Holly is known for her expressive style, her generosity, and her inquisitive nature.
She started making jewelry at 13, riding her bike to the nearest art center in Philadelphia, where she took metalsmithing classes. This early foray into metalwork led to a series of apprenticeships and a BS degree in Fine Arts and Education from Kurtztown University.
In the early days of metal clay, Holly stumbled upon the material in a bead store. Though she was enchanted by the idea of moldable metal, Holly’s early pieces did not meet her expectations. As Holly says now, her relationship with metal clay was not “love at first sight.” She now knows that it was not the material, but her lack of knowledge that held her back initially.
Back then, before the days of Facebook, YouTube, hundreds of books, and a plethora of classes, the fledgling community gathered on a Yahoo Forum, where the vanguards of metal clay traded hot tips and the results of their endless experiments.
That small group of artists was committed to making metal clay work by advancing the material and discovering the techniques to master it. Holly believes this environment planted the seeds of the generous and helpful community we all benefit from today.
Holly is notable for her deep library of techniques and workshops, including bezel-setting stones, kinetic pendants, negative-space caning, and whimsical critters. In her design courses, artists learn to find their unique voice and vision, and design their own signature jewelry line.
During her 47 years of making jewelry, Holly’s work has appeared in more than 80 regional and national publications, including the Best of America Jewelry Artists, Handmade Business: Top 12 Makers, Movers, and Shakers, Metal Clay Today, Lapidary Journal, Metal Clay Artist Magazine, and many others. She has been featured in more than a dozen books and many calendars.
Her work has won many awards and challenges, most notably as a Saul Bell Design winner. Holly recently received the AMCAW Innovation Grant for her work in testing fire-in-place opals. She has travelled the world, teaching, speaking, and exhibiting, all the while spreading her passion for metal clay and her appreciation for artists of all stripes and experience levels.
Pam East began creating jewelry in 1997, starting with enamel beads on copper tubing. She first handled metal clay in 2003 and was certified by the end of that year! By 2005 she had achieved Master Instructor level with Art Clay World.
Pam says she is her most joyful when teaching and helping people discover the possibilities of creating in her favorite mediums. She brings her encouraging and uplifting attitude to foster beginner students while challenging more seasoned artists to continually elevate their skills.
Tapping into her passion for teaching, Pam began to share her knowledge about metal clay and enameling by writing magazine articles, publishing a book, appearing on the Carol Duval show, and later producing DVDs and YouTube videos. Pam has been a major contributor to AMCAW in the form of members-only tutorials, contributions to learning center articles, and a virtual guild presentation.
She has been an instructor and presenter at many metal clay conferences including the Metal Clay World Conference, the Pan-European Metal Clay Festival, the Metal Clay Artist Symposium, the Enamelist Society Biennial Conference and AMCAW’s SINTER Events. She has taught across the US, and in Belgium, Czech Republic, and Finland, always generously sharing her metal clay and enameling knowledge.
Seeing a need in the market, she has created products for metal clay, from her ubiquitous colored plastic slats, to texture tiles, and eventually her own line of enameling products.
In recognition of her talent, generosity, and impact on the metal clay community, Pam was named this year’s winner of the Lis-el Crowley Vision Award.
Within the metal clay community, Celie Fago is known for her generosity as a teacher, innovator, and author. A self-taught jewelry artist, Celie grew up in an artistic family and was encouraged to make a living in the arts.
Her extensive travels as a young woman and work in print making, oil painting, and sculpture heavily influence her jewelry in polymer and metal clays. She often combines these and other materials and also uses traditional metal smithing techniques in combination with metal clay. Her work is characterized by originally created textures in her tear-away technique, tiny elegant hinges, and rough edges in metal clay.
After a decade of painting in oils, Celie discovered polymer clay and was fascinated by being able to create not only in full color but also in three dimensions.
In 1998, she was introduced to metal clay and was soon recruited by Tim McCreight to be Mitsubishi’s liaison to the polymer clay community for the PMC brand. She is known for her experiments and help with developing open-air fired sterling (.950) as well as testing of early bronze clays.
Her tear-away texture sheet technique, tiny metal clay hinges, and expertise in the use of Keum-Boo on metal clay are well known by students and connoisseurs. Here, these tribally inspired bracelets feature richly colored and organically patterned polymer clay bangles decorated with textured, carved and sculpted rings.
Celie taught for more than twenty years in her rural Vermont studio which became a Mecca for metal clay students. She has exhibited and taught internationally and nationally for professional organizations, guilds and schools including Arrowmont, Haystack, The North Country Studio Conference, and the Mid Cornwall School of Jewelry in England.
Her work is featured in many publications and she is the author of Keum-Boo on Silver Techniques for Applying 24k Gold to Silver. She has work in numerous collections, including Mitsubishi Material Corporation of Japan and the Mingei Museum in San Diego.
Our honoree, Terry Kovalcik, brings more than 4 decades of experience as an artist and maker to his work in metal clay, which he was introduced to in 1999. His years as an illustrator and designer inform his approach to working in the medium and have led him to develop techniques for which he is well known within the metal clay community.
Terry developed the viscosity painting technique using his fine brush skills to apply metal clay paste to create beautiful bas-relief designs and sculptural forms. His carving techniques rely on his steady hand to create unique three-dimensional forms. Both surface techniques can be seen inside and outside of his exquisitely made lockets, which require an eye for precision and complexity.
As an internationally sought-after metal clay instructor, Terry is a master at breaking down the construction of these complex pieces and inspiring his students to create their own versions one small step at a time. Many in the metal clay community consider him to be a mentor and a builder of communities.
Notably, Terry helped to launch and is the lead administrator for the well-known Facebook group, Metal Clay Now, and the companion website and learning hub at metalclaynow.com. The group has grown to more than 17 thousand members around the globe and is recognized as a premier resource for artists seeking inspiration and support as they travel their own journeys with metal clay.
Throughout his metal clay career, Terry has been recognized internationally as an instructor, speaker, designer, and artist. His lengthy list of awards and recognitions features his role as a Rio Rewards Certification Senior Instructor, Saul Bell finalist, and creator of a one-man gallery show.
Be sure to watch the video interview below where Terry and Julia Rai discuss a wide range of topics, including his background as an illustrator, and his propensity for creating complex designs in metal clay.
Our honoree, Tim McCreight is a designer, teacher, author and metalsmith. He received a B.A. from The College of Wooster and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Bowling Green State University. He taught full-time for 25 years, first in Massachusetts and then at the Maine College of Art, which took him to Maine in 1988.
Tim has taught hundreds of workshops throughout the US and in Canada, Japan, Mexico and the UK. He has written two dozen books, produced half a dozen videos, and created Apps for mobile devices.
In the early 1990’s, Tim played a pivotal role in introducing metal clay to artists in North America. He was the founder and first director of the PMC Guild. In that role, he shepherded a series of exhibitions, publications, and five conferences, always with an eye toward supporting artists and growing the community of metal clay devotees.
Working with a team of esteemed metal clay artists, Tim launched the Masters Registry, a program designed to raise the standards of creativity, innovation, and technical excellence in the medium. Over its 15-year run, the Masters Registry helped to establish metal clay as an accepted art material at the professional level.
Be sure to watch the Lis-el Crowley Vision Award Ceremony video below to see Julia Rai interview Tim, and learn more about this forefather of metal clay.
