the earring show 2021
Amy Rogers makes art about people and their lives and designs accessories for people and their spaces. Intuitively mixing and matching media, she is comfortable exploring unknown combinations of materials and techniques to suit her needs and express her thoughts. Amy is currently exploring the possibilities of clay. She assembles her handmade ceramic beads and discs into unique jewelry, often incorporating textiles, a natural continuation of her past work. Her focus alternates between a conceptually-driven fine art practice and self-imposed design explorations. Through her fine art practice, Amy addresses universal themes including the cycle of life and the roles we inhabit within that life. Her jewelry satisfies an inherent curiosity and sense of play with spontaneous color and texture explorations. She uses unique, non-traditional approaches to photograph her jewelry which she considers artistic expressions in their own right.
Amy studied fiber art at the Kansas City Art Institute, and multimedia at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design where she questioned the division of art and craft. Amy lived for a decade in New York City working in the fashion industry. She eventually began creating handmade flower accessories under the name Red Head Amy. In 2004, Martha Stewart Living did a feature story on Amy and her leather flowers business. That same year she moved to Lyon, France where she lived for almost four years, continuing her accessory business and learning the language. Amy now lives and works in Toronto where she promotes her jewelry designs under the name Here and Here, a nod to the many cities she has lived in and been influenced by throughout her life.
Originally from Poland, Beata Kacy is the creator and founder of Soigne, Octopus Studios and it’s 20 resident Artists. Soigne is the place where just about anyone’s artistic fantasies and crafting desires can be fulfilled.
With over 14 years of digital media experience, Beata has worked in many domains including software, interactive touchscreen, web, and over 10 years specifically in the console and casual gaming markets. With a Master’s Degree in Marketing Management and a Bachelor in Computer Science. Beata further honoured her artistic sense by attending Vancouver Film School and graduated with Certificate of Excellence. She is also a graduate from Emily Carr University where she studied Fine Arts in Practice. She holds a Precious Metal Clay Teachers Certificate by Rio Grande and Hadar Jacobson Art in Metal Clay Accreditation Program. Mexico in San Miguel Allende, San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver are some of the places she took her training in Jewellery making.
After moving to Vancouver in 2001 she discovered her new passions and followed it with Skiing Instructor under CSIA-Canadian Ski Instructor Alliance, as well as Rock Climbing Instructor under ACMG-Association of Canadian Mountain Guides. As a Certified Rescue Scuba Diver Beata discovered her interest in human body motion under the water and she established her Underwater Photography project.
She pursues her life’s bliss in the outdoors, finding art, in all its forms, wherever she goes. A bohemian at heart, most of her life was spent studying, experimenting with, and learning the behaviors of different media. You can often see her expressing her creative passions on the streets of Vancouver with a camera, or in her art studio making jewelry and teaching. She has cultivated her artistic outlook during her travels around the ancient globe.
Bev is an accomplished ceramic sculptor, painter, mixed media artist, printmaker, and jewelry designer. Ellis was the recent winner of the Surrey Art Galleries Clay Competition, Winner of the SSICA Ceramics Biennial People’s Choice Award, and a large scale Ceramic Installation for VanCity. Bev enjoys creating dynamic surfaces with clay. Her favourite muse is nature, where often beauty is found in brokenness. Her sculptural forms have a realistic quality, drawing the viewer into forest textures of birch bark and fungi. Not content to replicate nature, Ellis plays with form and colour, creating fantastical sculptural shapes, unusual colours. Bev has been requested to speak at conferences and Galleries, and has been Artist In Residence in many schools. She is published in Artist Journals, magazines, the Book of 100 Vancouver Artists: WeMakeStuff, and in The Crafted Dish: a Juried Collection of talented clay artists from Across Canada. Represented by several Galleries, she has exhibited her work throughout the Province, across Canada, and in the US. Her artwork is in corporate and private collections around the world.
Carrie is the metalsmith behind the bench at Two Carrots Studio, which launched in 2015. She designs and creates jewelry and mixed media art in her Edmonton, Alberta studio. Carrie recently joined the board of the Hand 2 Hand Artisan Society, a non-profit that carefully curates two artisan shows each year. Carrie is also one of the founding members of the Meraki Artists Collective, a group of local female artists committed to supporting women in their artistic journey. In conjunction with Dandi-Lines Art Gallery, the Collective founded The Tiny Shop Upstairs in late 2020; this gallery shop represents over twenty local artists and artisans, with a focus on emerging or underrepresented artists. Her work can be found at several boutiques in the Edmonton area, and the Upper Level Art Gallery in Vermilion Alberta.
In May 2021 Carrie is pairing up with mosaic and mural artist Theodora Harasymiw for a joint exhibit at Dandi-Lines Art Gallery. ‘Birds & Botanicals and other Flora & Fauna’ will feature Theodora’s paintings and mosaics and Carrie’s mixed-media sculptures and companion jewelry pieces. The challenge of creating pieces on a different scale than their usual work is the foundation of this exhibit.
Carrie’s introduction to silversmithing started with a simple evening class many years ago. Her metal arts education has been non-traditional, and self-directed. She attends classes locally at Bedrock Supply, and attended Red Deer College Series Summer Arts Program in 2018, receiving a scholarship for the 2019 session. Now part of the Bedrock Studio instructor team, Carrie teaches silversmithing classes several times a month.
Silver, copper, bronze, enamel on copper, gemstones, found objects and upcycled vintage pieces find their way into her work. She finds silversmithing to be the perfect combination of right and left brain thinking: art and science, engineering and physics, and just a little bit of alchemy that results in beautiful pieces of wearable art.
Chris was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She graduated from the graphic design program at Nova Scotia Community College in 1997, and in 1998 moved north to Fort Smith, NWT. After three and a half years of working for a small graphic firm, she was given an opportunity which allowed her to start a graphic arts/art creations business, DeWolf ArtWorks. Chris was the coordinator of The Artists of the South Slave Society (TASSS) for five years (2001–2006) coordinating TASSS’ Summer Festival Workshop Series focusing on both traditional and contemporary arts & crafts. Chris built a small studio for jewelry making in 2007 and after working solo for a period, realized she would need some professional hands-on training and was accepted into the Alberta College of Art + Design (ACAD) – second year of the jewelry + metals program for the 2008/09 school year.
In addition to jewelry making, Chris enjoys painting in acrylics. She has been commissioned to paint several bird and landscape paintings. Accomplishments include having paintings selected as the cover art for Northwestel’s Telephone directory in 2003 and again in 2013, an exhibition at the Northern Life Museum and Cultural Centre, having an art piece being added to the permanent collection of the Yellowknife Heritage Art Show and winning the design competition for the NWT Arts Branding logo. Two years ago, she designed the AWG 2018 pins. Recently she was asked to sit on the board for the NWT Arts Council.
Dalhai Vela was born and raised in Mexico City. She has lived in Canada for the last 5 years, 4 of which she has spent in the Northwest Territories. As a daughter and granddaughter of orchestra directors, she has been involved in arts since a young age, having her first artwork displayed in a museum when she was 8 years old after being selected amongst hundreds of thousands of participants in a national painting competition.
She stopped creating artwork during a period of time while focusing on her Industrial Design career and family. However, when she moved to the beautiful Canadian North, the stunning landscapes of the region and northern lights inspired her to create art again in order to share that natural beauty with other people in the form of artistic expression. Which led her to becoming a professional artist registered in the NWT Arts Program and NWT Crafts Council.
Her greatest achievement so far is the development of a technique that makes possible the preservation of real snowflakes with the purpose of incorporating them into jewelry. It took her more that three years to develop the snowflake preservation technique which is currently patent pending. The long, cold and dry winters of the Northwest Territories produce the perfect weather conditions to perform this process. In a sense her jewelry is meant to preserve a piece of the North because of the North.
A graduate of the Ecole Joaillerie Montreal in Continuing Education, Elin Weinstein has an academic background in Archaeology and Anthropology. While conducting fieldwork in Bali, she was particularly drawn to the Balinese concept that some Art is alive, the Art whose inspiration comes from the Balinese Gods. Elin places her craft at the juncture between cultural scholarship and Living Art.
Estivaal Jewelry is an upstart studio based near Munich, Germany, designing and producing one-of-a-kind as well as very limited scale handcrafted jewelry and homeware items.
Eszter, the designer and maker behind Estivaal, learned goldsmithing and enameling in Berlin and Munich. Her works are primarily inspired by art deco, the Bauhaus movement as well as mid-century modern art, and she is also a great fan of the geometry of Moorish and Arab architecture. She also likes to take inspiration from interesting patterns in the folk or tribal art of various nations.
Silver and kiln-fired vitreous enamel are Eszter’s favorites, but she is also open to trying new media and experiment with other metals, glass, porcelain and organic materials. All Estivaal workpieces are designed by Eszter and crafted individually. Even though she has only recently started making jewelry, some of Eszter’s works have been already selected by the juries and curators of international exhibitions, such as the 8th International Biennal of Enamel Art in the city of Vilnius, Lithuania and Brooching the Subject in Arvada, Colorado, US. She is a member of the Guild of Enamellers (United Kingdom).
Possessing a deeply rooted background in music, Fiona Chiu understands how art provokes emotion and bridges experiences. She discovered metalworking in 2013, and was instantly mesmerized by the subtle, yet profound, gestures of jewelry and its effortless transportability and transcendence through space and time.
In 2016, Fiona received her Jewelry Technician diploma from the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts. She was the recipient of the Technical Excellence award on her final project to construct and design a box ring.
Fiona aspires to connect with the wearer of her pieces through thoughtful design and craftsmanship.
Gayane Avetisyan is an artist and jeweller living and working in Montreal. She was born in Armenia, a country with a rich tradition of arts, where she was exposed to a broad range of cultural and historical influences. From a very young age, Gayane attended a school for visual arts, where she learned and practiced different art media including pottery, printmaking and oil painting. In 2011, she was introduced to enameling and jewelry in Georgia (country) from local artisans. She has since continued and reinforced her skills by taking workshops with enamel artists in the US and Canada. Gayane moved to Canada almost five years ago, where she undertook more formal metalsmith training at the Jewelry School of Montreal.
She specializes in traditional and contemporary art jewelry techniques crafted on fine silver, copper and gold. She creates one of a kind, as well as limited edition pieces of enamel jewelry.
During her career, Gayane has participated in several juried art competitions around the world where her pieces have been selected for exhibition. She was an award winner at the Enamelist Society Alchemy 5 exhibit, and a finalist for the last two years at the Francois Houde Award. Her works are showcased in a number of galleries and art stores throughout Canada. She is a member of the Enamelist Society, SNAG, and CMAQ.
Gemma is a contemporary artist / maker who graduated from Belfast School of Art in 2016. Since moving from Ireland to Vancouver in 2018 Gemma continued to grow within her creative practice and founded saol nua. ?Saol Nua meaning new life in Irish, captures the possibility of creative play through jewellery. Throughout Gemma’s creative practice she has been featured in a range of exhibitions in Ireland & hosted a number of workshops that are focused around the importance of craft & sustainability.
Education:
2014 – BA in Fine Arts, Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, VE – IT 2016 – MA in Decoration, Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, VE – IT 2017 – MA in Traditional Bench Goldsmith, at Istituti Vicenza, VI – IT
Exhibitions:
November 2020 IT’S NOT JUST ABOU HAIR, four-hands unpublished collection by Giulia Vecchiato and Agustina Ros, virtual exhibition curated by Ilaria Ruggiero from A/dornment, during New York City Jewelry Week 2020, USA.
December 2019 RIPA¯ SURI JEWELRY solo show, curated by Ilaria Ruggiero from A/dornment, hosted by VITRARIA GALLERY , Venice, ITALY.
November 2019 Selected for Third Edition of exhibition JEWELLERY // SCULPTURE at the BACHT Showroom, curated by AA Collected, in Wien, AUSTRIA.
October 2019 RIPA¯ SURI JEWELRY solo show, during the first edition of Milan Jewelry Week hosted by Guido De Zan – Studio Ceramica d’Arte, Milan, ITALY.
October 2019 Selected for Venice Fashion Week Sustainable fashion, high- quality craftsmanship and International guests: the week dedicated to slow fashion in Venice, ITALY.
Jan Smith is a contemporary jewellery artist focused on the use of vitreous enamel in combination with altered and textured metal. Smith is investigating the codes and patterns within our environment through a language of line and mark marking. Born in Vancouver, BC, Smith holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, NS, specializing in ceramics and intaglio printmaking. Whilst living in Seattle, WA she studied metalsmithing and enamelling focusing on contemporary jewellery.
Smith has exhibited across Canada, USA and Europe, including a solo exhibition Memoria at the Anna Leonowens Gallery in Halifax, NS. Jan was Artist in Residence in the Summer Artist Series 2016 at NSCAD University, Halifax, NS, The Smitten Forum, Mendocino Art Centre, Mendocino, CA and Pentaculum, Arrowmont Art Centre, Gatlinburg, TN. Smith’s work was featured in Face à Face at Parcours Bijoux, Paris, France and at Face à Face, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto ON and in Jewellery Dialogue, a two-person show at the Craft Council of BC Gallery. Publications featuring her work include New Brooches and New Earrings, Signs of Life-2006, and five of the Lark 500 series. Smith received a four-year annual grant from the Helen Pitt Fund for Fine Art administered by Vancouver Foundation and juror’s awards from the Northern CA Enamel Guild and Enamelist Society.
Jan teaches enamelling workshops in both Canada and the US. Smith cofounded the Vancouver Metals Arts Association and served as president of the organization and currently serves on the exhibition committee.
Smith is represented in Canada by Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h, Montreal QC, The Craft Council of BC Gallery, and The Silk Weaving Studio, Vancouver, BC and in the USA by Facere Jewelry Art Gallery/Green Lake Jewelers, Seattle, WA. Smith lives and work on the west coast of BC.
Jenne Rayburn is a Boston-based goldsmith, enamelist and designer. She grew up in the farming country of southeastern Washington State, and studied art, interior design and architecture at the University of Washington and the University of Massachusetts. A lifelong artist and arts advocate, Jenne believes that the arts and crafts of our world are critical to the development of creative societies. History and tradition, vernacular design and indigenous peoples inspire Jenne’s glass and metal work. Using traditional and innovative vitreous enamel techniques combined with steel, silver and copper, Jenne sees her work as narrative and she searches for meaning in the convergence of mythology, identity and ornament. She is fascinated with myths and folklore that recount heroic adventures and connect us to a larger purpose. These stories strive to express the mystery and complexity of the human experience and the relationships that influence and inspire us.
Jessica Chicoine was born on August 19th 1991 in Laval, Qc and now lives in Prévost, Qc surrounded by nature. Jessica has always been curious about her environment and passionate about the world of jewelry. In 2010, she began a DEC in jewelry at the Montreal School of Jewellery from which she graduated in 2013 winning the school’s private collection award. That same year, she was a finalist in the 10th annual student exhibition at the L.A Pai Gallery in Ottawa, Canada. Her desire to learn inspired her to begin studying industrial design at the University of Montreal where she obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in 2017. During her studies, she discovered a passion for textiles. It was at this time that she developed Loop, her first collection of jewelry made from recycled textiles which poignantly reflected her interests in fashion, crochet and environmental awareness. At the same time, she created the ARBE collection, a sterling silver jewelry collection inspired by her trip to Europe. This was the birth of Atelier Chicoine, a laboratory of exploration with different materials such as textiles, paper and sterling silver. In constant reflection, Jessica for now wishes to concentrate her creativity on the textile universe and one of a kind pieces until her kite blows her elsewhere.
Janette Mulloy and Judy Mulloy are sisters who have been collaborating as artists for about 112 years. First starting in the medium of crayons and mud, their work has reflected their physical growth marked by individual forays into different media, marked by Judy’s inability to colour within the lines and her sister’s precision with pencil crayons. Coming from a background with diverse influences, such as tourism, comics, geology, and fine art with a huge dollop of history, the two sisters started creating jewellery about 30 years ago. In the meantime, Judy, with her background of a Diploma of Fine Art and Painting from the Victoria College of Art continues to explore what colour can do whilst being self-taught when it comes to the creation of earrings. Janette claims the influence of the Art Nouveau movement leading into Art Deco as influence of her work in both several dimensions focusing on enamel and the influence of found objects that Judy insists on bringing home. Together, their work reflects the kind of delightful exploration that has been a hallmark of their lifetime of art.
Vancouver-based visual artist, Julie Epp, has been refining her skills in floral depictions and illustration since 2010. Epp holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of the Fraser Valley, specializing in print media, sculpture, and painting. Since receiving her degree, Epp has explored mediums outside her educational experience, including 3D printing, polymer clay, and digital painting.
Since she was a child, Julie Epp has believed that art is for everyone, and everyone has a different reason to create. Sharing her knowledge and abilities since university has been a focus but creating on her own is a necessity.
Julie Epp has shown in galleries throughout the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley, and has also won an award for her work during university. She has served as a juror for the Abbotsford Arty Awards and sat on the board of directors for a local artist collective, New West Artists Society. Volunteering in art galleries during her university years introduced her to the world of public art organizations and not-for-profit, and she has made her career in teaching arts and culture through various not-for-profit organizations. Her art practice has been a focus alongside her professional work but has recently become her priority. Most newly, her artwork has brought her to jewelry-making, merging her love of nature and florals with the practicality of wearable art.
Her work explores the relationship we have with nature and beauty through the depiction of floral patterns, detailing, and colour movement. The projecting element of her jewelry gives the work an impactful look from all sides and brings the decorative features into the 3rd dimension. Though Epp is new to the world of wearable art, her work is supported by over a decade of study and attention to and development of technique, style, and skill.
Julie Glaspy hails from Saint John, New Brunswick. Now living on Quadra Island in British Columbia. Julie found her own way to stone and jewelry work, travelling the West Coast. Julie is mostly self-taught and continues to explore her style by surrounding herself in nature and creating every day. She has worked with and was influenced by First Nations’ art and culture. First, Julie carved small stones, bones and did metalwork and then medium and large-scale stone sculptures. Julie has participated in sculpture symposiums in Canada, Italy, Germany, and Nepal. She has also created pieces for private collections around the world.
By choosing stone, bone and metal as her mediums Julie connects us to our environment. With much respect for the density and permanence of the stone, she introduces movement and depth. In her work she explores both natural and abstract forms while breathing life into her pieces with strong yet sensual curves and changing angles. Using the light from the passing sun, shadows are drawn out, dramatically changing the effects of her work. Often, art is about finding beauty in places where it is not always commonly seen; for Julie art is about making something out of nothing, which is one of her main attractions to stone and recycled materials. Her art has embraced both ends of the spectrum from intricacy in jewelry to monumental works.
Salt Spring Island jewelry artist, Juliet Kemble, creates art jewelry that conjures a narrative reminiscent of faraway places, mystery and romance. In the years after graduating from art school, she established herself as a successful surface design artist winning several local awards and commissions. Working from her home studio in North Vancouver, while raising her son, she designed and fabricated large banners and elaborately constructed wall pieces reflecting an artistic vision that combined an unpretentious sense of design and composition together with a passionate use of color and an intuitive sense of play. After taking time away from making art to pursue graduate work in Communications followed by a long teaching career at both SFU and KPU, she began designing highly textured assembled pieces of jewelry characterized by a large scale, bold colors, strong design and playful composition evoking the mood of her textile pieces and inspired by her love of nature and frequent travels. She has sold her art jewelry at Circle Craft, Harmony Arts Festival, Out of Hand, and numerous local galleries including past CCBC Earring shows. Today she sells primarily out of her studio and small gallery located in “downtown” Ganges on Salt Spring Island and is open to the public three days a week or by appointment. She also sells at ArtCraft on Saltspring Island and Lesliejane in West Vancouver.
Karin Luvaas started her journey in 2015 at the Revere Academy in SF, CA, and acquired her Graduate Jeweler certification in 2016. She continued her studies at GIA and finished as a Graduate Gemologist in 2016. She then went on to complete the Bench Jeweler Technician Certificate, Jewelers of America, in 2017. Along this path she also decided to study new technologies and techniques and started teaching herself how to use 3Design modeling software so that she could marry old world skills with new technology.
In 2019 Karin made inroads within the local jewelry community by teaching jewelry making classes at a local non-profit community center for artisans and makers, BARN (Bainbridge Artisans Resource Network), located on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Karin has since become even more involved within the Jewelry Studio Steering Committee and took on the role of Studio Lead to help prepare for and build the new Certificate of Craft Program and establish a lapidary program within that organization.
With her institutional education complete, her continuing education ongoing, and her exploration of her craft as the singular focus of career and daily efforts, Karin finally launched her own fine jewelry line under her name in February of 2020.
Katherine Maclean (Kat) is a Calgary based jewellery designer. Her experience in the world of jewellery has been incredibly multifaceted; from metal work to stone cutting, and everything that makes the industry flow between.
Childhood access to the mineral-rich terrains of the Rocky Mountains sparked her lifelong interest in gemstones and geology, combined with a talent for fine art, It was a natural progression for Kat to find herself as a designer and maker of jewellery.
Fueled with passion for wearable art Kat completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in Metalsmithing and Jewellery making at Alberta University of Arts. Following the completion of her degree she trained as a goldsmith for a custom design studio, progressing to full-time jewellery designer under a well established goldsmithing and jewellery design company. Kat has worked in the jewellery trade for the last eleven years, the past six of these specializing in high-end custom design.
It is not just in the making of jewellery that Kat has placed her efforts. She has coordinated several exhibitions to showcase the work of many other jewellery artists. One of note was the Silver and Gold Exhibition for 925 Sterling Anniversary Symposium, Calgary, Alberta. An event showcasing Jewellery artists from all over western Canada.
Kat will forever walk the path of jewellery making.
Designer chloe oh.
She is women fashion designer and flower artist.
She wishes people will be happy with her works. Especially when people get depressed.
Her major was fashion design at university and she used to work in a bridal shop for 10years. After that, she has run her own business. (Customised fashion and flower arts. )
She has many experiences in exhibitions, fairs and art marks in Korea. She moved to Mexico when she got married. She’s been still running her design business. (Classes and selling) And she has been having sewing classes at Korean cultural centre in Mexico.
Marissa Saneholtz makes narrative based jewelry and objects using humor and sarcasm. She is co-founder of the Smitten Forum, an annual traveling residency program and is currently teaching at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, OH.
Saneholtz has been published in several books including Humor in Craft by Brigitte Martin and Narrative Jewelry: Tales from the Toolbox by Mark Fenn. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and is in the collections of the Racine Art Museum in Racine, WI, the Enamel Arts Foundation, Los Angeles, CA, and the Mint
Meghan Weeks is a Woodland Cree/ English artist living and working on the unceded traditional territories of the of the Coast Salish peoples including the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam Nations. Her maternal side is from Treaty 8 territory and paternal side from England. She is a proud member of Sucker Creek First Nation. Meghan graduated with a certificate in Interactive Digital Design from Grande Prairie Regional College in 2019 and received her BFA in Photography at Emily Carr University in 2003. She started her jewelry company MDW Jewelry in 2018 which focuses on handmade sterling silver and beaded wearable art. Her work reflects teachings from the matriarchs in her family, childhood memories, and her continued healing journey to stop the cycle of intergenerational trauma, and her struggle of being part colonizer and the colonized. She uses her artwork to reclaim her Indigenous identity. Continually learning her culture and language, she also participates in ceremony, which has led her down a path of coming home spiritually and mentally.
Melody Markle is an Algonquin Anishinaabe artist from Long Point, Winneway First Nation. For generations, her family has shared their artistic gifts through both traditional and contemporary forms, using Woodland style inspired by nature and the land. She holds a Bachelor of Social Work at Ryerson University. Melody has exhibited her artwork in Moving Throughlines at Seymour Art Gallery and hopes to continue to showcase her art forms.
Michelle received a BA from the University of Guelph in Theater Arts. Whilst going to school she continually worked with her family silk scarf business. She designed their fall/winter and spring/summer lines. She always had a love of fashion and costume. She soon went back to school and studied textiles and glassblowing at Sheridan College. After school, she helped found and develop Glen Williams Glass, a cooperative Hot Glass Studio in Glen Williams, Ontario. She worked with her creative partner here for 10 years. During this time she started to make and design jewellery out of wire and beads and sold it in her showroom and throughout a few stores. Years later she was pregnant with twins and needed to make a career change. Michelle relished the opportunity to work on her jewellery in a more comprehensible way. Since this time her work has evolved from very fine intricate and delicate wire work to bolder, sculptural, playful work. Her work has been collected by many and she has had her work at the AGO gift shop, R.I.C.A. contemporary gallery and some other fine craft stores. She lives in Guelph Ontario with her family, where she has a studio and showroom.
Monica Gennaro after finishing medical school in Europe emigrated to Canada. In Canada she realized that continuing her profession will not be possible. That is when an old passion has surfaced and reignited, specificaly, the love of jewellery and jewellery making.
She has enrolled to George Brown College and finished the jewellery making courses with honour.
Monica has set up her own studio and she’s designing and hand fabricating all the jewellery.
Her work currently is exhibited at The Eclectic Artisans Gallery in Brisbane, Australia , Burlington Gallery in Ontario, Preston Gallery in Uxbridge, Ontario. Many of the jewellery pieces created are in private collections in Europe, USA and Canada.
Pam Tymensen grew up amongst the coulees of southern Alberta, and spent most of her summers in lower mainland BC. Since childhood she has been obsessed with the natural world; from Badland fossils to scuttling beach crabs. She has always been an artist interested in any medium she could get her hands on, often with work focused on the natural world around her. Her BFA was awarded from the University of Lethbridge in 2010. While colorfield painting and found object printing brought her joy, there still seemed to be a piece missing. It seemed only natural to join her life long love of rock hunting and art in its perfect meeting point: Jewellery. She has happily been working full time at the bench since her graduation with Honors from the George Brown jewellery program in 2014. She topped off her final year in Toronto by being awarded Best in Show in Zilberschmuck’s final show for her tourmaline and fine silver granulation piece “-237ºCâ€. She decided to return to her heartland of Alberta to continue her goldsmithing journey. She was lucky enough to join a high end fine jewellery studio with a wide variety of goldsmiths to continue to learn from. She has quietly focused on perfecting her skills to a demanding level, and is once again starting to branch out into joining shows and competitions. While she is perfectly capable of producing a classic solitaire engagement ring, her personal work often focuses on raw or unusually cut stones paired with technically challenging metal work. She is especially interested in the plasticity of how metal moves, and the endless textures inherent in the process of creation. A surface rippled with reticulation tells you something about the metal itself, the same way a hammer mark reveals the hand of the artist.
Patricia Tozer is a multidisciplinary artist, silversmith and designer living on an island in the ocean off the west coast of Canada.
Patricia works in close relationship with precious metals, stone, and other natural materials to create unique pieces to adorn wild, embodied spirits. Her work is informed by the belief that decorating one’s body is a deeply-rooted human instinct. Far from frivolous, it is an ancient imperative, supporting self-expression and community belonging. For the artist, jewellery is an emotional, highly personal vehicle through which we can foster connections with others by revealing our hearts. In her hands, jewellery becomes the medium through which we discover our true selves and find our kindred spirits
. Patricia studied fine arts at McMaster University and earned her Master’s degree at the University of Victoria in Victoria, B.C., Canada. She was fortunate to learn smithing from master metalsmith and multimedia artist, Tosca Teran in Toronto, Canada. Her work can be found in collections around the world. Her first exhibition of her work will be at the upcoming Milano Jewellery Week in June 2021.
Rowwie is a metal artist with a preference for fabrication and mixed media. Her work is multi disciplinary and is often informed by esoteric ideas, nature, and fantasy. She is well versed in craft from ceramics to sewing to stained glass, but her focus is in metal arts and soft sculpture.
Born and raised in Vancouver BC, surrounded by the natural magic of a temperate rainforest and grounded in the salt soaked beaches of her coastal home, Rowwie is a maker at heart.
Rowwie grew up listening to the clang of hammers on metal in her mother’s workshop and developed a knack for pushing her ideas into the world through her hands early with a love for sewing. Eventually Rowwie began making soft sculpture with mixed media, her materials merging fibre with harder mediums like metal and plastics. This led to attending the VCC Jewellery Art and Design full time program where Rowwie tuned into metal arts and never looked back. She left VCC with the Anthony Gallop Entrepreneurial Award for entrepreneurial spirit, combining creativity in design and production. Since then, Rowwie has learned from a variety of jewellery industry professionals and accumulated an impressive collection of rocks.
Rowwie lives in Powell River with her husband and two house panthers where she tries not to set her bench on fire and dabbles in stained glass. Occasionally, she still makes soft sculpture.
Rosie Schinners (b.1979) is a collage artist and jewelry maker who resides on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada. She holds a Bachelor of Art from the University of Guelph as well as a Bachelor of Fine Art from NSCAD University in Halifax. Although focusing on painting during her formal art education, returning to collage art as a primary medium was a natural transition. From a young age, she has been cutting, pasting, and leaving trails of scrap paper around the house. Working primarily with vintage print material, Schinners combines hand-cut collage with vibrant splashes of colour to bring new life to old images. She looks to explore and express fleeting moments of magic, alchemy, and the shifting nature of the internal landscape. Drawing upon her upbringing, recent work has celebrated and reflected female makers, wise women, brujas, and abuelitas (Spanish for witches and little grandmothers) . Recent artistic achievements include commissioned artwork for the Vancouver Opera 2020-21 season (rescheduled to 2021-22), and being named Kolaj Magazine’s 2019 World Collage Day Artist.
Sandi Luck has been sewing since a young child and has merged sewing with applied graphic and architectural design work experience to create whimsical multi layered images, clothing and objects. She received a Diploma of Fine Arts from Dawson College and is a graduate of the Textile Surface Design Certificate at Haliburton School of the Arts. She continues her artistic education with frequent workshops with master instructors around the world. Sandi worked as a graphic and interior designer for several years prior to concentrating on fibre art. Sandi is a founding member of The Art Hive Artists Collective and past board member of Haliburton Arts Council. She is co-creator of Fashion Fallies wearable art show. A part time instructor in the Fibre Arts Program at the Haliburton School of the Arts, currently she volunteers as secretary for felt:feutre, the Canadian felt organization. Her work has been published in World Wide Colours of Felt and The Artists of Algonquin and she has won awards for her felt pieces Winter is Coming and Lace Cuff. Sandi was the graphic designer for Haliburton, a History in Pictures and contributor to Natural Dyes published by Burr House Spinners & Weavers. She is embracing new technologies with printing digital collage on fabric, but also employs traditional hand skills. Wet felting is a favourite technique, particularly using silk fabric with wool fibres to create nuno felt, embellished with hand stitch and beads.
Sarabeth Carnat was born in Calgary & her family have a long and detailed history of community activity & participation in this city. Sarabeth studied in Canada, Israel & the U.S. Her fifty year span in the field of Jewellery and Metals includes thirty + years of teaching and committed contribution at the Alberta College of Art + Design now Alberta University of the Arts. She has a private practice in one of a kind, production and conceptual jewellery, metal painting, and anodized aluminum objects. Sarabeth likes to explore extreme ranges of scale in her work. Her work addresses beauty, comfort, colour and relationships. She has received both national & international recognition for her work. Her work is in numerous private & public collections including the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.
Sharmin’s original career choice was in the field of Business and Accounting. However, she has always had a strong interest in the arts and gradually became a full-time artist since1991, when she enrolled in the Textile Arts program at Capilano College. On completion she specialized for some years in silk painting. In 1997 she followed a workshop in the off-loom techniques of bead weaving. This soon became her focus and passion, and she continues to create bead art and jewellery with a modern twist. She has exhibited her art in museums and galleries across many countries. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Arts and Design, New York and The Henry Ford’s Glass Collection, Michigan. Her work is also held in private collections in the USA, Canada, Europe and Asia. She currently lives in Vancouver, Canada, and London, UK.
Soma Mo was from the Tibetan mountain Yi Tribe where silver jewellery making is an ancient tradition. Soma has been trained under a master there and returns to the mountain annually to continue this. She is one of very few women doing so. Soma also went to Vancouver Community College for a diploma degree for Jewelry Art and Design .
Soma’s jewellery pieces displayed in a number of galleries and boutiques through Canada ,including Art Gallery of Vancouver, Alberta Craft Council Gallery, LP Pai Gallery of Ottawa, etc. Soma’s works also exhibit in her own Simpler Slower Silver exhibition in Alberta Craft Council, and Coming up Next Exhibition in Alberta Craft Council. She was also part of Earring Show of BC Craft Coucil in 2020. Inspired by her traditional culture, Soma combines old technique and new technique , each piece of her work is free hand patterned and one of a kind.
Sorrel Acacia is a Canadian jeweler and silversmith with a background in welding and artistic blacksmithing. She holds a B.F.A., major in Jewelry Design and Metalsmithing, from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Nova Scotia. During her time at N.S.C.A.D., she participated in an exchange semester at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland, and completed a professional development residency at the Centre for Craft Nova Scotia.
An active member of the jewellery and silversmithing community, her work has been exhibited nationally, and internationally in the USA and Europe. Recent exhibitions include The Earring Show, Vancouver, Canada, New Vernacular, NYC, and the Silver Triennial 2019, Hanau, Germany. Sorrel has been the recipient of several awards in support of her work including the British Columbia Arts Council Scholarship, L.A.Pai Gallery’s 17th Annual Student Competition Award, and the Craft Council of British Columbia, 2020 Micki MacKenzie Award.
Stephanie Elderfield is a goldsmith and contemporary jewellery artist based in Calgary, Alberta. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Jewellery + Metals from the Alberta College of Art + Design (now Alberta University of the Arts) in 2014. She draws her inspiration from the natural world found exploring her home province. Stones, reactive metals, patinas, and mixtures of fine metals are used to bring depth and colour to her work, giving an illustrative look to the finished pieces.
Taalrumiq is an Inuvialuk Artist from Tuktuuyaqtuuq, Inuvialuit Settlement Region, NWT, currently residing in Lheidli Tâenneh territory (Prince George, BC) with her family. Taalrumiq inherited her talent and skill from a long line of artistically inclined Inuit women who expressed themselves creatively through their work crafting traditional clothing meant for survival. Her modern educational background includes a Red Seal Journeyman in Hairstyling, Bachelor degrees in Human Ecology and Secondary Education from the University of Alberta.
She creates modern Inuvialuit garments, jewelry and fine art using her artwork as a platform to tell stories, share lived common experience and history of Inuvialuit, while inspiring the next generation to feel empowered, capable and instilling cultural values and pride. Using a mix of traditional organic materials like fur, sealskin, feathers and antler with modern materials like glitter, sequins and fabric she creates unique yet distinctly Inuvialuit art & design pieces. She is currently a mentor artist for the Strong People, Strong Communities Mural project, scheduled for completion in Yellowknife in summer 2021. Her most recent accomplishment includes a beaded moose hide 2nd wave pandemic mask with sealskin walrus tusks, polar bear and wolverine fur & leather tassels selected as part of the Breathe exhibit, scheduled for May – August 2021 at the Art Gallery of Guelph in Ontario. Prior achievements include a Sister set of sealskin walrus tusk masks in the Breathe Exhibit, recently featured at the Whyte Museum of the Rockies in Banff, 2020-2021. Taalrumiq was a finalist in the Native Women’s Association of Canada’s 2020 National Ribbon Skirt competition, had work featured in Tusaayaksat Magazine, various online media & CBC Radio 1 Prince George. She wrote an article on inspirational Inuit Seamstresses featured in The Inuit Art Quarterly magazine, 2021. When not creating artwork, Taalrumiq is a busy Mom of 5!
Tereza was born and raised in Prague, in the Czech Republic. Her attraction to creative expression began with the scent of her uncle’s woodshop, where she could be found underfoot, exploring the tools. After a career in Optics and Optometry, she was drawn to the studio once more, and embarked upon training in metalwork. After taking few independent courses at LaSalle College Vancouver, Tereza was planning to move back to her home country, but the pandemic stopped her. Although Tereza is at the beginning of her artist career, her passion is driving her forward. She is currently working from her home studio in Vancouver and continues self-studying jewelry and experimenting with different materials.
Valeria Martz is a full-time jewellery artist currently residing on Vancouver Island off the West Coast of Canada. She was born and raised in Argentina where she became fascinated with the tradition of using organic materials, in particular horn, in the creation of objects and artifacts.
Valeria met the remarkable Argentinian artisan Gustavo Gonzalez and became his apprentice. From him she learnt the secrets and techniques for working with horn and bone.
Valeria attended Rosario Conservatory of Music where she pursued classical flute studies. Her passion for jewellery as an art form never left her and was always in her thoughts during her time at the Conservatory. This led her to attend Silversmithing courses and to start combining metals with horn in the creation of her pieces. Valeria sees this pairing as a unique combination, elevating an organic ancient material to the level of precious metal, creating a one-of-a-kind contemporary piece.
After finishing her music studies, Valeria travelled around the world then lived in Germany and Ireland before settling down in Canada in 2001. Valeria furthered her metalsmithing skills by taking courses at the Alberta University of the Arts and has attended many well-known shows and festivals throughout Canada. She has been a full-time studio jeweller for the past 15 years and still plays the flute in her free time. Her studio is in the beautiful Highlands area of Southern Vancouver Island where she is surrounded by unlimited inspiration from nature.
Clarissa Long is a jewellery artist who lives and practices in Vancouver, British Columbia on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tseil-Waututh people. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) Major in Jewelry and Metalsmithing from NSCAD University in Nova Scotia. Clarissa was selected as a finalist in Western Living magazine’s Designer of the Year award for 2018. Her work has been exhibited in major international shows, including Talente in Munich, Germany and Beijing International Jewelry Exhibition in China. Clarissa exhibits regularly throughout North America. An advocate for the contemporary jewellery community, she manages a shared jewellery studio in East Vancouver, is the Chair of Exhibitions on the Vancouver Metal Arts Association and instructs in the jewellery program at Lasalle College.