When silversmith Ruth Von Büren enrolled in her first metalwork classes at the Rochester Institute of Technology after coming to the U.S., she hardly spoke any English. It turned out not to matter because neither did the teacher. “A famous silversmith from Denmark was the teacher,” she says. “Since he couldn’t speak much English, he’d show us how to do something, and then we’d try to do the same.”  

For woodworker Michael Hampel, his wave sculptures are a way to bring the ocean to him. “About 10 years ago, I got back into surfing,” he says. “When you’re going over a wave, there’s a second where you can see right through it, and that’s what I’m recreating.”

Growing up, fiber artist Nanette Davis was always looking for something to make. “I was really good at using whatever I could find,” she says. “Once, I was bored at my grandmother’s, and I found some old matchbook covers and crayons and made my own scratchboards.”

As a child, Hickory Mertsching was always drawing and painting. “I drew a lot of boy stuff like trucks, and even when I was a child, people seemed to respond to them,” he says.

Arnon Kazmarov and Fergus Kinnell took very different paths to Oregon, but a meeting at a party at a mutual friend’s house led the two metalsmiths to start a blacksmithing studio, K & K Forgeworks.

With a mother who was an artist, Leah Nobilette says creating things was an integral part of her childhood. “My mother introduced me to art early, and we were always either taking art classes or just creating things,” says the ceramic artist. “I’ve always loved making things. When I was a child, I was really into making little pieces of furniture out of sticks. I called it Fairy Furniture. I’ve always been very tactile in my art. I like art where you can touch the materials.”