This summer I will be teaching three workshops.  If you have been thinking that you would like to take a vacation and devote a week of your time to full-time work in the studio, this is your chance for a rich experience!  A workshop at a wonderfully staffed art school is a time to re-charge your batteries, meet new friends, learn new techniques, share experiences and practice skills that you already own.  I will be prepared to share with you the insights that I have learned over the last 30-something years in working with metals and other materials.

The first workshop will take place at WildAcres Retreat in Little Switzerland, North Carolina the week of June 27-July 3rd.  This workshop has been organized by the Florida Society of Goldsmiths and I am really looking forward to meeting this group of students.

The second workshop will be held at the Touchstone Center for Crafts in Farmington, PA.  I have not been to this part of Pennsylvania before, the Laurel Highlands in the southwestern part of the state.  The description on their website states that:  'At Touchstone, nature and creative energy combine in harmony to produce a unique synergy not often found. Touchstone is a place for quiet contemplation, for introspection, for a wealth of revelations. Students gather to learn in an atmosphere of friendship and camaraderie. Touchstone has, for over thirty-eight years, been providing adults and children with unique skills and lasting memories...'  I am truly looking forward to the first week of August in Pennsylvania.


The third workshop on my agenda will occur at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN.  This will be a going-home experience for me, because I took my first two workshops in metals at Arrowmont in the early '80's.  They were life-changing experiences for me and I have not looked back since.

One of the main things I teach in my workshops is composition and design, as these have been my strong points from the very beginnings of my career, probably since the age of about seven when I knew I wanted to create things with my hands.   I remember that in the first workshop I ever took at Arrowmont, Eleanor Caldwell told me that my designs were wonderful but my technique was terrible.  I had a lot to learn then, and took up the challenge to learn techniques.   When I met Chuck Evans the following summer at Arrowmont, I knew my life was going to be different from the moment I walked into the room and saw his work because I felt a wonderful resonance with his art and with him, the artist.

When we work with composition and design, some of the concepts we will explore are how one can work with transition from one shape to another, find unity in a single dominating element, work with rhythm and repetition, or find harmony in symmetry and balance.

My personal work is completely hand-fabricated and narrative, relating to my history, including memories of youth, interpretations of days that have been lived, expectations met or denied.  If you have been thinking about taking a workshop this summer, come work with me!  I look forward to meeting you and learning your story.