Artist Statement
“I have always been attracted to jewelry from a young age. I remember fondly when my aunt was moving from Connecticut and she gave me her jewelry box filled with "wonderful treasures." That love of jewelry continued into adulthood. It is a wonderful feeling to be able to create "wearable art." My jewelry is art that travels with you.
The portability of jewelry is something that has always appealed to me. I have worked in several mediums including clay, leather and fiber, but it is jewelry design that has always prevailed as my medium of choice. Sometimes my pieces are sketched and designed beforehand, other times the pieces just come about instinctively.
My new steampunk designs are something new I have experimented with over the last year. I like the idea of "recycling the past" in new and creative ways. The pieces are meant to "bring the past back to life" with the major theme being gears, movement, and time. Using vintage pieces of watches and clocks is especially appealing. As I work on each piece I like to think about the previous owners of the watches I work with. I appreciate the craftsmanship and design that originally went into the pocketwatches and like knowing that they are being used once again as objects of adornment to be enjoyed by new generations of collectors.”
Biography
Ann has been in the jewelry field for over twenty-five years. She started designing and making jewelry while still in high school. Her main focus has been working in sterling silver and semi-precious stones from around the world. Her award-winning work has been featured in many gallery and museum exhibitions throughout Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Florida. Two of her sterling designs are in the permanent collection of the Slater Memorial Museum in Norwich, Connecticut.
Over the last year she has developed a line of steampunk pieces, using altered vintage objects such as gears, clock and watch parts, copper, brass and base metals. In 2006 she was the recipient of the Eunice Miles Scholarship from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). In 2007, she received her A.J.P. (Accredited Jewelry Professional) diploma from the GIA. In 2012, her steampunk work will be featured in the book Steampunk: Art and Design from the Functional to the Fantastic, by Bruce and Melanie Rosenbaum, Fox Chapel Publishing.
Besides jewelry design her interests include reading (especially historical fiction), gardening, tennis, traveling to Manhattan and around New England, collecting 1939 N.Y. World's Fair memorabilia, and the art and architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright.
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*Photocredit: Kevin Hagan