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<\/a>\n\t"A Rose is a Rose," lampwork and soumak, by Kiki Kinney<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The art of making jewelry using fiber techniques is finding a new audience, says Munya Avigail Upin<\/a>, who will teach \u201cWoven Metal Techniques”<\/a> July 6-10, as part of Metalwerx\u2019 annual Summer With the Masters Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI find more and more students coming from different backgrounds, bringing new and different ideas to the table,\u201d she said. Not that her previous students haven\u2019t had fabulous ideas, but people with non-metalsmithing backgrounds, she says, \u201cdon\u2019t know what they can\u2019t do. People outside the jewelry world bring in a whole new set of ideas to the process.\u201d<\/p>\n "Web," necklace by Barbara Gross<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While her weaving workshops still attract a good number of metal workers, Munya is starting to see more fiber artists and people with beading or polymer clay backgrounds\u2014and even dentists.\u00a0 \u201cAnyone can jump right in and do beautiful things without having to solder.\u201d<\/p>\n "Fire," woven cuff by Barbara Gross<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Barbara patiently awaits the day she can retire from her job as a sales representative for a wholesale mortgage company, and devote herself entirely to metalworking. \u201cI\u2019ve got a few more years to go before I can spend all my time at my bench,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n And who wouldn\u2019t want to spend more time in her studio, which doubles as a three-season porch at her home in Weston, MA. Barbara usually works on weekends and evenings, with a view through her floor-to-ceiling glass doors to her lush and woodsy garden.<\/p>\n Earrings, by Barbara Gross <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI simply lose myself when I\u2019m working. I open the doors to feel the cool breeze from the high maples and birch trees. It\u2019s so peaceful,\u201d she says. She does not work alone, however. Her standard poodle, Jolie, sits on the couch, quietly accompanying her mistress. When it\u2019s time for a break, Barbara gets to rest her hands but still plays Frisbee with Jolie.<\/p>\n Barbara\u2019s jewelry often features fold-forming and soumak, which she says the more she does it, the faster and better she gets. And her customers love the product. \u201cThe weave catches the light. They sparkle. And I often get comments on how unusual it is and how they\u2019ve never seen anything like this,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Brooch by Barbara Gross<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Barbara and Kiki are both former students of Munya, whom they credit with opening their eyes to techniques that have not only delighted their clients, but increased their sales. Barbara recently unveiled an online shop, Benjamina<\/a>.\u00a0 Her\u00a0 work can also be seen at Karenna Maraj Gallery<\/a> in Belmont, MA.<\/p>\n "Whimsy 2," necklace by Kiki Kinney<\/p>\n<\/div>\n After a long and winding road of artistic pursuits, Kiki has settled on jewelry. She mostly sells her work at craft shows, but also offers her creations through Facebook. After she posts photos of her jewelry, her followers can inquire about the work. If it\u2019s not sold, it\u2019s theirs, she says. Some of her pieces can be seen on her website, quitsakikidesigns<\/a>. She does not sell her jewelry online, but focuses on craft shows. This year is the first she will travel out of state, to set up shop in Stowe, Vermont and in Glastonbury, Connecticut.\u00a0 She expects to see a lot of familiar faces when she returns to the Marblehead Festival of Arts<\/a> on July 3-4.<\/p>\n Woven earrings with pearls, by Kiki Kinney<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kiki learned needlepoint and sewing as a young girl. When she was 29, a diagnosis of cancer in her leg forced her to be laid up for a long period. It was then that her mother taught her how to knit. Kiki never returned to her former job as a technician, ironically, in a cancer pathology lab, to follow an artistic path. She went to cooking school in France, then opened a wholesale baking company. But the damage to her leg was enough to make her discontinue the business. She gave it up, focused on having a child, and took up photography and lampwork.<\/p>\n It was the desire to offer new and exciting products to her customers that made Kiki turn to metalsmithing. \u201cI wanted to expand from the lampwork beads, because I felt that my customers weren\u2019t going to come back for only this. As I learned how to work metal, I started loving it more and more.\u201d<\/p>\n Bracelet, soumak and pearls, by Kiki Kinney<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Like Kiki, Barbara also did not consider herself an artist when she started crafting jewelry. \u201cIf you asked me to draw, you got stick figures,\u201d Barbara says. \u201cBut then I took a basic drawing class and discovered I could actually draw pretty well. And I\u2019ve always loved working with my hands. I took piano and knitting lessons as a girl. When I took Munya\u2019s weaving class, it opened up so many opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n Kiki discovered she had a talent for photography. After winning awards for her pictures, her husband and son built her a darkroom in their home in Marblehead, MA. She hasn\u2019t used it much since her husband \u201cdragged her into the digital era,\u201d she says, and he now photographs her work and manages her website. Photography gave way to glass and lampwork, and then to metal. It snowballed, she said, but she believes she will stay with jewelry making, because she loves working in her garage studio, alongside the skis and surfboards and trash cans.<\/p>\n<\/a>\n\t<\/a>\n\t<\/a>\n\t<\/a>\n\t<\/a>\n\t<\/a>\n\t<\/a>\n\t