THE ART OF JEWELRY MAKING

Bev Mollberg

Bev started creating wire wrapped jewelry five years ago and won a 2nd place in an art contest for a wrapped pendant. She has unique wire-wrapped jewelry using glass, shell, crystals, semi-precious stones and beads to create unique pendants, earrings, collars and bracelets. She has designed “The Versatile” which is an interesting earwire that can be matched with a wide variety of earring charms. Bev also has created several collars (necklaces) from either 14 gold-filled wire or sterling silver.

Barbara Robertson

Barbara Robertson began making beaded jewelry and gradually moved into metal clay and sheet metal for jewelry. She make metal clay charms including lake charms with a cubic zirconia where your home or cabin is located on your lake. Her latest venture is making rings and incorporating charms with stones she collects and drills from her beach on Leech Lake. She also creates statement pendants using copper and silver, stone rings with cabochons purchased from all over the country.

Becky Seemann

Becky Seemann of Artwoods creates handcrafted silver-jewelry focused around the elements of nature from her shop located in the artwoods of Northern Minnesota. Becky is a self-taught artist and accomplished water colorist who shifted to working in metal 12-years ago as a way to make wearable art. She is a nature enthusiast who believes that a walk in the woods or wearing something that reflects nature helps to release the stresses we all face day to day.

Jodi Riesselman – Bijou

Jodi Riesselman has been creating jewelry for seven years using a variety of stone, semi-precious gems, glass, wood and metal beads and offers pieces at an affordable price.

Whether accessorizing an outfit for work, special occasion, fun at the lake or everyday wear, there’s something for you!

Tyler Bakken

Tyler Bakken is a local Minnesota artist. She paints original art on canvases with acrylic paint. She also creates unique jewelry using glass beads and wire wrapped pendants. Making signs out of barn wood for home decor is also an art avenue she has taken. Art is her life and her mission is to create full time someday.

Gabe & Anne Carlstrom / Forever Favorites – Painting, Woodworking, and Jewelry

Always marveling at the beauty in the landscape of the world, Gabe Carlstrom has been exploring acrylic painting since the age of 16, taking up oil painting just recently. He is self-taught and oddly enough, color blind. Big bright colors of sunsets, sunrises and cloud formations have always been the focal point.

Around the same time, his passion for woodworking was growing as well. The use of reclaimed wood, tree roots, epoxy and found objects is a constant. Gabe also incorporates area lake rocks, driftwood and tree root pieces into his paintings. All frames are handmade on hand stretched canvases.

His wife, Anne Carlstrom, discovered her artistic side during the pandemic. Painting and pour painting at first then moving to jewelry making. She uses reclaimed jewelry pieces, hand-cut reclaimed leather, metal, fabric, rock, gems, wood and flowers from the garden. Always adapting and changing styles, Anne has found her true passion.

Laurie Slanga – LS Creations

A self-taught Minnesota artist, Laurie Slanga has taken her passion for art and infused it with her everyday life. Utilizing mainly acrylics and mixed-media styles, her artwork focuses mostly on wildlife and nature, something she surrounds herself with every day. Much of her work has been inspired by Lake Superior, a staple of her life growing up on the North Shore, whose beauty, power and ever-changing landscape encourages her with every creation.

Laurie discovered her passions later than many, after taking a “paint-and-sip” class while visiting her brother in Alabama. Ever since, she’s been continuously honing her crafts, as she attempts to share the simple beauty of the world through every canvas and jewelry piece she creates.

Some of her canvas pieces include mixed media, standard brush painting and pour-painting (mixing acrylic paint, a flow enhancer, oil and water.)

Her jewelry is created from an extension of pour-painting. Dipping transparent glass Cabochons in a pour-paint mixture of acrylic paint, flow enhancer, oil, and water. Once dry, prepped and sealed the glass is set-in stainless-steel jewelry pieces.

Sharon Kirkland – Wired jewelry holders, beaded jewelry

Materials, process

Jewelry Materials: glass beads, crystals, semi-precious stones, sterling silver (or gold filled) wire and chain, beading thread
Process: Most of the jewelry is stitched using a needle and beading thread; beads are stitched together. Some of the designs are free-form and truly one if a kind. Others follow a pattern of Sharon’s design or her adaption of vintage jewelry designs. She does a variety of beaded pins using beads and wire to create animal shapes such as dragon flies, spiders, bees.

JEWELRY HOLDERS:

Materials: metal wire (copper, steel, brass) in various gauges, rocks

Process:

Sharon’s tree holders are hand twisted wire trees with slots or loops hand formed on the branches. Trees are wired onto the rock base and finished with a clear coat finish. Other holders are hand formed from thicker wire. Necklace hooks are formed using a homemade jig. Wire loops are formed using a round nose pliers. The two are connected by wrapping them together with very thin wire.

Renee Lepre & Al Reed – Personal Touch Designs

Renee Lepre and her husband, Al Reed, create silver, copper, bronze and stainless-steel bracelets from wire, rod and sheet metal. They also make some specialty bracelets from recycled aluminum drink cans including some with magnets.

Renee has been in the business for 43 years. The couple from California do many shows in California, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Arizona and Nevada.

Kristy Highness – Dreaming Tree Creations

With roots born and raised in Minnesota, branches growing through Australia and Bali, and leaves fluttering throughout this beautiful world, Dreaming Tree Creations finds inspiration in unexpected places and people.

Likewise, Dreaming Tree designs are born from the same unexpected sparks. At these times she runs to her jewelry bench to watch the idea unfold. Inspirations include the wildness of the ocean, the stories and connections people share, travel and our soul’s pursuit of a broader angle, and details in nature. Inspiration is all around us.

Each piece is crafted using traditional tools that have been used for centuries: a fine jeweler’s saw to hand cut delicate shapes, tiny drills, a fiery torch, pliers and hammers galore, metal alphabet stamp sets of different fonts and sizes, metal blocks, liquid solutions in jars, files, sandpaper sticks, buffing pads, and two hands.

Every item is sterling silver, 14k gold-filled, or 18k gold vermeil, starting as sheets or wires of various gauges. Each shape is hand sawed. Words and textures are lined up with a fine eye and a sturdy blow from a hammer. Layers are soldered together with flame. Rings are bent over a mandrel and shaped with rawhide. Traditional methods are utilized using hundreds of tools, calloused but tender hands, and heart. Heart is that extra factor used in creating each piece. Can you feel it? Know and feel that each item is hand crafted with love, for you.

Becky Steinhoff – Painting, Jewelry

Becky Steinhoff has been an artist all her life and has been drawing, painting and writing since she was a little girl. Her journey as an artist has taken many twists and turns, going to school for commercial art and specializing in portraiture.

Becky is a mixed media artist. She paints, draws, collages and makes jewelry. Her inspiration comes from nature. She has also illustrated a children’s book.

She switched gears and went back to school for sign lettering and design. She spent many years painting signage and pictorials until computers and vinyl graphics took over the industry. She then started working in advertising and layout design for magazines and newspapers and made jewelry on the side. When Covid hit, she had extra time on her hands, since all of her shows had been canceled or postponed, so she picked up a paintbrush again. Used to painting in oils exclusively, Becky decided to try a new medium and started using watercolor. To her it felt like she had come home. Becky now uses a variety of mediums to create art including collage, acrylics, watercolor and oils while also “brushing” up on her lettering!