Portland Spring 2027

Take this unusual and powerful opportunity to be guided to grow your metalsmithing skills, personal style and body of work.  Dig deep into your authentic and feel aligned. 

This 3-day workshop is a deep dive into the art of building personal sacred objects —into personal wearable talismans, prayer boxes, and totems — through metalwork, storytelling, and sensory exploration. Learn to set unusual stones and embellishments, small hollow forms, prayer boxes, unusual materials to create a powerful unique line of work from your heart. 

The Body as Altar

Theme: Adornment + Expansion

Now that forms are built, we shift focus to relationship — how the object lives on the body.
Each artist will explore movement, placement, and the energetic resonance of color, stone, and form.

Focus Topics:

- Designing jewelry that moves — fringe, horsehair, chain, sound
- Ritual wear: creating pieces for ceremony, dance, and protection

Studio Techniques:

- Incorporating organic materials (horsehair, thread, fiber, leather)
- Drilling + attaching fringe or chain
- Gem setting + embedding natural stones
- Balancing design with body movement

Theme: Connection + Structure

building multi-component works — wearable totems, stacked symbols,or larger wall pieces that embody personal myth.

Focus Topics:

- The totem as narrative — stacking symbols to tell a layered story
- Composing your “tribe” of objects: repetition, variation, and scale
- Integrating found objects, fossils, or artifacts from your personal travels

Studio Techniques:

-Soldering and connecting
-hinges
- Advanced riveting, wire wrapping, and mechanical joins
- Compositional building and balance
- Patina, oxidation, and surface treatments to create age + story
- Assembling a cohesive mini-collection or totemic structure

Materials Fee $ paid at beginning of class includes:

Info to come

Supplies Needed  to bring for Class:

Info to come