Evelyn Pelati Dombkowski hails from Windsor in Connecticut. She has always had a creative side, having studied commercial art at Paier School of Art. Before she embarked on jewelry making about four years ago, she worked for more than 20 years as a graphic designer for packaging, mainly in the toy industry. She established her company La Bella Luna Jewelry last year and now works full time as a jeweler.

The piece which Evelyn submitted to us is a fine silver and amethyst Art Deco design pendant. She chose the piece because she says it's one her most recent pieces and a personal favorite of hers. The piece came about when she was given a beautiful amethyst stone as a gift from a friend who just happens to be an artist/geologist/mineral expert! She was drawn to the shape, size and color of the stone and felt compelled to make a pendant to do the stone justice. Once the decision on the pendant was made, Evelyn took out her sketch book and started to draw designs based around the stone.

Evelyn's Art Deco inspired piece

This is the typical way that Evelyn works, saying that an initial design will begin with one element that strikes her.

It seems that this element could be anything, ranging from a stone like the amethyst cabochon used in this piece, an old button, photograph etc.

Once the idea starts to take shape, Evelyn sketches around the design to ensure that the initial spark of inspiration is done justice.

Evelyn is drawn to the art and design of the early 20^th century, naming Art Deco, Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts movements in particular. She admires the work of artists like Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Frank Lloyd Wright and says that the Japanese and Chinese design from that era is also highly inspirational. With this era in mind, Evelyn is now engrossed in making a body of work inspired by the costume designs of French artist, Erte.

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Lesley Messam has just reached the dizzy heights of being only the second metal clay artist in the world to achieve the Metal Clay Masters Registry Level 3. So what makes such a talented and prolific artist tick? She was kind enough to let us know!

Lesley has been making and selling jewellery for the past 10 years after she completed a four year silver smithing course at her local college. She discovered the delights of silver clay about five years ago and says that she fell in love with it immediately. Once she was smitten, Lesley pursued her hobby with characteristic enthusiasm, getting all the training she could, before starting to sell her jewellery in the hardware shop she co-owns with her husband. The shop, David Messam, is located in Chichester, West Sussex and now currently houses Lesley's thriving Bead Cellar business in the basement - The Bead Cellar sells 'all things jewellery related'. She says starting this business was a natural evolution that had developed from an obsession.

Whilst she has a large working knowledge of lots of different materials and products, she confesses her first love is still silver clay. She loves the flexibility and versatility of this medium and that it can be combined with so many different mediums. Describing her style, Lesley says that it is Art Nouveau with a large twist. She loves nature and in particular flowers, and strives to make her pieces three dimensional to show depth.

Lesley works from a studio, which she says is her pride and joy. She admits to being a bit of a tool addict with a wide array of equipment for metal clay, Fimo, glass and silver smithing. Her favourite tool is a pick tool which Lesley uses to cut out really fine detail on her jewellery pieces made with silver clay.

Currently working on her Level 4 Masters Registry projects, she is finding this experience very challenging and rewarding. Lesley relishes the challenges that these projects have presented and is very confident in her ability to solve problems when it come to metal clay - she prides herself on being able to think outside the box. This ability can be seen in her current favourite project, which was a submission for Level 3 - a pair of miniature scissors which are designed to cut! This was a project that she readily confesses is something that she would never have considered before. However she completed the project with tenacity and says that the benefit of selling scissors in her shop meant she could dissect scissors without considering the cost!

Lesley's current favourite!
Picture courtesy of the Metal Clay Masters Registry

The philosophy that keeps Lesley going is 'The joy of making something new every time' - this is certainly apparent in her pieces, her obvious enthusiasm for her work and the medium of silver clay.

If you want more information about the Masters Registry or to view all Lesley's submissions, click here.

Lesley also offers a wide variety of classes based in Chichester, UK, find out more here.