TRACY TERRELL JEWELRY ARTIST

I grew up in a small suburb outside Boston, Massachusetts. My interest in Jewelry making started in High School where I spent a lot of time in the art department making jewelry out of copper and nickel silver. I enjoyed working with my hands designing and constructing wearable Art.

In the early 1990s I attended North Bennett Street School for jewelry construction and repair after graduating I worked as a bench jeweler in a “mom and Pop” shop. My next job was at a flute company polishing, assembling, silver and gold flutes.

In my spare time I made jewelry out of sterling silver, copper, brass, found objects, beads. I purchased scrape silver flute parts and created earrings from them. In my apartment I had a shop set up where I could solder and polish. I had a few shops where my jewelry was sold; Toucan in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA and Hoolamoola on Newbury Street in Boston. Later a small gift store and I participated in craft fairs.

Before the birth of my first daughter I moved to another town and packed my jewelry equipment away in boxes. I started creating jewelry using beads wire appliques and epoxy. As time went by I had another daughter and was not creating much jewelry.

Recent Projects

In the last few years I have gotten out my boxes of beads and findings and have started designing earrings, necklaces. My passion is to create beautiful color combinations and unique pieces. What inspires me is nature, fashion trends, interior design. Some time in the future I would love to set up my equipment and continue creating with silver and other metals.

CAROL SWOYER JEWELRY ARTIST

I grew up in Michigan, graduated college from University of Massachusetts with double majors in Biology and Psychology. After graduation I worked as a marine ecologist sampling inter-tidal zones and writing environmental impact statements for the EPA.

Part of the job involved SCUBA diving in shallow marine environments. I’ve become an avid diver and spend as many vacations as possible exploring coral reefs. In addition, traveling in our western States, I discovered the awesome beauty of desert landscapes, and have spent many months camping in the wilds of Utah.

I’ve been interested in crafts since childhood, although I have no formal training. While in school, I sold gemstone and macramé bracelets of my designs in Harvard Square. Now a recent retiree, I work mainly with seed beads and stained glass. I try to capture nature’s beauty by weaving intricate patterns with these miniature glass beads, a time consuming process. A simple bracelet may take 4 to 6 hours to complete. A recent miniature took 40 hours!

Carol Swoyer’s Jewelry Inspiration

The inspiration for my jewelry comes from nature; an orange, apple, and mango in a fruit bowl; the tail of a parrot fish off the coast of Bonaire; the woven leaves of a climbing vine! The purple, green, blue, and turquoise of shallow seas and the red, rust, and orange of desert canyons are colors I am most drawn to. You’ll see these colors repeated in my work as I try to imitate the splendor of this beautiful planet.

MARTHA SEELY JEWELRY ARTIST

Martha Seely was born in Syracuse New York, but has been a New England resident since early childhood living outside of Boston for the last 25 years. She lived abroad for a number of years and travels whenever possible – bringing back ideas to use in her life and art.

For much of her career life, Ms Seely was a costume designer and a stylist in the television and film business. A graduate of the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University, Seely has now applied her talents to jewelry making and fiber art. “Making art and creating beauty have been my life and they continue to move me forward,” Seely said. Color, light, energy, and subtle grace mark the quality of her creations.

Martha Seely Artist Statement

Art comes not from my brain, but from my heart.

And much of my heart and soul is filled with color, texture, style and beauty.

Creating jewelry allows me to play and experiment. It makes me happy. I use the style and fashion sense I developed over the many years I spent as a costume designer and stylist to create jewelry that is feminine and wearable.

In creating jewelry, there is a wonderful combination of design and process.

With each new piece I begin with metal and gemstones. The colors and energy of the gemstones are what capture me initially. They can be intense or soft; they are made by nature, but like flowers, many of their colors seem not to be from the earth at all.

I confess, what really inspires me is their sparkle. It is the sparkle that brings out the girly-girl inside me. When I was in graduate school we had a saying – “in the heart of every (costume) designer, there is a sequin.” I don’t use sequins in my jewelry, but I think that the underlying feeling still holds true for me and is what keeps me enthralled with my chosen materials.

PETYA MADZHAROVA JEWELRY ARTIST

I was born on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, but moved to the United States over a decade ago. My background is in science, but I have creative side. I am constantly looking for ways to nurture and explore different avenues. I started jewelry making about five years ago I mostly work with semi-precious stones and beads. My curiosity for new techniques lead me to take metalsmithing about two years ago. I adore the wonderful world of mixed metals!

Petya Madzharova’s Love of Jewelry

I love to design jewelry that is elegant and complimenting. My goal is to emphasize the feminine side to make women who wear my jewelry feel good. I want my jewelry to show the beauty of simplicity and minimalism. My inspiration comes from nature, the diversity of metals and stones, and many different cultures.

NOELLE HARRIGAN JEWELRY ARTIST

I wear a lot of black. To me, it is the ultimate neutral. Black has provided a wonderful backdrop for some of the bold and inspiring neckwear that I have collected. Over the years, I began to wish to see something different.

Styles, stones, color, and I began to have a clear vision of what I wanted to have at my fingertips. So, that coupled with my passion for fashion accoutrement led me to the art of jewelry design. Creating jewelry has provided a means to showcase my style and aesthetic. As I collected beads and stones from amazing places and manipulated them into one-of-a-kind pieces. I had the realization that stones and the many tactile sensations they evoked had a truly profound effect on me.

Noelle Harrigan Philosophy

Surrounding myself in the magical, mystical world of beads and bead venues changed the way I looked at the world and it’s colors and textures. I work with stones that can evoke the memory of a sultry breeze on a warm night with someone you love.

Stones can feel like an electrical current in the air that energize your spirit. Some stones paired with the right counterpart look and feel like the beach when dawn breaks and again designed differently, like when the sun is setting. If I’m feeling particularly inspired, I can see a finished piece in my mind before I’ve put one stone or bead on the form. That’s when my love for what I do is at it’s most powerful.

LAURE GOLDBERG JEWELRY ARTIST

Laure Goldberg started L’OR as a way to take her love of jewelry making more seriously. She began working with metals and stones seventeen years ago in the Wellesley, MA, public schools, but recently she turned her hobby into a business. She manufactures some pieces at her home workbench overlooking Beacon Street in Boston. As a studiomate at Metalwerx in Waltham, Laure Goldberg creates more labor-intensive pieces with specialty equipment and peer input.

Laure Goldeberg Philosophy

Whether walking around Boston, running an errand, or having trouble sleeping, Laure is constantly dreaming up new designs. Therefore, you will see quite a variety of styles, techniques, and textures in her work as she continues to experiment and play. Laure Goldberg also enjoys working one-on-one to design custom pieces with your own personal touch. Look for her new line of neckties coming out soon!

HELEN EDDY CARD ARTIST

Helen Eddy began day*star, her card and gift manufacturing company, in 1980. She did so to market her artwork, and within a few years found her affinity for photography. She began selling her photographs into cards, magnets, and bookmarks, and other products throughout New England. Now her work is available as prints.

Light is of primary importance to photography; Helen Eddy (whose first name means “light”) here presents light to us in its virtues of beauty and truth.  She finds these virtues in love; that Helen loves Boston and that she loves flowers is evident in these images.  We may physically see richness and color, but the real element is known by spiritual illumination: love.

Seeing beauty in other places as well, Helen found a niche in photographing New England towns and going back to have gift stores in those towns carry her products.  She now has photographed over two hundred towns in New England, and has ranged as far as Italy and England.

Helen Eddy Background

Helen Eddy grew up in Enfield, Connecticut, and graduated with a degree in fine arts from Principia College, a liberal arts school near St. Louis, Missouri.  Before developing her line of photocards, Helen exercised her photographer’s eye for ten years at the Newton Camera Club, winning awards there and serving for a couple of years as its president.

PHILIP BOLDUC WOOD TURNING

My name is Philip Bolduc, the creator of Bold Pens.  For many years I have crafted many items out of natural materials.

I earned my degree in Forestry and Wildlife Management from U.R.I. and I have been working as a laboratory technician since 1994.

Philip Bolduc Personal Statement

My main passion has been and continues to be the creation of useful natural and aesthetically pleasing items. Although the pen is the initial motivator of creativity for me in woodturning, there shall be other items crafted with the “Bold” name attached in the near future.

All of my pens and other items shall have a list of the materials used to create each item.

So, pick up a pen and get comfortable!

PATRICIA WELLENKAMP JEWELRY ARTIST

Patricia Wellenkamp spent eleven years as the founding owner of a craft gallery in Somerville, Massachusetts. After that, Patricia Wellenkamp turned to her love of all things artisan. She made her goal jewelry and metalsmithing.
Background
She attended numerous classes at the Brookline Arts Center, The North Bennett Street School in Boston and the Haystack School of Crafts in Maine. She produces and sells her “Domed Flower” line of jewelry. Patricia Wellenkamp hand fabricates each piece from sterling silver and brass.