Metalsmith BenchTalk Past Favorites w/jewelry & hollowware designer Cynthia Eid

This Thursday, May 22nd at 3 p.m. PDT, we'll be going back into the MetalSmith BenchTalk archives. We'll be re-airing one of our favoite chats with jewelry and hollowware designer and maker Cynthia Eid.

About: Cynthia Eid's hammered metalwork has won awards for creativity and design, featured in many publications, and exhibited extensively. Eid's sculptural jewelry and hollowware is primarily done in Argentium Silver and formed through the creative use of hammers and/or a hydraulic press. Currently an independent metalsmith and educator, she is a Jeweler and Silversmith based in Massachusetts USA, teaching weekly classes at Metalwerx and the De Cordova Museum School, and workshops and short courses all over the USA. Previously, she has worked as a designer/maker in goldsmith galleries, and as modelmaker/supervisor in a gold jewelry factory. Cynthia earned her Master of Fine Arts in Metalsmithing and Jewellery Design from Indiana University in 1980 and has a B.S. in Art Education.

The paradox that “soft”, fluid-looking metal has evolved from flat, stiff rectangles though force, determination, and tenacity enchants me. I am entranced by the metal’s progressive transformation -- through hammering, persuasion, and struggle --- from a lifeless plane of metal toward an object of  vibrancy, unity and fluidity.

Experimentation, serendipity, a sense of play, and the subconscious mind determine the forms of my work. The forms have their roots in my gardens, and my meanderings through the woods and along the water’s edge. In my work, the allusions to nature are intentionally ambiguous, to encourage interactive response and contemplation by the viewer.

For more info, visit: http://www.cynthiaeid.com.