It is with deep sorrow that we inform you of the death of Bill Helwig
early this morning. He was hospitalized briefly with colon cancer and
unable to recover. His passing is a major loss to the enameling
community as well as to his friends. He was a truly gifted artist as
well as an extraordinary technician in enameling with a single-minded
attention to whatever he was working on. So many of us have benefited
from knowing him, whether from his classes, or from his technical
support, from his experimental nature, or simply by seeing what
wonderful work can be done in enameling.
Sadly,
Averill
I appreciate knowing about Bill Helwig. Many years ago, when Bill was
a young jeweler, before he met Lenore, and a beginnng enamelist, I
bought a pendant piece from him that had a significant impact on me.
It was a broken figure in silver set on black ebony and I called it
The Broken Cross. Not only did it have influence on my own art work
but it became a symbol, a talisman for life itself. How I wish I had
been able to contact Bill again to thank him and to express the
importance of the artistic statement to our lives.
Ruth Mary
Bill Helwig… Artist, enamelist, teacher, raconteur, visionary,
alchemist, critic, chain-smoker, friend has passed on. …He has
left behind so much for us to remember. His art work was a passionate
act of the heart…beautiful, witty, erotic and profound. He was a
most generous a teacher, if he sensed you were interested in
learning. He did not suffer fools or mince words. He was a great
technician in every aspect of the creation of enamels as a material
and of the tools of our trade. A quintessential snapshot of Bill…at
the 2011 enamel conference at Arrowmont he was teaching something new
that he’d recently developed and was excited as a kid about it,
still…as an artist should be…as we all hope we will be so many
years into our art/journey.
His beloved wife, Lenore, had gone before him…I hope somehow they
are together again.
There will only ever be one Bill Helwig. How lucky he was in our
time! Marianne
Marianne Hunter
http://www.hunter-studios.com
This is very sad news…I had the pleasure to meet Bill many years
ago at Penland School of Crafts on N.C.
He was teaching an enamel class & what a knowledgeable & generous
teacher.We shared the studio with his class…I wished I had taken his
class…My deepest condolences to his family and friends.
Sincerely,
Jo-Ann Maggiora Donivan, SF
Very nice and an accurate memorial to a very interesting man. I had
the pleasure of taking a class from Bill at the last Enameling
conference. He was a great teacher with an incredible amount to
knowledge. He will be missed.
Jo Dean Sarins
Array of Elegance
I am sad to hear of this, he was a nice man, and helped me more than
once on the phone. He knew so much and will be greatly missed.
Sincerely,
Laura Brito