This past July I was offered a position, as Teaching Fellowing, at the Baltimore Jewelry Center. I was thrilled to take the position, as I have admired the BJC for a long time. It is a non-profit organisation that runs a year long program of jewelry and metals classes to people of all experience levels. They offer studio rental to Baltimore makers, a residency program that brings makers to the center for 1-3 months from all over the US and support students with several scholarship and internship opportunities. They also run a gallery for contemporary jewelry, where I will have an exhibition at the end of my fellowship in 2 years.
I moved to Baltimore to take up the position and have been busy teaching since mid-September; Introduction to Jewelry & Metals and History of Art Jewelry. Moving and teaching during a pandemic has been a challenge but the enthusiam and joy of students at the BJC has made it a good and rewarding one. When I interviewed for the position I was asked to give a zoom demo for the interview panel, which I created a ‘paint on metal’ demo for. This month I was given the opportunity to expand that demo into a 2-day workshop for the BJC and I taught a great group of makers everything I know about using enamel paints with metals. The team running the Center, Shane, April, Elliott and Lydia, have made my transition to Baltimore and the Jewelry Center a total dream and I feel like I will learn and grow a lot during my time here. Here are some images from my studio classes so far.
