Lisa Hopkins Design: How did I get here?

It's time for the Handmade Division's Talk About. Each month members blog about a given topic. This month's topic question is: Tell us about yourself - how did you get to where you are now with your skills?

My path toward metalsmithing and jewelry making began in a roundabout way while I was a grad student, studying medieval literature. I loved the program and the literature, but was not certain that I'd enjoy a career in academia. One day I happened to visit a fun little rubber stamp store and signed up for their mailing list. A fellow shopper noticed my handwriting on the sign up sheet and asked if I had ever taken calligraphy classes. I hadn't, but the idea intrigued me. She recommended a fantastic calligrapher/instructor in the area. I took some time off from grad school while trying to make a decision about my future, and meanwhile signed up for a calligraphy class. I loved it and pursued additional calligraphy classes. It was fascinating to learn traditional illumination in one of the calligraphy classes, having studied illuminated manuscripts in grad school.

For quite a few years since becoming a calligrapher, I've been fortunate to participate in a monthly artistic exchange with nine talented calligraphers from across the US and Canada. In 2006, I experimented with etching my calligraphy into metal for our monthly swap and from there I became interested in metalsmithing. Meanwhile, I had envisioned and search for a piece of meaningful jewelry but never quite found what I had in mind. It occurred to me that perhaps I could make what I had envisioned, and that's when I began making jewelry. I am primarily self taught, but early on I began to wonder about "proper" technique and if I was going about it all in the right way. I had learned while studying calligraphy how important it is to learn correct technique from the start since it can be difficult to unlearn poor habits. I enrolled in a metalsmithing class but it was terribly disappointing. More than once I drove well over an hour to this class only to learn when I arrived that the instructor had canceled class with no notice. There was no new information, and some of what was taught was actually incorrect. I regretted wasting the time and money on that class. From there I continued learning on my own but with the help of some fantastic DVD resources, such as Alan Revere's Goldsmithing DVD series, in addition to a collection of fantastic books. I dream of one day taking classes at the Revere Academy or Penland School of Crafts, but for now I continue to experiment on my own and work to expand my skill set.

Here are a few glimpes of my earliest pieces:

My first etching experiment in copper: