Just in time for Mother’s Day, nineteen local jewelry artists and designers will be coming to join us here at the Walker Art Center for the Local Jewelry Artist Mart in Medtronic Gallery. Shoppers will find one of a kind pieces by the local talent.
All proceeds support the Walker’s artistic and educational programs.
FEATURED ARTISTS
Yen Chee, Minneapolis
Materials: sterling silver, quartz, and onyx
As the daughter of a world-renowned watercolor artist Yen traveled to many art galleries as a young girl and was always drawn to the work of jewelry designers. Each clean, yet elegant design has a unique story and source of inspiration ranging from the hand-carved moldings of Italy’s Uffizi Museum, to her grandmother’s exotic gardens in Malaysia.
Bridget Clark, Minneapolis
Materials: sterling silver, gold, pearls, and gemstones
Bridget has been designing and creating jewelry since 1986. She hand crafts each pieces of her jewelry line using traditional jewelry techniques including fabrication, casting, forging, stone setting, and soldering. Her jewelry is both fine jewelry as well as being contemporary at the same time.
Brittany Foster, Minneapolis
Materials: sterling silver
Having once been told that the human eye and brain can see a wiggle in a line to .03″ Brittany took it as a challenge. She uses a standard jeweler’s saw to cut all the swirly lines by hand. Her work is not fueled by electricity, but, much like Popeye, by spinach and beer. She also deploys the classic “hit it with a hammer” technique on her wrought pieces, which balances well with the meticulous work of cutting those curlicues.
Annika Kaplan, Minneapolis
Materials: sterling silver and semi-precious gemstones
After studying jewelry design and fabrication at the Savannah College of Art and Design and the Minneapolis Community and Technical College, Annika Kaplan set up shop in a small South Minneapolis studio. Influenced by nature and folk traditions, she produces jewelry made mostly from blackened sterling silver and semi-precious gems. She strives to create pieces which are both highly wearable and highly unique, in hopes of offering wearers a new way to adorn themselves.
Britta Kauppila, St. Paul
Materials: sterling silver, stone, gold and pearls
Britta Kauppila hand forms each piece of jewelry she makes, by manipulating and shaping metal into pieces that are extremely soft and delicate, but substantial. Often inspired by nature, she combines form, line, and texture to produce movement, rhythm, and harmony and is drawn to the contradiction of the hard immovable structure that metal offers to create her unique jewelry line.
Tia Keobounpheng, Minneapolis
Materials: wood, acrylic, various metals
Tia has always been fascinated with things and how they are made. Making things with her hands and designing jewelry contrasts the time and scale involved in working through the architectural design process, adding considerable balance to her own creative process and drive. Color, texture, repetition, variation, light and tactile quality are important considerations in her work.
Renee Larson, Edina
Materials: recycled vintage jewelry
Renee Larson is an accessory designer and visual artist from Minneapolis, MN. Her focus is on vintage inspired, handmade headpieces and repurposed vintage jewelry. Renee studied Visual Arts with a concentration in Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design at the University of North Dakota.
Larissa Loden, St. Paul
Materials: sterling silver
Larissa Loden is the sole designer and creator of Lefthand Originals in her own Saint Paul, MN studio. She uses a mixture of antique and contemporary pieces to create her signature looks which has been described as “vintage meets modern”. To create her looks, Larissa can often be found soldering, sawing, pounding and riveting away. She does all this while caring for her two pugs Jerome and Morris and tending to her massive vegetable and flower gardens in the summer.
Marisa Martinez, St. Paul
Materials: handmade glass beads, sterling and fine silver, semi-precious stones, and ancient findings
Marisa Martinez works with a wide variety of materials to create collages of wearable art. To create beads from Moretti glass Marisa uses a mini cc torch followed by a kiln to anneal and fuse the glass. Designing unique pieces of jewelry allows her to combine her love for color, cultural history, and art making.
Lauren Neal, Minneapolis
Materials: recycled sterling silver, found objects and lost wax casting
Carrier Pigeon Jewelry is inspired by history, evolution, and the forces of nature. Lauren Neal the sole designer and metalsmith behind Carrier Pigeon Jewelry. Lauren established her business in 2008 with a focus on deconstructing the idea of what jewelry can be and what it can be transformed into. She also works predominately in recycled sterling silver, found objects, and with hand carved lost wax casting.
Lauren Nicole, Minneapolis
Materials: sterling silver, gemstones, acrylic, stainless steel and organic elements
Lauren Nicole is a graduate of the Minneapolis College of Art & Design. Over the last 10 years she has been working professionally as a graphic designer while making jewelry on the side for the past 5 years. Lauren’s current collection embraces an old world meets new flavor by combining a unique media mix with a touch of modernism and new technology.
Liz Oie, Burnsville, Minnesota
Materials: stones, pearls, leather, and sterling silver
Each piece is hand made by Oie with fine attention to detail and quality. Oie likes to give traditional stones and pearls a contemporary feel by pairing them with leather or combining them in a way this is fresh and beautiful.
Sarah Sitarz, Minneapolis
Materials: sterling silver
Sarah Sitarz’ handcrafted sterling silver jewelry is frequently described as simple, clean and elegant. Her unique designs are comfortable and affordable while showcasing her craftsmanship and attention to detail. With a background in graphic design, but a preference to create with her hands, she began working with a local blacksmith in 2002. The heat from the forge and the ping of the hammer inspired her to further her metalsmithing education.
Jill Smith, Minneapolis
Materials: fine and sterling silver, semi-precious stones and leather
Much of her work is influenced by her experiences in the architectural field evidenced by her use of neutral color palettes, geometric shapes, and natural stones. Some of her work also possesses an industrial quality with the use of darkened silver, rigid lines, and details reminiscent of metal fasteners. This juxtaposition between refined lines (the silver) and the rough, imperfect qualities of nature (natural stones, leather) gives Smith’s work a unique, yet timeless quality.
Molly Spilane, Richfield
Materials: acrylic, industrial supplies, and recycled materials
Molly Spilane is well known for her use of vintage anatomy, illustrations, and fauna to create eye-catching, quirky, and unique wearable art. Spilane uses heat-treated and molded acrylic to create intriguing fashion jewelry.
Tasha Rae Tatro, Minneapolis
Materials: sterling silver
Jewelry is not simply an accessory; it is a metaphor for language, art, belief and a reflection of a state of mind. Tasha attended the University of Wisconsin Madison to pursue a degree in engineering and physics and eventually found myself involved in the arts. In 2004 she graduated with a degree in graphic design and an emphasis in art metals. After graduation Tasha traveled to Europe and became inspired by their classic and elegant structures, and then in 2004 Tasha started my own business, Tasha Rae Jewelry.
Mel Tudisco, Burnsville
Materials: sterling silver
Mel doesn’t always know ahead of time what the goal of her design is going to be; but she does know that she is motivated by constructivism, abstract geometry, the negative space in architecture, and everyday imagination. Through the use of layering and texturing the flat surface of metals Mel mixes organic embellishments with arches, angles, and bridges to create her very unique style.
Helen Wang, Edina
Materials: semi-precious stones and mixed precious metals
The process of combining selected material with the synergy that results from Helen’s careful take on light, color, and texture honors individuality and tradition as old as humankind. Wang believes that jewelry speaks to our emotions and has the power to enhance the way we feel.
Rebecca Wicklund, Minneapolis
Materials: leather
Rebecca uses jewelry as a creative outlet from her day job, which happens to be a physical therapist working in a chronic pain clinic. She has been taking jewelry classes from Metalheart Jewelry here in the Twin Cities and has grown to appreciate clean lines, simple things, and organic element of nature. She also strives to use harmonious colors in her designs.