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About us Susan Kingsley and Christina Tatiana Miller are metalsmiths who are members of the Society of North American Goldsmiths. In addition to making art, Susan writes about social and cultural issues. She had just completed The Price of Gold, an article about the effects of the current worldwide rush for gold published in Metalsmith (Summer 2004) when she was introduced to Christina, who had recently completed her masters thesis and graduate exhibition titled Ethical Prospects: A Critical Representation of the Co-Dependent Relationship Between Metalsmithing and Metalmining. Their collaboration evolved as they sought to reconcile their membership in a community of metalsmiths and jewelers who take pride in their craft with knowledge of the human and environmental costs of the metals they use. |
| They began working together as Ethical Metalsmiths in 2004, organizing a presentation and panel for the 2005 Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG) conference, establishing a website and drafting a Resolution in Support of Responsible Mining. They served on SNAG's Committee on Responsible Mining, and their Resolution was adopted by the membership in 2006. Susan and Christina collaborated on a presentation for the 2006 Association of Contemporary Jewellery conference, Carry the Can, which took place in London, England.
In 2005 they were joined by environmental attorney, Jennifer Horning and the following year, Ethical Metalsmiths became an affiliate of EARTHWORKS. Jennifer worked on the Ethical Jewelry Summit steering committee, chaired the Madison Dialogue Recycled Metals Working Group and wrote grant proposals for Ethical Metalsmiths. She also worked on 1872 General Mining Law reform. Jennifer left Ethical Metalsmiths in 2008 to work on product certification, artisanal mining, fair trade and policy reform on a full-time, professional basis. In July, 2007, Susan and Christina made a field trip to Nevada in a project titled Road Trip: going where metalsmiths have never gone before. Ethical Metalsmiths has produced two online exhibitions, Golden Opportunity and Composting Good and Evil: Redesign for Sanctimonious Sinners. Christina, with collaborator Susie Ganch, created the Radical Jewelry Makeover, a successful community "mining" and recycling project in which volunteer jewelers transform donated jewelry into exciting new designs that are exhibited and sold to benefit Ethical Metalsmiths. See Re: Source: Newsletter No. 2 for more history Susan Kingsley is an artist and metalsmith interested in making jewelry, objects and installations that investigate the ways in which social and cultural values are communicated by "things." She has a BA from the College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio and an MFA in visual arts from Vermont College, Montpelier, Vermont. Her work has been exhibited, collected and published internationally and earned an NEA/Western States Arts Federation fellowship. In addition to studio work, Susan has written articles for Metalsmith (magazine) on art, craft, feminist issues and the 'paradox of gold' She has lectured and taught throughout the U.S. and Canada and is a part-time instructor at Monterey Peninsula College, Monterey, Calfiornia. She is also the author of the technical book, Hydraulic Die Forming for Jewelers and Metalsmiths and has instructed numerous workshops on the process. Susan is member of Society of North American Goldsmiths and has served as a board director of several nonprofit organizations, including the Pacific Repertory Theater, Carmel, California and Arts Habitat Monterey, California. Arts Habitat's mission is to create an artists' community with low cost housing and studio space at Ft. Ord, a former military base. Christina Tatiana Miller is the Assistant Professor of Jewelry and Metalsmithing at Millersville University in Millersville, Pennsylvania. She received a BFA from Millersville and her MFA from East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina. She also studied at Le Arti Orafe Jewelry School in Florence, Italy. Christina is a former Artist-in-Residence at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. She teaches workshops and exhibits her work internationally. Her work has been published in 1000 Rings, The Art of Enameling, The Fine Art of Enameling, and Contemporary Print in Enamel. She has work in public and private collections. Christina also has experience in grass roots nonprofit and community organizing gained through an internship with Green Corps (Field School for Environmental Organizing), and through two years of experience at the Allston Brighton Community Development Corporation in Boston, where she served initially as a volunteer, and then worked as the open space community organizer. In addition, Christina helped to build Friends of Park groups in a dense, multi-cultural Boston neighborhood, and served as an advocate for open space improvement, creation and preservation at the city and state levels. Her efforts helped the organization secure annual funding in the amount of $90,000 for the open space work. |
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Ethical Metalsmiths, Post Office Box 222492,Carmel, CA 93922
mail@ethicalmetalsmiths.org |
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