Autobiography

                   "I would shed tears the day no one copied me"

                                                                    -Coco Chanel

   From a very young age, I have been involved in art in one form or the other.  Growing up in Kansas City, my major in college was Art Education, although all I wanted to do at that time was paint!  Actually, I really wanted to live on the beach in a tent and paint!  But my parents felt I needed to wear shoes, comb my hair and be a bit more productive!  So I've been painting with watercolors and silversmithing for a good part of my life. 

   In my early twenties I took my first metals course from the Toledo Museum of Art.  Then I moved back to KC and then took two years at the Johnson County Community College, only then to find I would soon be moving yet again to Anchorage, Alaska.

   I continued to work with metal in Alaska but found myself painting more as I was so drawn to color.  The grayness of the metal reminded me too much of how colorless life was for 9 months out of the year; color lifted my heart in the LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN!  Living there for 9 years and mostly in darkness and snow one needed to find immediate up lifts and that happened every time I painted.   

   I can say now, that I am most happy when I am surrounded by color. 

   My life took me to several places since Anchorage, only to land back in Kansas City.  Prior to moving to KC, I was lucky to live in West Seattle for 6 years where I worked for the Daniel Smith Company as their "COLORS" Buyer.  I was the Purchasing Agent for paints, pencils, brushes, pigments, etc.  Anything really to do with color. 

   Surprisingly, I felt I had finally achieved my dream of living on the beach and a life of endless art.  Even though by this time I had grown up a bit and traded the tent idea for an apartment and bare feet for shoes. (and boy do I LOVE SHOES!!!!) 

   A few things happened in my life that ultimately brought me back to Kansas City and that's when I started hearing whispers about a product in 1997 called PMC or Precious Metal Clay.  I tried to find out all I could but didn't have much luck as it was really new to the United States. 

   While attending one of my favorite venues, ART CONTINUUM in Cleveland Ohio, I accidentally ended up on a wrong bus and met Linda Kaye-Moses.  She and her husband Evan, were teaching an intro class that evening in PMC.  Eager to learn....I took it!!!  

   I wanted it to do what I felt fabricating and casting did for sterling only with a lot more freedom and creativity.  I wanted to show that it wasn't a shortcut to working with metal and that it could look like the product it was.....PURE SILVER.  Sure, it was ground silver particles with water and a binding agent therefore had a clay like state.  The information being generated in the market at that time was PMC was a "crafty clay" product. I wanted to teach and show everyone that it didn't have to be.  I'm so very thankful to the many PMC Artists that have worked hard to prove that very point.   

   From that moment on in Cleveland, I have never looked back.  I went on to become a Level One and Level Two Certified Instructor and then became a Senior Teacher for PMC Connection.  During that time, I wanted to learn from the master himself, Tim McCreight, so I also took the Rio Certification Program.  I resigned my position as Senior Teacher in 2005 as I wanted to go in a different direction with PMC and my teachings. 

   I am currently on in the Masters Program for the PMC Guild which requires a group of us to work on approximately fifty projects over the next several years to compile data and to acquire the Masters Certificate.   In this program we are trying to push the boundries and experiment out of the norm to better understand what this product can and will do.  

   Although I have been intrigued with many styles of jewelry I am always drawn to pieces that involve color.  There have been books written about Color on Metal and I have found that most of the artists who use this process start with a layer or two of gesso on their copper/metal piece. 

   Working with pigment and a process that took me over a year to refine, I have found a different approach that doesn't involve gesso.  This process I teach is called SHOW ME THE COLOR. (check the WORKSHOP section for dates and locations).  This technique is one of my favorites to teach but more than that, I am totally in love with PMC. 

   First and foremost, my classes are technique classes but all are in conjunction with PMC.  I find that everyone has a creative spirit that needs sometimes to be unleashed.  I hope as an instructor I facilitate that experience and each student walks away from a class with a better understanding of PMC with endless possibilities for designs and inspirations.

   If you have any questions concerning any of my pieces in the GALLERY section or my workshop/class section, please contact me at debraweld@hotmail.com.