Minneapolis, October 16, 2012— Meet the artists, mingle with other jewelry aficionados, and pick up choice pieces for gifts or for your own collection at the Walker’s Jewelry Artist Mart on Saturday, November 3, 11 am–5 pm. Members get a first look at the Member Preview, 10–11 am.
Featured are original designs by more than 20 artists from around the region and the country, including Cassidy Van Boylan, Yen Chee, Bridget Clark, Susan Crow, Annika Kaplan, Tia Keobounpheng, Moira K. Lime, Magally Lopez, Robyne Robinson, and Amy Torello.
Shop online at shop.walkerart.org.
Walker members receive a 10% discount and all proceeds support the Walker’s artistic and educational programs.
Jewelry Artist Mart
Saturday, November 3, 11 am–5 pm
Garden Terrace Room
Member Preview, 10–11 am
Enjoy refreshments and the first pick of fabulous pieces. Register at members.walkerart.org or 612.375.7655.
Featured Artists
Yen Chee, Minneapolis, MN
Materials: sterling silver, quartz, and onyx
As the daughter of a world-renowned watercolor artist, Chee 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, MN
Materials: sterling silver, gold, pearls, and gemstones
Clark has been designing and creating jewelry since 1986. She handcrafts each piece of her jewelry line using traditional jewelry techniques including fabrication, casting, forging, stone setting, and soldering. Her works are both fine jewelry and contemporary at the same time.
Susan Crow, Northfield, MN
Materials: recycled gold and silver, lab created or reclaimed diamonds, and gemstones
Crow is the founder of East Fourth Street Jewelry where she creates a new perspective on fashion by combining low-impact metalsmithing practices with recycled materials to ensure that the jewelry is sustainable and original. Crow holds a BS in Design and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Design.
Susan Elnora, Minneapolis, MN
Materials: sterling silver
Elnora is drawn to imagery that reflects a connection to spirit, awareness, curiosity, and playfulness. She’s interested in exploring the idea that jewelry can fulfill roles beyond that of adornment and act as a visual and tactile manifestation of memories, dreams, and intentions. Drawing inspiration from the unique beauty and sense of impeding loss that can be encountered in the collision of the industrial and natural worlds, Elnora’s work often explores images of a fading American mythology with a unique perspective and an aesthetic of organic modernism.
Grace Hogan, Bayfield, WI
Materials: sterling silver, hand-picked rocks, and beach glass
Inspired by the things “we stomp over in our everyday lives,” Hogan creates wearable objects that combine sheet metal with elements and ideas from nature such as hand-picked rocks and beach glass.
Betty Jäeger, Minneapolis, MN
Materials: sterling silver, 18 karat, 22 karat and 24 karat gold
Jäeger was born and raised on the shores of the misty Puget Sound. Her current line of handmade jewelry finds inspiration in the interesting and organic textures of her past. Reflections of the simple curve of a wave and the bark on evergreen trees can be found in her organically crafted jewelry. The strength of a hand-fabricated piece of jewelry is robustly highlighted with the softness of hammered texture and smooth satin finish. These pieces exude the consistency of natural elements, imitating the deep texture and bold, voluminous forms, and finally relayed onto metal.
Annika Kaplan, Minneapolis, MN
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, 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
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
Keobounpheng 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.
Moira K. Lime, Chicago, IL
Materials: sterling silver
Lime is the owner, designer, and maker of Moira K. Lime Jewelry. She works out of her small studio space in Chicago, IL, which she enjoys sharing with her two lovable dogs. Lime attended Indiana University and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a focus in metalsmithing and jewelry design. Moira K. Lime Jewelry is inspired by the natural and botanical world that so many pass by without notice. Lime strives to bring attention the loveliness of all these small things in life and draw people to appreciate the natural beauty of the world.
Magally Lopez, Guilford, CT
Materials: sterling silver, gold, and stones
The sensuality of lace and the intricacy of crochet are what inspired jewelry designer Lopez to develop the technique of transforming silver and gold “thread” into beaded pieces. She was trained in traditional metalsmithing techniques and received her BFA in sculpture in 1998.
Jennifer Merchant, Eden Prairie, MN
Materials: Corian, acrylic and gemstones
Merchant has been a creator since birth. She strives to blur the line between art and fashion with her unique designs. She has been making jewelry for over 11 years and studied metalsmithing at the Savannah College of Art and Design, receiving a BFA in metals and jewelry in 2005.
Upon graduating from college, Merchant moved back to the Twin Cities and set out to create jewelry in her modest home studio. Lacking many of the tools and equipment needed to work in metals as per her training, she started working with Corian and acrylic. Her work is handcrafted using techniques that she has developed after many years of experimenting with these materials.
Jess Panza, Los Angeles, CA
Materials: sterling silver, vermeil and glass
Panza was raised in the rain-soaked valleys of Pennsylvania at the base of the Appalachian Mountains. This is the beauty and transcendence that she captures in her elegant work. Inconspicuous in nature, it can be created and recycled with no harm to the environment. Glass has an allure and luster and can come in a plethora of colors and shapes. Verre (the French word for glass) by Jess Panza puts an end to the misconception that glass is less. Glass is actually more: more versatile, more eco-logical, more bang for your buck. Every piece of jewelry is handmade by Panza.
Susan Panciera, St. Peter, MN
Materials: argentium sterling silver, 14k and 18k gold
Panciera has been making jewelry since 1987. She believes a balance must be achieved between delicacy and strength, movement and comfort, evolving styles and timelessness. Panciera uses hammers, pliers, saws, torches and her hands, utilizing the traditional fabrication techniques of sawing, forging, forming, soldering, and polishing to transform the materials into a finished piece of wearable sculpture.
Robyne Robinson, Minneapolis, MN
Materials: natural stone, glass, fresh water pearls, sterling plated chain
Robinson started making jewelry when she was about 12 or 13, but she didn’t know it was because her mother didn’t have the money to buy Christmas presents on a teacher’s salary every year. She made it a fun trip to the bead store with her sister, and they would make designs for all their friends.
Robinson found herself making beautiful necklaces, bracelets and earrings to meet the demands of friends. She loves using semi-precious stones– amber, carnelian, or jade. Robinson says there are so many different types of rocks and stones that have been used for health, beauty, spirituality, trade, from the Pharaohs until today– we just have a natural attraction to the rocks under our feet.
Erin Smith, Minneapolis, MN
Materials: sterling silver, porcelain, terra cotta and natural fibers
Smith comes from a long line of jewelers and metalworkers (hence the name Smith), but her degree in product design introduced her to a multitude of materials. She has spent the past five years designing for a nationwide retailer, while juggling her own interior and product design jobs on the side. Just recently she’s decided to delve into the world of freelance completely, allowing her to spend all of her time doing the things that she loves.
Amy Torello, Mexico City, Mexico
Materials: sterling silver, glass enamel, resin
Torello has studied at the Castillo workshops in southern Mexico where she apprenticed with several master Mexican silversmiths. Inspired by such elements as architecture, geometry, minimalism, and mechanics, she sees an interaction between the basics of color and form, movement, and space.
Cassidy Van Boylan, Minneapolis, MN
Materials: semi-precious stones and sterling silver
Van Boylan has been enamored and fascinated with both jewelry and nature since she was a little girl. She now enjoys combining the two elements by using simple organic lines and shapes she finds in nature throughout her jewelry. Hand hammering, forging, and soldering are techniques she uses commonly while playfully focusing on texture and pattern.
Helen Wang, Edina, MN
Materials: semi-precious stones and mixed precious metals
Wang creates each deftly designed one-of-a kind or limited edition piece with the person who will eventually wear it in mind. Whether it’s a druzy quartz marquis earring or the vintage luxury feel of a genuine Swarovski crystal bridal choker, Wang’s hands create the jewelry to reflect her vision of you.