Minneapolis, April 14, 2014—Meet more than 25 local and regional artists as they showcase their original, hand-crafted jewelry designs in a rich variety of materials and styles on Saturday, May 3, 11 am–5 pm, in the Skyline Room. While browsing, sip Catalyst, our new Walker-crafted coffee, and enjoy tastes of B.T. McElrath’s chocolates. Bring a friend and get started on your Mother’s Day shopping.
Featured jewelry artists include: Adrea Beres, Karla Bradley, Debbie Carlos, Yen Chee, Bridget Clark, Brittany Foster, Camille Hempel, Grace Hogan, Madison Holler, Karin Jacobson, Betty Jäger, Annika Kaplan, Britta Kauppila, Tia Keobounpheng, Penny Larsen, Laura Lombardi, Nick Lundeen, Marisa Martinez, Jennifer Merchant, Ruth Mikos, Elizabeth Novak, Susan Panciera, Natalie Paquet, Tina Rice, Inna Royzenfeld, Erin Smith, and Helen Wang.
Walker members receive a 10% discount on all purchases. All proceeds support the Walker’s artistic and educational programs.
Jewelry Artist Mart
Saturday, May 3, 11 am–5 pm
Skyline Room
Member Mimosa Preview
Saturday, May 3, 10-11 am Skyline Room
Members see it first! Enjoy refreshments and the first pick of fabulous pieces at the Jewelry Artist Mart. Join more than 25 regional jewelry artists in the Walker’s beautiful Skyline Room as they show their original pieces in a rich variety of materials and styles. Bring a friend and enjoy this signature Walker Shop event, just in time for Mother’s Day!
Register online, by e-mail to membership@walkerart.org, or 612.375.7655.
All proceeds support the Walker’s artistic and educational programs.
Featured Artists
Adrea Beres, Minneapolis, MN
Materials: recycled sterling silver and natural gemstones
Beres, the artist behind The Amethyst Grove, lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two goofy dogs. By day, she is a social worker in the mental health field, and by night she creates jewelry inspired by the mystery, beauty and tranquility she finds in nature.
Karla Bradley, St. Paul, MN
Materials: metal, enamels and precious stones
Recently discovering hidden talents, Bradley stumbled on jewelry making. Diving in head first she loves working with precious metals, stones and enamels, her designs are inspired by nature. A native Minnesotan from the beautiful shores of Lake Superior and mother of 4, she now resides in St. Paul.
Debbie Carlos, Lansing, MI
Materials: brass, gold, stones and beads
Carlos was born in LA, grew up in Manila, Philippines, then moved to Massachusetts where she studied psychology, then onto Chicago, IL to study photography and now she splits her time between Chicago and Lansing, MI. During all of her travels she has always had a love for the arts.
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 is inspired by the simple reduction of primitive, industrial and organic. Smooth brushed sterling silver finishes are accented by matte grey oxidation, semiprecious gemstones, rich pigments or 24 carat gold. Movement and subtle asymmetry in her pieces keep them visually interesting. Her love of art and science is where her career in metalsmithing began, the arc of which includes a bit of coursework on the fundamentals, an apprenticeship, and much self-imposed trial and error. Clark’s work is primarily spurred from an interest in shape manipulation and experimentation. She lives and works in Minneapolis creating and producing jewelry since 1986, and it became a full time endeavor in 1997.
Brittany Foster, Minneapolis, MN
Materials: sterling silver
With innumerable influences, from cephalopods to industrial debris and munitions, Foster makes things, because she has always made things. As a youngster, she was drawn to working with her hands. Jewelry seemed mysterious, which led her to wonder, “How people could possibly do that with simple, manual tools?” When she discovered there were also hammers and fire involved, it sealed the deal.
Having once been told that the human eye and brain can see a wiggle in a line to .03″ Foster 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.
Camille Hempel, Minneapolis, MN
Materials: sterling silver and gold
Hempel explores jewelry as design and form, not just as accessories. Inspiration comes from bridges, architecture and furniture design, things that endure over time, rooted in the classics. She took a few classes at the UW Madison, and continued her education working as an apprentice at the Jeweler’s Workshop in Madison, WI while finishing up college. In 1992 she moved to NYC and learned about production jewelry. All this experience as well as jobs in toy design, prosthetics, and furniture making has informed her work and contributed to her aesthetic and the processes she uses. Hempel had her own shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, until 2012, this opportunity gave her the chance to collaborate more intimately with people’s individual desires and meet the demands for custom wedding and engagement rings. Things had come full circle when her seven-year lease ended and she figured it was a good time to return to the Midwest. She now works out of her studio and showroom in the Qarma Building in Northeast Minneapolis.
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.
Madison Holler, St. Cloud, MN
Materials: beads and sterling silver
Born and raised in central Minnesota, Holler works mostly with metals, beads, found Minnesota porcupine quills, beach glass and other organic materials from Minnesota and near her cabin in Ontario, Canada. She also enjoys wood working and carving, baking, and sewing.
Karin Jacobson, Minneapolis, MN
Materials: sterling silver, palladium, lab-grown gems
Play is a central theme in Karin Jacobson’s futuristic and fun work, which is inspired by science-fiction, comic books, mechanical toys, and Japanese animation. Making bold statements, her designs incorporate big shapes, clean lines, and bright colors.
Betty Jäeger, Minneapolis, MN
Materials: sterling silver, 18 karat, 22karat and 24 karat gold
Jäger 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, the bark on evergreen trees can be found in her organically crafted jewelry. The strength of a hand fabricated piece of jewelry 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, MN
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.
Penny Larsen, Minneapolis, MN
Materials: sterling silver and semi-precious stones
Creative director Penny Larsen Munson loves jewelry of all kinds. Her enjoyment and love of creating are obvious in her attention to hand-crafted detail. Her BFA in printmaking is evident in the clean, organic lines of her designs. Her love of travel and nature can be seen in her latest line simply titled “penny” which consists of silver pendant charm choices.
Laura Lombardi, Chicago, IL
Materials: bronze, brass and repurposed materials
Lombardi is a Chicago based jewelry designer creating from her studio in Fulton Market. Laura’s earliest forays into art came in the form of sculpture and mixed media, which is visible in the structure, geometric focus, and fluidity of her jewelry designs. Raised in New York and Italy, the study of art and design at New York’s FIT and SVA, and the influence of classic Italian imagery have contributed to shaping the unique character of her designs. Lomdardi’s designs themselves favor themes like repetition and appropriation, and are formed of materials that Laura connects with, most often vintage and repurposed materials. Each piece of jewelry is made by hand in her studio, in Chicago Illinois.
Nick Lundeen, Minneapolis, MN
Materials: sterling silver, copper and stones
Nicholas Quinn Lundeen is a craftsman from Minneapolis. Ever obsessed with process and tradition, he creates each piece from start to finish with traditional methods, including making his own tools and cutting his own stones. His ultimate goal is to create timeless pieces of the highest quality and functionality.
Marisa Martinez, St. Paul, MN
Materials: handmade glass beads, sterling and fine silver, semi-precious stones, and ancient findings
Marisa Martinez has owned and operated her own jewelry design business in Minnesota, Marisa-Martinez/ Meztiza Designs since 2005. She attended both the College of St. Catherine and the University of St. Thomas, where she studied Art, Business, and Spanish. Martinez loves to play off her rich cultural heritage to create vibrant jewelry using semi-precious stones, glass, silver, copper, brass and gold. Her work is all hand fabricated using traditional metalsmithing techniques.
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.
Ruth Mikos, Minneapolis, MN
Materials: resin and recycled children’s books
Mikos creates the dick & jane collection by re-purposing well-loved, well-worn vintage children’s picture books to give them new life and turn them into something unexpected. Each piece becomes a one-of-a-kind treasure which will endure for generations. Her hope is that this collection gives you something to wear that is modern and sophisticated, but also a reminder of those magical alternate worlds of your childhood and the precious memories contained there.
Beth Novak, St. Louis Park, MN
Materials: sterling silver, copper & enamel
Novak grew up in an extremely artistic home where she believed that you could look at just about anything as inspiration. She is originally from Wisconsin, where she attended the U-W Stout and got a degree in studio art, with a concentration in art metals. Novak has since lived in St. Louis Park for the last 17 years, and after experimenting with many different mediums, she has returned to her first love, metals. Her works include enamel on copper and sterling silver. She loves to explore texture and color and finds that both silver and copper allow her to do so. Novak often manipulates the copper before enameling it, to accentuate the layers and texture under the enamel. The patina she finishes her pieces off with is durable and has a wonderful depth of color.
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.
Natalie Paquet, Minneapolis, MN
Materials: found objects, stone, wood, horn and glass beads
Paquet was born in Iowa, raised in Wisconsin and Minnesota and currently resides in St. Paul. Her passion for design led her to jewelry making 15 years ago and it has evolved greatly over this time. She describes her jewelry as “Urban Tribal”, utilizing a wide array of cast –off industrial parts with an organic mix of stone, wood, horn and glass beads. With a love for incorporating the “found object” into her work she is constantly on the look-out for new materials and combinations.
Tina Rice, Ames, IA
Materials: silver, copper, glass, and enamel
Rice resides in the Midwest and is the designer and creator of a bold and fun collection of charming enamel jewelry. Her work incorporates bright colors of enamel and a variety of copper shapes, which allows the jewelry, takes on a life of its own.
Inna Royzenfeld, Minneapolis, MN
Materials: sterling silver and stones
Royzenfeld received her BFA from the University of Minnesota in 2011, with a concentration in sculpture. In transitioning from the foundry at school to a studio located in Northeast Minneapolis, her work became scaled down; however, the organic lines and raw textures of her artistic style remained. Royzenfeld has now set out to create a body of work that incorporates the visual weightiness of her previous large sculptural pieces, but combines them with the delicacy of adornment. Mainly utilizing sterling silver and small set stones, most pieces Inna creates are one-of-a-kind, and resonates a tender, but raw feel.
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 100% allowing her to spend all of her time doing the things that she loves.
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.
WALKER SHOP HOURS
Tuesday–Sunday, 11 am–5:30 pm
Open late Thursday, 11 am–9 pm
Closed Monday
612.375.7633
shop.walkerart.org
