David and I have been designing, creating and teaching jewelry for over 30 years.

We work and teach out of our fully equipped 1,800 square foot loft studio in an old industrial complex in Dayton. We enjoy continuously developing our jewelry through exploration, and taking workshops with some of the field's luminaries. The studio is stocked with an extensive jewelry/art book library, as well as lots of artifacts and artwork for the students to gain inspiration.

Nature, movement and an element of romance influence Sandra’s work. Her fascination with jewelry began as a young child while watching her stepfather work at his jeweler’s bench. She appreciates the challenge fundamental in jewelry: Creating sculptural pieces that must also have impeccable craftsmanship.

David has developed what began as a hobby into a serious second career as a master jeweler/metalsmith. His sculptural pieces are bronze vessels and containers emphasizing an exploration of distinctive form and texture. This idea has been carried over into a series of jewelry pieces, which are evocative of antiquity, yet maintain a freshness of line that appeals to the modern eye. With his more elegant jewelry, he selects stones of unusual form, color, or surface texture to incorporate.

The processes we employ for our one of a kind jewelry and vessels are:

Lost wax casting in which an original model is intricately carved or formed with various types of wax, then imbedded into a plaster-like material. The wax is burned away (lost) in a kiln leaving a space into which the metal is poured. We cast our own pieces either by centrifuge or vacuum casting. After the metal cools, the plaster is broken away.

Silversmithing techniques of sawing, filing, soldering, riveting, stone setting, forging and hollow forming.

Other metal fabrication approaches, such as hydraulic press forming and the ancient techniques of reticulation, granulation, and Kum Boo and used.

Finishing techniques: The objects are polished, or given a patina by means of chemicals, dyes, or heat. Some pieces incorporate enamels which are created with powdered glass fired onto metal.