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Artist's with shared sensibilities and needs often come together to form co-operative studios in order to reduce overhead, share equipment, and develop a greater sense of community. In 1989, with these goals in mind, Paulette Werger, Lynn Whitford, and Agnes Chwae, three friends who had been in graduate school together at the University of Wisconsin-Madison metals program, formed Metalpeople in Madison. Jeweler Jim Charneski, whose background and training was in the jewelry trade, soon joined the group.... (2003) Complete Story
Set in a deeply wooded area of Bethesda, Maryland, Namu Chos brick house at first appears to be similar to those of his neighbors. Yet this resemblance stops abruptly at his front door, hand carved with an imposing image of two eagles, the larger one looking outward in a protective pose with a smaller eagle looking inward. This gilded image heralds the powers that await inside.... (2008) Complete Story
The anvil anchors his studio. Rows of hammers and tools along one long wall communicate with the storage of rolling stock on another. Hung from the ceiling, a forged iron spike pierces a fluted-edge home of newspaper. That is a Joyce sculpture, exploring the confluence of the long-lived and the temporal. Two Piranesi prints of Roman ruins appear to have taken on the aura of the studio-ash and patina being by-products both of the particular and the universal realm of ideas Joyce mines at the anvil....
(2004) Complete Story
The jewelry of Lilly Fitzgerald is washed in serenity. There is a soothing balance, peacefulness, and grace to her timeless one-of-a-kind creations. Fitzgerald strives to select materials that demonstrate extraordinary character: all have spirit, an innate quality of life that, in her opinion, requires only an attractive frame to complete the composition. However, before this union can occur Fitzgerald, a self-taught metalsmith, must occasionally struggle with technical design problems that do not come as easily as does her ability to discover aesthetically pleasing materials. Nonetheless, she pushes her talents and resources, yielding creations worthy of a master goldsmith.... (2002) Complete Story
Superb mographs about three contemporary metalsmiths have recently become available: Ah Xian -- a Chinese sculptor who uses time-honored practices from the land of his birth, such as pierced and/or painted and glazed porcelain, carved lacquer, jade inlay and, especially, cloisonne enamel, to create exquisite, life-size human figures; Michael Rowe -- a British modernist whose deconstructed silver and patinated brass tabletop objects have set the standard for avant-garde holloware around the world; and Tone Vigeland, the legendary Norwegian jeweler, who combines tiny, identical units of hammered silver or steel, evocative of Vikin mail and Nordic landscapes, to make both wearable pieces and large-scale sculpture.... (2005) Complete Story
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