined with the visual Language symbols or Adinkra symbols from his native Ghana, he presents a unique collection of ideas and creations. His jewelry-making passion led him to Florence, Italy, where he studied stone-setting and jewelry design and also discovered the world of computer-aided design and manufacturing. He moved to the US and studied Metalsmithing and Jewelry at the Maine College of Art, Portland, Maine, and Industrial design at Rochester Institute of Technology, in Rochester, NY. In 2017 he founded the Akakpo Design Group LLC in Maine, focusing on designing Jewelry, Apparel, and home accessories. Visit Ebenezer's website www.akakpo.com to see the symbols he uses in his designs and also place orders as well. Be sure to follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube as well as checking out his other brand, Maine Culture.   ABOUT KEEP IT LOCAL MAINE: We are a way for local businesses to promote themselves to thousands of people in and around their communities - letting them know what great services and products they offer right here in Maine! We currently publish four issues in areas around Southern Maine in addition to our podcast. To learn more about us, visit keepitlocalmaine.com or follow us on social media - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Victoria (Vika) Bulgakova is the designer, owner, and maker behind the Swanky Crow jewelry brand and internationally exhibiting award-winning artist. At the age of 42 she left her successful corporate career in New York, moved to Michigan to attend the MFA program in Metalsmithing at Cranbrook Academy of Art, and established her studio practice in Detroit upon graduation. She had no prior metalsmithing experience and no formal art education when she started this journey. Two major values that drive Vika's work are beauty and sustainability. Sustainability as a multi-faceted concept pertaining to every aspect of our lives: our personal and professional relationships, our careers, our physical and mental health, our environment, to name a few. How do we make choices that will sustain, nourish, and fulfill us long term? And she strongly believes that talent is overrated. Vika holds an MFA degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art, an MA in Communications and a BA in English from NYU, and Classical Piano degree from Mariupol Music College in Ukraine, her homeland where she lived until immigrating to the US at the age of 20. What You Will Learn: What life was life growing up in totalitarian, Ukraine Why being a political refugee wired Vika to take a stable “survival” job How Vika applied her English degree towards a corporate career in technology The difference between genius and talent  How being afraid can help prompt new ventures How to contact Victoria Bulgakova: Website: www.swankycrow.com https://www.victoriabulgakova.work/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriabulgakova/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swanky.crow.jewels/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vb.handmade.jewelry/

“Nothing reveals the functionality of the objects Betony Vernon designs. Yet, her works are at the service of the body, exacerbated, loved. Betony Vernon is invested in the field of erotic and sensual doing. The development of her work is multidisciplinary, spanning sessions of practical teaching and curative sharing, the writing of her book The Boudoir Bible currently translated in 7 languages and the design of sublime objects — jewels, sculpture, furniture, objets d'art — as well as happenings. The most recent public happening was in 2017 at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France. Through this wide fan of mediums, none of which abstract the human body, Betony Vernon signs an aesthetic of wellness, a sophisticated interaction to the other and above all, to oneself.” — Michele Heuze, 2017 Daring, provocative and boundary-defying, Betony Vernon is an American-born designer, sexual anthropologist and author based in Paris. Her aesthetic is formed by her explorations in spirituality, sex, sensuality and the erotic body realm. She holds degrees in Art History and Metalsmithing from Virginia Commonwealth University as well as a master's degree in Industrial Design from Domus Academy in Milan, Italy. In 2017 she certified as a clinical hypnotherapist in order to further her ongoing research and transformational work in sexual well-being, abuse and trauma. Her design work has been included in a number of international exhibitions from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to the Triennale Design Museum in Milan. She has also designed jewelry and objects for several brands including Missoni, Gianfranco Ferré, Alexander Wang, Pampaloni and Fornasetti. Vernon was also the design director for Fornasetti from 1996-2012. In 2002 her erotic jewelry collection, composed of over 400 functional jewels and objects in sterling silver and 18 karat gold, became the interface for what she describes as her mission to empower women and men to enjoy and share greater pleasure. Rizzoli International published Vernon's first book The Boudoir Bible, The Uninhibited Sex Guide for Today in February 2013. The tome is currently available in 7 languages. A re-edition of the French version published by Robert Laffont was released in November 2016 reaching bestseller status. Vernon's designs are crafted in Italy using natural, durable materials such as gold, silver, marble, leather and wood. The Origin Chair, a functional sculpture carved in statuary marble from Italy, was unveiled in December 2012 at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan and has since traveled to MUDAC-Museum of Design and Contemporary Art in Lausanne. In November 2015 the work was also exhibited in Vernon's carte blanche Installation for the Gewerbemuseum in Winterthur. In 2017, Vernon unveiled the Boudoir Box for the first time to the general public during MEDUSA, a group exhibition at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France. The transportable work was created in 1999 to present her erotic jewelry designs to collectors around the world. A selection of her designs is currently exhibited in Winterthur at the Gewerbemuseum in the group exhibition Federn/ Feathers 2019-2020. Vernon's ultimate goal both as author and designer is to “dismantle the pleasure taboo.” www.betonyvernon.com www.youtube.com/user/betonyv   [This episode contains sensitive and adult subject matter of a sexual nature. Discretion is advised for listeners under 18 years old.]

In this episode Sam meets metalsmith, jewelry maker, and entrepreneur, Halie Conyers. They chat about her artistic family, metal smithing, her grandmother’s abstract paintings, the renaissance in Detroit, the first ring she ever made, chainmail shoulder pads, the story behind the jewelry, connecting with people, magnifying glasses, lab made diamonds, and flash-points.

Ashley Rae Alvarez, owner and designer behind Raebird—a hand forged line of jewelry—shares the in's and out's of running her Creative Business. Ashley's story is one of high self-belief and of going against the grain of what the people around her believed was possible.She talks about her years in the coast guard and how she used the GI Bill to pay for design school which quickly lead her to falling in love with the first Metalsmithing class she took. This breadcrumb effect takes her all the way to living in North Idaho, creating gorgeous hand forged jewelry in the mountains, and starting a business out of nothing.She talks about the hardships, too. The self-doubt, fear and imposter syndrome that comes along with any creative small business. We dig deep into her divorce and conscious uncoupling that happened back in 2017 followed by her move cross country to be with the love of her life. This episode is for anyone looking to live a more Creative Life and who's just needing that extra push into the beauty of the unknown... Small Business Sponsorship:Gypsy Vine — 15% off with by using the code HONEY at checkoutWe also talk about:Ashley and Dani’s instant connectionThe way Ashley weaves so much intention and love into every piece she makesHer Northern California, ranch life upbringing Her years in the Coast GuardUsing the GI Bill for design schoolHer instant love for metal smithing How people didn’t believe she could make a living off her passions Ashley making the move up to IdahoHow Ashley’s childhood upbringing influences her aesthetic todayWhy she works primarily with turquoise Ashley’s “conscious uncoupling” with her ex husbandHow Ashley’s divorce and rockbottom put her life on the correct trackImposter Syndrom Growing up with entrepreneur parents How much she values the freedom that comes with her Creative LifeHer tips for curating a cohesive social media page and grow a strong following How she photographs her workHow Ashley and her now husband came to beMoving cross country for loveLosing both of her parentsAshley’s spin on what creativity means to her lately Links:Campfire Coutour The Cozy Roller book your stayConnect with Ashley:InstagramWebsiteConnect with Dani:WebsiteInstagramNewsletter Creative Living Mentorship

“I didn’t set a stone ’till I was 55,” says Susan Lister Locke, who owns the eponymous gallery on Nantucket (https://susanlisterlocke.com/) and was voted Best Jeweler on Nantucket from 2017-2020. “Real estate had slowed to a crawl. I had been there for the booming years. But it wasn’t working and I didn’t see it coming back.” Metalsmithing had been a passion which Susan had explored in schools and workshops in the States and Italy.  She had a studio at home and when the real estate dried up, a great location for a shop came up, and she decided to take the leap. “I didn’t have a lot of money so I let the big boys do diamonds,” she says. “The first stone I bought was a colored stone. I worked with pearls and Australian bolder opals. I wasn’t a gemologist.” What Locke especially loves about the engagement and wedding rings she creates: “Those are heirlooms; they get passed down….You’re part of their story.” Her advice for those trying to make the leap from corporate to art:” Be prepared for greatness. I wasn’t.”

Megan Auman is a jewelry artist from Pennsylvania. She majored in metalsmithing in college and now makes stunning jewelry from steel and silver. She has many years of experience with retail sales as well as showing her creations at wholesale trade shows. She now teaches other artists how to profit from their creativity through her classes and coaching. Show notes for all of these episodes can be found on my website at https://suzanneredmond.com/my-podcast/list-of-artists/

This episode I chat with the owner of Beth Millner Jewelry about how she's kept her small business running during the pandemic by helping our communities and front line workers. Plus much more!https://www.bethmillner.com/

I'm chatting with Emily Schuhmann about creating community across the globe through art! Emily is a multi-faceted creatrix who works, teaches, and expresses from a down to earth, understanding and empathetic perspective. As a visual artist, guide/intuitive practitioner, dancer, and international co-ordinator for Kalakhetra International Artist Residency she leads delightful, empowering and holistic workshops, classes, and one on one sessions all over the world. Emily is driven to express, organize, create and inspire; and draws from many traditions and qualifications: Yoga Teaching Certificate (YTT200hr, Rishikesh, India), Trauma and Injury Recovery, Therapeutic Art Life Coaching Certificate, Life Coaching Certificate, Master Reiki Certificate (Usui), (soon to complete) Regenisis Certification (past life recovery), along with MFA from Texas Tech in Metalsmithing and painting and a Graduate Certificate in Contemporary Art Theories. Find her online: Website: https://www.gettinintuit.com/ Blog: https://perpetualviewerpersistentmaker.com  

What you’ll learn in this episode: How and why Shenkar’s Department of Jewelry Design was founded. Why Shenkar is on the cutting-edge of jewelry design and innovation education. The unique classes Shenkar offers to students. How Shenkar prepares students for careers in the jewelry design field. About Uri Samet: Uri Samet is the co-founder of the Alice Gottesman Jewelry Design Department at Shenkar College in Israel, where he served as a senior lecturer and member of the faculty until appointed head of the Department. He teaches courses in eyeglasses, watch design, gold and silversmithing, while working in conjunction with external companies. Uri also has his own independent studio, where he works on diverse projects across the industry. Over the years, he has exhibited in numerous exhibitions in Israel and abroad. Uri holds a master’s degree in design from the University of Middlesex in London and a bachelor's degree from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Upon completion of his studies, Uri attended a continued design program at the vocational gold and silversmithing school, Centro di Formazione Professionale in Florence, Italy. Additional resources: Department of Jewelry Design Website Department's Facebook Department's Instagram SNAG 2020 conference Transcript 

Sarah Jane Sindler of KING RELD joins me for an awesome talk about fashion, art, metalsmithing and our favorite swear words. Sit back, relax, and let's Start The Beat!   ALSO AVAILABLE ON:Spotify · Apple · Google · Stitcher · YouTube · Instagram · Facebook    

Sara Dahmen is an author. When she was writing a piece of historical fiction she became obsessed with metalsmithing of the 18th and 19th century, specifically copper and tinware for the kitchen. She now runs House Copper and is making heirloom quality copper, cast iron, pottery and textiles. All he products are made in the USA in the traditions of our ancestors. She's also a mom of 3, and an award winning author. Sara was able to take a few minutes away from a busy trip to NY from her home in Wisconsin to speak with Harry in the HRN studio It's HRN's annual summer fund drive, this is when we turn to our listeners and ask that you make a donation to help ensure a bright future for food radio. Help us keep broadcasting the most thought provoking, entertaining, and educational conversations happening in the world of food and beverage. Become a member today! To celebrate our 10th anniversary, we have brand new member gifts available. So snag your favorite new pizza - themed tee shirt or enamel pin today and show the world how much you love HRN, just go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate Feast Yr Ears is powered by Simplecast.

Season 3 of Spirituality for Ordinary People is all about Prayer Walking. In this third episode, Matt Brough continues the conversation from episode 2 with Robin McGauley about Labyrinths. Check out the resources below the picture of the Labyrinth... Overhead view of the Labyrinth in Chartres Cathedrale Resources: Veriditas: https://www.veriditas.org The Expressive Arts program at fleming college: https://flemingcollege.ca/programs/expressive-arts Robin's Website - Amazing metalsmithing - check it out! Season 1, Episode 8 of Spirituality for Ordinary People - Creativity, Metalsmithing, and Labyrinths with Rev. Robin McGauley Follow Spirituality for Ordinary People on Instagram Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher | TuneIn Radio | Google Play

Season 3 of Spirituality for Ordinary People is all about Prayer Walking. In this second episode, Matt Brough, welcomes Robin McGauley back to the podcast to talk about walking the Labyrinth. This is such an amazing conversation. So amazing, that it has been broken up into 2 parts - so there will be another episode with the second half of the conversation! Check out the resources below the picture of the Labyrinth... Overhead view of the Labyrinth in Chartres Cathedrale Resources: Veriditas: https://www.veriditas.org The Expressive Arts program at fleming college: https://flemingcollege.ca/programs/expressive-arts Robin's Website - Amazing metalsmithing - check it out! Season 1, Episode 8 of Spirituality for Ordinary People - Creativity, Metalsmithing, and Labyrinths with Rev. Robin McGauley Follow Spirituality for Ordinary People on Instagram Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher | TuneIn Radio | Google Play

Megan Auman starts off by telling A + K her creative backstory and how she came into metalsmithing. She talks about diving in head first exhibiting at her first trade show with no experience, with only two months to prepare for it, and repeating everything she heard in the next booth over. She says, “If you wait ‘till you’re ready, you’re never gonna be ready. Sometimes you have to jump in.” Plus, Megan talks about the big ‘P’ WORD in running your own business: PRICING. She brings up the term 'artificial pricing’ for the first time on the podcast, and how ‘dream jobs’ are still JOBS and ‘work we love’ is still WORK! Megan makes a case for what her jewelry has that big box stores don’t: a story, a REAL person behind it, and a connection. She finishes the conversation talking about the hashtag #endstudioshame, to end the anxiety + shame about how messy & un-Pinterest worthy the creative process in your physical space can get.

Partnership For The ARTS Talk Show 37 Where We Talk Art with… Metalsmith Instructor Belinda Declos Join Dave and Cat as they talk with award winning Metalsmith Instructor Belinda Declos and Kimberly Phillips, V.A.C. Director of Programs. Belinda, originally from Massachusetts, moved to Florida to find the beaches and her calling, which she found at the Visual Art Center. What started as just “something new to try” became her life passion. Celebrating her 14th year at the V.A.C. Belinda, along with her new and long-term students, recently put together the highly successful “A Fling with Bling” fundraising event. Listen in, laugh along, and you'll hear why this “forever experimenting” instructor has such a loyal following as she continues to expand in the areas of Metalsmithing.

In this episode, Muneera and I talk about what led her to create and design jewelry, her sources of creativity and inspiration, and how many of her designs represent her connection and affiliation to Kuwait. Muneera has a BFA in Jewelry and Metalsmithing from Rhode Island School of Design and a MA in Design: Jewellery from Central Saint Martins. Muneera received the Arab Woman’s Award for Young Designer in 2016 and the Sheriffs de Mode award in Paris in 2012.  You can see Muneera's work on her website: http://www.muneeraalsharhan.com/ You can also follow her on Instagram @mhsq8

Anna Johnson is a jewelry artist based in Asheville, North Carolina. Her compositions consist largely of found objects mixed with semi-precious and precious materials. Anna’s work is heavily influenced by nature, cultural ideas of value, and environmental preservation. Anna’s work is exhibited internationally and has received several recognitions, including being named as “30 Exceptional Craftspeople Under the Age of 30” (2016) by American Craft Week, and by American Craft Magazine as one of 15 exceptional artists using unusual materials (2015). Additionally, her work has been featured in numerous publications, including Cast: Art and Objects (2017). She has taught at Penland School of Crafts, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and Haywood Community College. Anna received her BFA in Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. What you’ll learn in this episode: What to consider if you’re thinking about becoming a full-time jewelry artist, and the benefits and drawbacks of working in your own studio. A preview of Asheville, NC’s thriving and diverse arts and jewelry community. How Anna incorporates bones and other natural elements into her jewelry. How social media and the internet have changed the way artists make a living and promote their work. How to contact Anna Johnson: Website: www.annajohnsonjewelry.com Instagram @annajohnsonjewelry Upcoming shows: ACC Baltimore (February) ACC Atlanta (March) Smithsonian Craft Show (April)

Artist Corrina Sephora moved to Atlanta in the mid 90s after receiving her BFA in Sculpture and Metalsmithing from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and has stayed on to become an integral player in the Atlanta arts community, establishing a prosperous artistic practice in metal and other media.  She tells Peachy Keen how she created her own apprenticeship program (looking up blacksmiths in the White Pages and refusing to take no for an answer), how local teachers and benefactors helped set her on the path to manage her own studio, and paints a picture of the gritty but thriving creative scene that was Atlanta in the 90s—when her neighbors included both artists (such as Radcliff Bailey and Danielle Roney) and guys that refurbished mac trucks.  We got into some discussion of how gender has and has not affected her trajectory in a career where women have been historically underrepresented, learned the ins and outs of moving a 3000 pound sculpture over a three story house, and covered some of the family backstory and artistic and cultural influences that play into her current exhibition: Between the Deep Blue Sea and the Universe.

Jewelry designer Diana Vincent is one of Bucks County’s best-known artists and business owners. The niece of American fashion designer James Galanos, Diana owns and operates Diana Vincent Inc. with one location in Bucks County and a second nearby in New Jersey. Diana describes her jewelry designs as “simple, fluid and sensual” and has been exhibited at the National Ornamental Metal Museum, the Gemological Institute of America and the Kent State Art Museum. Her jewelry has also been seen on the red carpet at the Oscars and has been featured in Vogue, InStyle, Town & Country, and Modern Bride. In this conversation with Yvette Taylor-Hachoose, Diana explores how she was influenced by her education and family, what inspires her, and what she envisions for the coming year.

Joining us is Shayba Muhammad, Designer and Owner of Mahnal Jewelry. Mahnal is a collection of handcrafted contemporary brass jewelry. Taking inspiration from nature, architecture and texture, Mahnal seeks to shed light on diversity, Islam and the Arabic language. Shayba began studying design and fashion while at the Institute of Art in Chicago. She relocated back to St. Louis to study metalsmithing and jewelry full time. Shayba focuses her efforts on growing Mahnal and adding to the local small business economy. In this episode: - Shayba takes us along her design journey...it began with a love for art at an early age. - How she came to metalsmithing as her discipline of choice. Why did she choose Brass? - Shayba's creative philosophy and how this connected to her broader vision. - Shayba incorporates a personal message to women and a message of diversity with her work. What does she want to communicate to the community and to others? - More about the Makers Mart. - Details about entrepreneurial work she is building for underserved communities. - What is her greatest accomplishment and creation? - Lessons for other artists and entrepreneurs from her experience. Learn more: Website  Company Facebook

Joining us is Shayba Muhammad, Designer and Owner of Mahnal Jewelry. Mahnal is a collection of handcrafted contemporary brass jewelry. Taking inspiration from nature, architecture and texture, Mahnal seeks to shed light on diversity, Islam and the Arabic language. Shayba began studying design and fashion while at the Institute of Art in Chicago. She relocated back to St. Louis to study metalsmithing and jewelry full time. Shayba focuses her efforts on growing Mahnal and adding to the local small business economy. In this episode: - Shayba takes us along her design journey...it began with a love for art at an early age. - How she came to metalsmithing as her discipline of choice. Why did she choose Brass? - Shayba's creative philosophy and how this connected to her broader vision. - Shayba incorporates a personal message to women and a message of diversity with her work. What does she want to communicate to the community and to others? - More about the Makers Mart. - Details about entrepreneurial work she is building for underserved communities. - What is her greatest accomplishment and creation? - Lessons for other artists and entrepreneurs from her experience. Learn more: Website  http://Mahnal.com Company Facebook http://www.facebook.com/MahnalJewelry/

Joining us is Shayba Muhammad, Designer and Owner of Mahnal Jewelry. Mahnal is a collection of handcrafted contemporary brass jewelry. Taking inspiration from nature, architecture and texture, Mahnal seeks to shed light on diversity, Islam and the Arabic language. Shayba began studying design and fashion while at the Institute of Art in Chicago. She relocated back to St. Louis to study metalsmithing and jewelry full time. Shayba focuses her efforts on growing Mahnal and adding to the local small business economy. In this episode: - Shayba takes us along her design journey...it began with a love for art at an early age. - How she came to metalsmithing as her discipline of choice. Why did she choose Brass? - Shayba's creative philosophy and how this connected to her broader vision. - Shayba incorporates a personal message to women and a message of diversity with her work. What does she want to communicate to the community and to others? - More about the Makers Mart. - Details about entrepreneurial work she is building for underserved communities. - What is her greatest accomplishment and creation? - Lessons for other artists and entrepreneurs from her experience. Learn more: Website  http://Mahnal.com Company Facebook http://www.facebook.com/MahnalJewelry/

In this weeks episode we talk about the scary start to your own online business, the difference between finding inspiration and refreshing yourself, tips for learning more about metal smithing, why its important to support local artists and about the importance of slow, hand making.  How She Creates Challenge: This week we want to learn more about local artists YOU love! Share your favorite local artists + their artwork with us using the #howshecreates hashtag so we can all support more hand makers!  For all shownotes and more info visit http://www.lauren-likes.com/creates-ep-203-metalsmithing/

This Week's Show Archives - Mind Body Spirit Living Some people know early on that they would like to own and run a business, while others unexpectedly find themselves in the position of business owner through unplanned twists and turns.  As our “Re-Invigorating Work” series evolves, we begin discussions with entrepreneurs who share how they are both inspired and challenged in their role as entrepreneurs.  This week’s guest always aspired to own a business and saw his dream come true, in his hometown at a business he once worked at while in high school. Austin Schultz began working for Plumb Gold as a part time sales associate in 2001 while he was attending the Prairie School in Racine, WI.  He purchased Plumb Gold in 2015. He attended college at Miami University of Ohio. There he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design. Austin specializes in custom design and loves to work with colored gems. For more information about Austin and Plumb Gold, go to http://plumbgoldjewelry.com/.  

Episode 8 of the Spirituality for Normal People Podcast features an interview with United Church minister Robin McGauley. Robin is a metalsmith, makes amazing art and jewelry, and is also a Certified Labyrinth Facilitator, a faculty member of the Expressive Arts program at the Haliburton School of Art and Design, and a graduate of the Jubilee program in spiritual direction.We discuss a quote on Robin's website but never get around to actually saying what it is. Here's the quote from Dark Nights of the Soul by Thomas MooreSome things are best done in the dark, including the transformation of raw material into tools and pieces of art. There is a smith in our soul who works the failures and successes of everyday life into eternal shapes that make us who we are. It's not extraordinary, this dark place of heat and hammering, but rather an unspectacular scene of hard work. You might think of your dark night as such a place and realize the importance of keeping it stocked and fired and dim. Your job is to provide the setting and let the divine smith do his work.  IN THIS INTERVIEW WE TALK ABOUT:The importance of craft, artistry, and creativityClaiming being creative as part of ministryThe Metalsmith as a metaphor how God relates to us in times of difficulty or depression.Walking through times of sadnessThe “doing” and “being” involved in spiritual practicesUsing a long commute for meditation and prayerNoticing God, embodiment, and the incarnationWhat are Labyrinths and how they can be helpful for Spiritual LifeFull show notes, links and resources can be found here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mattbrough.substack.com

Sponsor: Every year there is a special place, on a lake in New Hampshire, where people gather to explore their creativity, healing and community. This place is called Squam. Behind this goodness is one remarkable woman by the name of Elizabeth Duvivier, someone who’s sought out to find her path and enlightenment in this creative world, bringing souls together and taking just as much away from each experience as those who attend. The Spring Squam retreat is taking place this June, complete with twinkle lights, generous teachers, sweet walks through the woods, vintage cottages, laughter on the dock, some very incredible workshops and ending with the Squam Art Fair and Ravelry Reverly. Join classes with incredible fiber folks like Gudrun Johnston, Kate Atherley, Andrea Rangel, Kristine Vejar, and Mary Jane Mucklestone to name just a few. And there is still time to register and make your travel plans to attend this June retreat, so visit squamartworkshops.com for more info on this incredible retreat and to register.   Fiber folk: Romi Hill first caught my attention on Instagram a few years ago when I came across of photo of her cowboy boots paired with some beautiful yarn. As time went on became more […]

Our guest on Metalsmith Benchtalk on Thursday, December 3rd, 2015 at 3:00 PM PST is award-winning jewelry designer and gem cutter, gemologist John Heusler. If you have questions for John during the LIVE conversation, please join the chat room at Blogtalkradio.com or send a message to Whaley Studios via Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. John F. Heusler, G. G. (GIA) is a gemologist, jewelry designer, and lapidary who has been cutting gems and making jewelry for over 45 years. He is an award-winning designer for both his jewelry design and gem cutting. He owned and operated a fine jewelry store in St. Louis, MO, for 31 years. John has a Facebook page, Heusler Academy, where he shows his newest creations. He teaches classes in jewelry design, lapidary, and carving gemstones. John has traveled to locations all over the world to collect gems. He digs many of his own gemstones which he cuts and sells online, at fine art shows, and at gem and mineral shows. His newest discoveries are Jessite and Kaily Agate, which are named after his two daughters Jessica and Kaily. He has written "how-to" tutorials and in-depth articles for Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist on both gems that were featured in 2014.

Our guest on Metalsmith Benchtalk on Thursday, December 3rd, 2015 at 3:00 PM PST is award-winning jewelry designer and gem cutter, gemologist John Heusler. If you have questions for John during the LIVE conversation, please join the chat room at Blogtalkradio.com or send a message to Whaley Studios via Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. John F. Heusler, G. G. (GIA) is a gemologist, jewelry designer, and lapidary who has been cutting gems and making jewelry for over 45 years. He is an award-winning designer for both his jewelry design and gem cutting. He owned and operated a fine jewelry store in St. Louis, MO, for 31 years. John has a Facebook page, Heusler Academy, where he shows his newest creations. He teaches classes in jewelry design, lapidary, and carving gemstones. John has traveled to locations all over the world to collect gems. He digs many of his own gemstones which he cuts and sells online, at fine art shows, and at gem and mineral shows. His newest discoveries are Jessite and Kaily Agate, which are named after his two daughters Jessica and Kaily. He has written "how-to" tutorials and in-depth articles for Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist on both gems that were featured in 2014.

This Thursday, October 29th at 3 p.m. PDT on MetalSmith BenchTalk, we'll be going back into the archives for one of our favorite past episodes- a chat with artist and jeweler Sydney Lynch. About: Since 1981, jewelry artist Sydney Lynch has been designing and making her handmade jewelry featuring contemporary earrings, bracelets, necklaces, pendants and pins in 18k and 22k gold and sterling silver. From her studio in Lincoln, Nebraska, Sydney creates both her Designer Line and singular One Of A Kind pieces that include a variety of gemstones such as opal, aquamarine, tourmaline,diamonds, pearls, beryl, peridot and sapphire set in high karat gold and silver.I fell in love with jewelry when I was young, rummaging through my grandmother’s bureau drawers, enchanted by her treasure trove of costume jewelry that she kept in a jumble of tiny boxes, each with its own story. Since childhood I have accumulated and “curated” my collections of objects, found and acquired, assembling them in patterns and groupings that often inspire my jewelry designs. I think of these pebbles, shells, rusted metal fragments and art objects as an archive of personal memories.While working on the Navajo Reservation during college, I fell in love with the wide open western landscape and met my first silversmiths who inspired me to learn to make my own jewelry. I moved from Connecticut to Colorado, where I got my BFA at the University of Colorado, and decided if nothing else, a traditional career wasn’t for me. I eventually relocated to a farm in Nebraska, then to Lincoln, where I now live. I have an airy, sun-filled studio where I work with two bench assistants and my husband. For more info, visit http://sydneylynch.com/.

This Thursday, October 29th at 3 p.m. PDT on MetalSmith BenchTalk, we'll be going back into the archives for one of our favorite past episodes- a chat with artist and jeweler Sydney Lynch. About: Since 1981, jewelry artist Sydney Lynch has been designing and making her handmade jewelry featuring contemporary earrings, bracelets, necklaces, pendants and pins in 18k and 22k gold and sterling silver. From her studio in Lincoln, Nebraska, Sydney creates both her Designer Line and singular One Of A Kind pieces that include a variety of gemstones such as opal, aquamarine, tourmaline,diamonds, pearls, beryl, peridot and sapphire set in high karat gold and silver.I fell in love with jewelry when I was young, rummaging through my grandmother’s bureau drawers, enchanted by her treasure trove of costume jewelry that she kept in a jumble of tiny boxes, each with its own story. Since childhood I have accumulated and “curated” my collections of objects, found and acquired, assembling them in patterns and groupings that often inspire my jewelry designs. I think of these pebbles, shells, rusted metal fragments and art objects as an archive of personal memories.While working on the Navajo Reservation during college, I fell in love with the wide open western landscape and met my first silversmiths who inspired me to learn to make my own jewelry. I moved from Connecticut to Colorado, where I got my BFA at the University of Colorado, and decided if nothing else, a traditional career wasn’t for me. I eventually relocated to a farm in Nebraska, then to Lincoln, where I now live. I have an airy, sun-filled studio where I work with two bench assistants and my husband. For more info, visit http://sydneylynch.com/.