Studio Goldsmithing

Abstract

A handful of goldsmiths are pioneers in the classic sense: they forged ahead into new territory, unaware of what the hazards might be, inventing themselves as they went. Some of these men and women had formal jewelry training in college, some did not. What sets them apart is a personal vision that each has worked out in a unique way. Each has added to the vocabulary of the jewelry world, both in technique and in artistry. Though their work is strikingly different from one another’s, though the paths they traveled were as individual as they are, they are united by a common sense of being artists in metal. They set tasks for themselves out of an innate need to work out whatever particular messages had lodged in their creative minds. Some of the routes they took were perilous and costly; yet, in each instance, they saw no choice. Look at a successful goldsmith and you see a burning intensity caught up in creation, not cash.