Wendy Jo New

Metalsmithing is a second career that started with a beginner jewelry course I took soon after moving to the Boston area 26 years ago--and I was hooked! I earned my undergraduate and graduate degrees at The University of Michigan and after working for a few years as an educational therapist in Michigan, moved to Washington, DC and began my long career in educational policy at the national level. After 13 years in DC, I continued my national educational policy career with my own consulting business for many more years upon moving to MA when my husband accepted a new job. Overlapping with my consulting work, I continued to take metalsmithing courses and I gradually built up a part-time jewelry business. I decided to take the chance and switch to being a goldsmith full-time and the rest is history!

In addition to gallery, show, and individual sales, I do commission work, often using people's stones from old jewelry to create new family heirlooms. With my long career in education, I have purposefully incorporated teaching--classroom, virtual, and private--as a significant facet of my current goldsmithing career. Helping people fabricate their own wedding bands is particularly meaningful.

"Clean. Crisp. Geometric. Architectural. Subtle elegance." This is how my work has been described by visitors to my show booths, galleries in which my work is sold, and by clients who have commissioned me to make custom pieces. Growing up, I always was mesmerized by sparkling gemstones and metals and I often incorporate something illuminating into my designs. Whether or not I intricately plan a jewelry piece in advance of producing it or just spontaneously fabricate one as I go along, the result is inevitably something that is unique with a contemporary flair that complements, rather than overwhelms, a wearer. When designing jewelry or other metal work, I always thing about whether I would wear it, use it, and/or display it. Anyone who knows me sees a reflection of me in what I design.