Mentors Ben Douglas and John Berry in Atlanta in 1970. Ben Rosenberg
at Boston Findings Co. was very helpful.
I was 15 and spent the summer with my uncle, he started out by
teaching me how to make tools to make jewelry. After 35 years as a
chef I was injured in a accident and unable to work in my chosen
profession. Metalsmithing is something I can do from a wheelchair.
Surprisingly I find I can have the same creative out let I had as a
chef. There is life after a spinal cord injury.
Jen lane
My dad’s hobby was lapidary. He always set his gorgeous cabs in
commercial base metal settings. It made me crazy.
(That’s the 20 word version…)
I always wanted to see the stones that dad cut put into better
settings, but he said he wouldn’t be able to sell precious metal to
his local blue collar craft-fair customers.
He never even tried. Through a long twisting life path I ended up
doing silver casting. Learning fabrication sort of happened as an
aside; still learning.
Dad’s been gone for almost 10 years, but some of his cabs, still set
in crappy base metal, are stored in his basement. One of these days
I’m going to pull those things apart, soak the epoxy off of the
stones, and set them in settings that are worthy of them.
Kathy Johnson
featheredgems.com
Had my first taste in high school, but what really got me going
about 5 years ago was a beautiful Morrison Ranch jasper cab and then
all of the stones that have followed 
Sincerely,
Andrea Krause
I didn’t choose jewelry, jewelry chose me. Although it’s completely
different from my style, my dad’s work was probably my strongest
inspiration.
Dave Phelps
I’m not counting words, but I’ll try to sum up:
Crazily enough, Sue Amendolara & the Edinboro Metals program,
medieval bookbinding & massive burn out as a social worker.
Ran from the family jewelry business to pursue a career in fine art -
Years later realized I could fulfill the longing to create making
jewelry! Duh!
Paul Mergan at the Kalamazoo Institute of arts in 2010 followed by
Lauren Tripp who made me hone my skills. Love it!
Ginger Smietana
Champagne taste on beer budget. Buying readymade would have been
cheaper. Lots more jewelry, fun and creative this way.
Jean Jean
JVormelker.com
Locked in an empty metal arts studio for a week by the art teacher
for acting up in high school art class. The second day she handed me
a book as she locked me up. “In case you’re bored” she said. 46
years ago and counting.
I was 12. Started classes with Florence Hollingsworth at deCordova
Museum. Still very much at it at 73.
got a community school notice that metal smithing classes were
beginning about 4 blocks from my house. And I had given a design and
a 10 carat opal to a friend (who was a smith) to make a pendant for
my wife. He blew the design, and that’s when I got serious about
doing my own designs.
In twenty sentences or less?.. mmmmm tough to pare things down that
far but here goes :
Eigth grade shop class at Albuquerque Academy, 1970, a few of us
stayed late, went out onto the mesa and got stoned (which also
inspied me to become a stoner, but that’s a whole other world of
tangent we don’t need to get into here!) and came back in and did
some oxy-acetylene welding. That was about the coolest thing I’d ever
done, and I wanted more !. That same year we were showed a video of
Navajo silversmiths making tufa stone castings ; more coolness, and
more FIRE !!!. Where do I sign up ?! I took metal shop and jewelry
making classes in high school, and got a summer job working for a
jeweler, then got a job as a silversmith out of high school, and that
was that.
DS
My fascination seeing what our bench jewelers, Dawn Hagood and Jim
Norton, could do and wanting to create tangible, lasting articles of
sentiment.
An everlasting thank you goes out to Michael Day for introducing me
to the jewelry industry and to Sue Schwartz and Everett Osborne for
encouraging my education!
Donna W
Huntsville, AL
To me JR Newman. Is my hero and taught me the jewelry industry
Andy The Tool Guy
By chance I took a beginning class 10 years ago from Tucson Parks &
Rec metals/jewelry program.
I took classes from Maureen Brusa Zappellini and Mark Ramsour who
shared their knowledge and passion for metalsmithing; I’ve been
hooked ever since.
Michael Nelson
No one person inspired me.
When I was admiring a fossil in a community college geology class,
and noone else in that class seemed to see the real beauty of the
rock, I began to think I was meant to take another path,. I looked
around for a college that offered jewelry making, never realizing
that I was picking a career.
Dr Barton at SUNY Pittsburgh encouraged us to experiment, and play
with every tool and technique we could. The very first time I melted
silver and cast a piece I was hooked for life!
Kate Wolf has inspired my carving.
Joel McFadden and Blaine Lewis have both inspired my setting. Working
on fabulous antiques as a repairman has inspired and educated me.
But, also, every other jeweler I have known along the way has had an
impact on me, beginning at SUNY Plattsburgh and Bowman, and
continuing today.
Dr. Barton at SUNY Pittsburgh
Really? SUNY Pittsburgh? Must be spending too much time in PA…
Linda in Central FL
As a very young boy in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in the late 1930s
I knew an elderly gentleman who had been a fur trader. He always
wore a turquoise and silver bracelet he had received as a gift from
an indian friend from his trading days. He wore it to his grave.
Since then I have had a strong liking for turquoise. In the late
sixties I saw lots of turquoise I couldn’t afford but it occurred to
me It couldn’t be that hard to make. Took a correspondence course in
silversmithing, bought tools, equipment and books and pretty much
learned the rest through practice, trial and error. Still learning.
Jerry in Kodiak