Heather Marie
Jewelry, Metal

Local artist, metalsmith, and Lafayette, Louisiana native – Creating allows me to express the beauty of the world, reflect on life experiences, and craft meaningful creations that empower others. I am greatly inspired by nature, spirit, & the human experience. This is an appreciation that grew especially during my years living abroad and experiencing diverse cultures and ecosystems. Recognizing how we too are part of nature, reveals how interconnected we all really are.

My metalsmithing journey began in 2016, when I completed a Fundamentals of Metalsmithing course in Oregon at OCAC. About a year later, I taught myself how to incorporate gemstones into my metalwork, and Cocoro Studios was born in 2018. I primarily work with sterling silver, gold, goldfill, brass, mixed metals, & natural gemstones. Each piece is hand-fabricated from sheet and wire by me in my home studio in Lafayette, and I am continually refining my craft and learning new techniques. Through mindful metalsmithing — sawing, soldering, hammering, setting, & everything in between— it has become a form of meditation, transforming thoughts & experiences into symbolic talismans for the wearer to cherish.

Whether you choose an MTO (made to order) piece from the signature designs, or an OOAK (one of a kind) gem, each piece is crafted as intentional jewelry for your journey. It is my hope that with each piece you wear, you are reminded of your own beauty, resilience, and empowerment. More than just jewelry, it’s everyday ritual and tangible reminders of your growth and set intentions. For those who rebuilt from the pieces, found their way out by going through, and are choosing love over fear— this jewelry is for you.

Randy Dauterive
Metal

Working with metal and living in the country outside of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana,  the majority of my inspirations come from nature.  As a metal artist, I find myself looking at nature and wondering how I can recreate it in my own style.   What once was a passing hobby has become a lifestyle.

Suzanne and Angelique Juneau
Jewelry, Metal

As a mother – daughter artist team, we each make jewelry using our own designs. We use a variety of metals including bronze, sterling silver, copper, nickel silver, and stainless steel to create jewelry. Setting semi-precious stones, mineral specimens, and fossils into our artwork and adding a resin enamel creates visual interest in many of our unique pieces.

Gabrie’l Gonzalez-Bartels
Jewelry, Metal

My goal is to create jewelry that shines a light on the beauty that Mother Earth offers. Each piece is One of a Kind, created with intention using hand chosen natural stones and inspired by nature. The creative process brings joy to my soul and ends with not only a piece of jewelry, but a piece of the earth that holds energy and power for the wearer.

All pieces include carefully chosen stones in their raw form. I also use natural stone cabochons and sea shells. After designing each piece, I begin with raw materials such as sterling silver, brass and copper sheet metal and wire that I cut, solder, grind and polish to create rings, cuffs and pendant that are each a home to a brilliant piece of the earth. Most pieces are finished with hammering for texture, hand stamped and hand aged.

Most of my copper/gold/rhodium work is made through the process of Electroforming or Electroplating, meaning the stone is plated onto a handcrafted ring, cuff or necklace – creating a unique and one of a kind setting for the gemstone. This process takes about 24-48 hours for each piece from beginning to end. It starts with cutting, molding, soldering and hammering a base for the stone setting such as a ring shank or cuff bracelet. The stones are then attached to the base with epoxy, allowed to dry, then a hard drying clay is used to mold the shape of the setting around the stones. Once the clay dries and is filed to the desired look, the stone is sealed. I then paint conductive copper paint onto the piece where I wish for the copper to plate. When the piece is ready, it is suspended into an electroforming solution with a copper source and connected to a plating rectifier. the amps and volts are adjusted according to the surface area to be plated. The piece stays in the bath and is monitored and constantly adjusted for 6-124 hours depending on the desired copper thickness. Once finished, the piece is neutralized, grinded, polished and hand aged for a raw and natural look or followed by Gold or Rhodium plating.

Everyday is an adventure as I learn more about metal working and the art of jewelry making. I truly believe in the energy provided by nature through the stones and consider them my inspiration for every piece I create.

I, Gabrie’l Gonzalez-Bartels, am a Registered Nurse and graduate of UT School of Nursing. I moved to southern Louisiana from Austin, Texas 8 years ago to reconnect with my heritage. Since then the culture of this place has taken root in my soul. It is here that I found my inspiration and passion to teach myself the art of jewelry making and start A Rolling Stone Jewels.

I learned about the healing power of crystals and stones at a young age from my grandfather, Timoteo. When he passed, my parents had a necklace made for me using one of his Amethyst that they tumbled, cut and polished. It is my dearest possession and has inspired me to create my own natural stone jewelry, in hopes of sharing the beauty and power of Mother Earth with others.

Mitch Landry
Metal

As a metal artist and sculptor, my goal is to bring life, warmth and dimension to a hard, cold and flat material. Producing wildlife, I hammer stainless steel. A torch pass gives color and kinetics provide movement.

The uniqueness of what I do is to help people fuse their visions, mostly in metal. The best collaboration is when I can help create art that is meaningful and often functional. I like producing art that won’t be found, or even more importantly, pieces people don’t want to find in typical retail establishments.

Kinetic treatment of fish, birds and plants are my specialty. This evolves from 40+ years along and in the bayous of South Louisiana. My love for fishing, hunting and birding feeds my mind’s eye. Working with others who share an appreciation or simply a curiousness of nature is a rewarding way to earn a living and continue learning and growing.

Jaime Faulkner
Jewelry, Metal

The world for me was always about patterns and colors, not just shapes and objects. When I was very young my two favorite things were to take pieces of metal, old screws, rusty nails, and other items from my father’s “junk drawer” and arrange them together in elegantly intertwined sets. My other favorite activity was collecting, cataloging, and studying rocks. Since I grew up on a gravel drive, my first stones were agates and chunks of quartz, which I learned how to tumble and polish in a small rock tumbler. Later, I learned to place these tumbled stones together with those rough pieces of metal.

As I realized that my love of crafting wearable art and jewelry could become a business, I began participating in crafts fairs and pop-up boutiques. I started taking business classes to hone skills needed to be an independent craftsman, and I enrolled in art and fashion classes through the Università Bocconi to further refine my artistic skills. I attended classes at the New Orleans School of Metalsmithing, where I learned how to work with brass, silver, copper and gold. Recently I was accepted into the Mississippi and Louisiana Craftsmen Guilds where my jewelry is displayed.

The wearable works of art that I create are completely unique, just as their owners are. No designs I make are ever replicated exactly, as each stone, pearl, gem, or mineral determines its own setting. I create jewelry for women and men who know style and value tradition, but are comfortable enough in their own skins to bend traditional styles. I believe that owning a handcrafted item of jewelry expresses an attitude towards life and a connection with our environment and our earth.

Katherine Prejean
Metal, Jewelry

A native of south Louisiana, Katherine’s attraction to beautiful things began early in life, when she discovered her Mom’s closet full of fashionable dresses, shoes, and jewelry. As a child she would spend hours playing ‘dressup’ with items from her mother’s closet. Often inviting friends and cousins to play along and model the outfits for a Fashion Show.

When she was introduced to creating jewelry in 2007, it was an instant love affair. Even today, the artistic possibilities of creating metal jewelry still fascinates and excites her. What fascinates her most, is that a piece of jewelry looks and feels different depending on who wears it. I love creating pieces that not only help elevate someone’s confidence, but it becomes part of their own beauty.

She creates all her jewelry pieces from her home studio in South Louisiana, the Heart of Cajun Country. Using metals as the main focal point in her pieces, along with age old techniques and a selection of traditional bench tools and soldering technique she creates pieces one by one. Semiprecious stones, pearls are often used in her designs.
Katherine continues to develop her style by incorporating new techniques to create beautiful jewelry that is engaging, sophisticated, inviting, well-crafted.

Christy Barrett
Metal, Jewelry

Using a variety of tools and methods, I create textured, mixed metal jewelry of sterling silver, reclaimed copper and jeweler’s brass. Inspired by nature and observations of details in my surroundings, my one-of-a-kind creations evolve from construction through experimentation.

Following several metalsmithing classes, numerous YouTube tutorials and hours of trial and error over an eight year span, I’ve developed a passion for unique designs and techniques to create heirloom quality jewelry that embodies an idea or story.

Mary Attwood
Metal

I have always enjoyed industrial design on the extremely small scale and appreciate the enormous effort involved in the design and manufacture of the parts of things. In my work I recontextualize these pieces of mundane objects like plumbing fixtures, the nozzles of sports drink bottles, and bicycle parts, exploiting the details their designers so carefully considered . When I was introduced to traditional metal smithing techniques in the late 1980’s I began to develop a practice capable of fully exploring the world of this hidden small-scale architecture. Metal can be both rigid and plastic; luxurious and industrial and it has always stood for permanence, carrying intrinsic as well as perceived value. Coupling today’s found objects with materials and techniques that occupy a prestigious place in the history of craft affirms the thread of continuity that binds the blacksmiths and glass blowers of antiquity to the packaging and mechanical pen designers of today. With this in mind, I produce objects that enrich life in the contemporary home.

Mary Attwood live and works in rural vermilion parish, drawing inspiration from wildlife that surrounds her home and studio as well as a lifetime of studying architecture and design. Over her forty year career she has explored both traditional and innovative materials and method of construction and their relationships with each other.

Paula McDowell
Metal, Jewelry

I am a jewelry artist. I create jewelry objects that echo nature’s textures, forms and movements. Years ago, when my creativity was longing to be expressed, I started investigating jewelry techniques. None satisfied my need, or let me express myself, until I found metal clay.

Metal Clays contain microscopic particles of metal carried in a clay-like binder. This allows the artist the ability to work with the material in its wet state much like a potter works with pottery clays. In its dry state, the material can be carved, drilled, cut and re-assembled into new objects, somewhat like a woodworker. And once the object is subjected to a firing cycle in a kiln, the result is an object of metal in which traditional metalsmithing techniques used by bench jewelers can be applied to continue to manipulate the object. I am fascinated both by the technological details of how this happens, but also with the ability to continue to affect the object as it progresses through its various states.

I generally make one-of-a-kind items, or related items in a series. Since each piece is hand sculpted, even items that are similar will have artistic variations in texture, pattern and shape. I also have a strong need to communicate my love of the material to others, and I offer classes in these materials at several locations around the state. While I focus on the technical use of the materials, I allow my students creative freedom to explore their emerging skills. This has created a community in which ideas are shared and support is generously given.