Meet the Artist
Catherine Stemper
Jewelry
Catherine Stemper graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1992 with a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts, where she majored in design. She found her way to making jewelry because she kept making fashion-oriented projects for her assignments. The first time she bent silver wire around a mandrel, it was magical, and she has never stopped. More than 32 years later, she is still loving bending wire around mandrels, hammering sheet metal into organic shapes, and creating beautiful pieces of art to wear.
Materials and tools used include: sterling silver, copper, brass, gold, and carbon steel. She fabricates all of her jewelry with sheet metal, wire, and beads, and hand cuts, hammers, solders, texturizes, shapes, and polishes each piece. She also hand twists all the ear wires and clasps. Inspired by nature, she designs unique organic shapes for her jewelry, with some designs being representational and others abstract.