[Welcome] New Members for November 5, 2008

Please welcome our newest members!

Lori Bonn Gallagher
Lori Bonn Design
Oakland, CA. USA

For 17 years, I have designed and sold a jewelry collection of
sterling silver and semi-precious stones. My work is handcrafted in
Bali and India, and I use stones from all over the world. My
collection is sold primarily in the U.S. to department, jewelry &
specialty stores.

My husband (who is the CEO of my company) and I are committed to
making sure our jewelry is as socially and environmentally
responsible as possible. We are members of the Madison Dialogue, an
industry group comprised of mining, manufacturing, design and retail
companies that’s working to create st andards for ethical jewelry.

Laurent Neuenschwander
North Shore City, New Zealand

http://www.laurentdesign.co.nz

i initially studied mechanical engineering and metallurgy in
switzerland before emigrating to new zealand in he 70s

i realised my ambition to communicate my feelings through creativity
in the 90’s when i studied design at unitec, majoring in jewellery
at first i designed and made knives until the specialised steel
became unavailable

i now offers a range of jewellery (cufflinks, rings, spoons) where i
like to exploit the (sometimes) unusual behaviour of the metals i
have also experimented with mokume

artist statement

i enjoy to push the metals beyond their normal boundaries. it
sometimes results in disaster but often it opens doors to the
unusual unusual surfaces, unusual textures, always unusual and mostly
visually pleasing these happy accidents usually result in naturally
occuring curves and patterns i have chosen to pursue this unusual
line of design because it offers tremendous rewards and i can
finally put my metallurgical knowledge to an artistic use

Michelle Milne
Evanston, IL. USA

Maker

Jerry A Weil
Seal Beach, CA. USA

My wife and I are interested in jewelry making as a hobby, with a
possible future goal of selling our product (if only to pay for our
tools!). I am primarily interested in metal fabrication, while my
wife prefers working with beads. We are in the process of setting up
a dedicated workspace in our garage, and have a flexshaft and
Silversmith acetylene/air torch for soldering as our “big ticket”
tools, along with an assortment of beading tools, files, hammers,
etc. We are currently enrolled in a jewelry design class at a local
community college, so we are excited about working on our class
projects at home as well.