Ohio Designer Craftsmen
Fine art & craft, art exhibitions, education and more
Company: Melissa O’Brien Designs
Cleveland, OH
A jeweler and metalsmith, Melissa received her BFA in metals and painting from Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. She has been a studio artist for over 20 years. Her inspiration comes from nature, shapes and forms. She enjoys playing with the use of positive and negative space through various forming and fusing techniques.
Artist: Russell Stephanchick
Cleveland Heights, OH
Instagram.com/RussellStephanchick
A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art, Russel has worked as a designer in the automotive, marine, and trade show industries and as a silversmith for over 30 years.
Artist: Laura Gooley
Erie, PA
www.coppertwiggallery.etsy.com
Laura is from Erie and spent most of her childhood at Presque Isle. She attended Villa Maria Academy and receive an Associate Degree in Photography from Oakbridge Academy of Art. The imagery in her photography and jewelry embraces tranquil simplicity, rustic elegance and imperfect beauty as perfect.
Copper Twig jewelry is lead & nickel free, hypoallergenic. The patina finish is sealed with renaissance wax to protect from further oxidation.
Columbus, OH
A former elementary-school art teacher, Karen designs unique jewelry using metals including copper, brass and silver.
Toledo, OH
Melissa began creating wire jewelry when she was 16 years old. A graduate of Bowling Green State University, she uses the traditional jewelry making techniques and anodized aluminum to design her bright, beautiful work.
Company: Whitney Designs Ltd
Sarasota, FL
John and Linda Whitney have been designing beautiful jewelry since the 1970s. Sterling silver and 14K gold were the only materials used for many years in their work, but the pair have expanded to include red brass, copper and nickel silver. They continue to use only hand tools in their work, apart from tumblers used for deburring and hand-operated polishing lathes.
Artist: Carol Wallenfelsz
Marion, OH
Carol is a mixed-media artist, who works with alcohol ink, acrylics, and colored pencils to create her jewelry and artwork.
Artist: Tawney Reynolds
Berkely, CA
Tawney melts glass into “sundrops” in her driveway in Berkeley, California, using a three-foot-tall magnifying glass (technically a fresnel lens) to focus sunlight, which can produce a ‘hot spot’ reaching 3,000 °F. Shaped simply with focused sunlight and gravity, the molten glass naturally forms an elegant droplet shape. The droplet is broken off at the thin ‘neck’, which is returned to the heat and the sharp point melted into a ball. She uses recycled bottle glass for blues, greens and browns, art glass for other colors. The drops are then wrapped in recycled Argentium silver wire.