Metal and Jewelry Arts Commons^™

Fantastical Blooms, Lisa Dienst-Thomas

Student Projects

My work explores the marriage of imagination and meticulous technique to produce vibrant, one‑of‑a‑kind jewelry that bridges traditional metalsmithing with cutting‑edge digital fabrication. My early training included foundational metalsmithing techniques such as sawing, soldering, riveting, hinge making, forming, polishing, etching, roller printing, stamping, lost wax casting, and chain making. Over time, I gravitated toward the techniques I loved most and honed them with intention. The physicality of working with hammers, saws, fire, and metal spoke to something deep within me. I find the rhythmic motion of sawing metal to be meditative and grounding. Eventually, I yearned to incorporate more color …

Melting Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder/ Premenstrual Exacerbation Symptoms With Metalsmithing: A Group Process, Maureen Bella Russo

Art Therapy Counseling Final Research Projects

People experiencing Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder/Premenstrual Exacerbation, PMDD/PME, frequently live with debilitating symptoms that can arrest their daily life functions (Barker-Smith, 2020). Finding art to process and transform painful emotions that align with PMDD/PME hormonal depression/anxiety, may assist in supporting people to keep choosing life, especially when these art practices involve group settings and community artmaking (Phillips & Rosal, 1989; Robb, 2022). Metalsmithing requires significant cognitive awareness and promotes mind/body connections in its elemental art form (Carlson, 2015). This proposal outlines a group process involving 8-12 people who will receive a beginner’s metalsmithing, 12-week studio art program at Hyde Park Arts …

Soul Furnace / فرن الأرواح, Isa Ghanayem

Masters Theses

“This is the good washing, this is (the washing) which separates the dirty body from the pure body. This is like silver mixed with lead, it is separated from it by this (process): one makes for it a cupel of bones, which is what is called the “head of the dog” and of which the common name is kūja-which is the crucible—and this must be made of burnt bones. One melts the silver in it, one gives it a strong fire: the cupel will absorb and receive the lead, the fire will make its subtle (part) fly away and extirpate …

The Reviving Project, Noor Sami

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

When Yushan Cassie Sun arrived in America in 2012, she already had big hopes for the future. A craft and material study major with a concentration in jewelry and metalsmithing, Cassie will graduate this May with some wonderful research experiences under her belt. e summer before she came to VCU, Cassie spent time learning the techniques of three crafts- men in China. As she lived and learned with them, she realized that although her learning was valuable, there were hundreds of other endangered craft techniques in China that she was not learning—and that’s what got her interested in what would …

You Shouldn't Be Reading These, Taylor Jacobs

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This research was based on an introspective view of one's inner dialogue and the science behind when it came into existence for all of us, and why we continue to use it as adults

Artist Statement:

This body of work originated in the shower, where my best and worst thoughts are conjured. My constant stream of thoughts are typically about the connections I have with the people in my life- friends, family, people no longer in my life, and those who have passed. I consistently try to organize my thoughts and feelings.

Some friendships are constant and stable, and I …