Did you know that AMCAW is managed and run by a large team of volunteers? All metal clay artists, they share their professional skills and energy to help AMCAW create and bring you more programs, tutorials, and fun. We thought you’d enjoy meeting some of these fabulous volunteers – and perhaps become a volunteer yourself!
Loretta Hackman’s metal clay journey started in a bead store in Sugar Land, Texas in 2001. She took several beading and wirework classes there and had started a tiny business making beaded jewelry based on the wisdom, history. and meanings of stones. When the store held its first silver clay class, she was entranced.
Combining silver clay and stones has been an enduring passion now for over twenty years. Loretta went on to take ten certification classes, and she is a Senior Certifying Instructor under the Art Clay World USA umbrella. She has taught metal clay techniques to folks from four to 84-years old! When she and her husband moved to Cincinnati, Ohio in 2021, they built a wonderful teaching studio and it is now open for business.
Loretta loves teaching and writing, and is teaching both progressive and certification classes in silver clay from her studio. She loves taking students from where they are at the moment to where they hope to go on their metal clay journey. Her students focus on techniques and work to create a “language” so that they can create “visual poetry” with their work.
Loretta has been busy writing articles and tutorials for the AMCAW Learning Center and had an article published in the Spring 2024 edition of Metal Clay Today.
Loretta’s goal for this year is to become much more comfortable with bezel-setting stones that can’t be fired. As there are so many creative ways to combine metal clay and traditional metal smithing skills, she’s looking forward to discovering new options and then creating classes around those.
Loretta’s beginnings as an artist were humble. She failed finger painting in elementary school and her high school art teacher said that she was hopeless, so a career in “art” was not an obvious option. Her educational background is in Chemical Engineering and Accounting, which has definitely helped with both her design techniques and business sense. It took at least ten years of working with stones, metal, and metal clay for Loretta to realize that she now recognizes herself predominantly as an artist and teacher. It’s been a very revealing journey… and a healing one.
Loretta’s favorite learning experience was taking the “Nefertem Perfume Bottle” class with Holly Ginsberg Gage. She decided to make a perfume bottle in the whimsically realistic form of a young female eagle. She feels this class exploded her skill set and imparted a tremendous amount of courage, which was reflected in the personality of the 3-inch/75mm tall eaglet she created (whose name is “Vespucci the Explorer”). Vespucci was entered in three separate competitions, traveling halfway around the world and back, and won the “Best of Show” award at the 2023 MCAS Symposium.
Loretta’s ongoing focus is to continue volunteering on AMCAW’s Education Committee. “It’s a pleasure and a privilege to help to grow and update the wealth of metal clay information on our mighty website,” she says. She thinks of it as an online metal clay library, and it is a generous and powerful go-to resource for metal clay neophytes and mavens alike.
Her latest excitement is SINTER 2024! Loretta loves the SINTER experience, both the before-and-after workshops and learning so much from the many presentations. “SINTER 2022 in Pittsburgh, PA was so much fun!” she says. “It’s a wonderful way to immerse yourself in the magical metal clay community.”
At the SINTER 2022 Conference in Pittsburgh, Loretta wore one of her favorite lentil-designed pendants. It was the focus of many a “jeweler’s handshake” and caught the attention of Julia Rai, who asked Loretta if she would write a tutorial for AMCAW based on the pendant.
From there, Loretta became a volunteer on the Education Committee. She absolutely loves teaching and, believe it or not, really enjoys creating articles, handouts, and tutorials. Loretta feels it is a wonderful way to further the field of metal clay. She also sees it as an opportunity to leave a legacy of knowledge. And learning. And love.
What does Loretta like most about being an AMCAW volunteer? It is the consistent sense of purpose, community, and commitment that is at the heart of AMCAW. The volunteers support one another, work as a team on committees, and come together to lend a hand with shorter-term task force activities. She loves how the barriers of time and space fall away when members of our international community come together for Zoom meetings. “Metal clay is our universal language,” Loretta says, “and AMCAW is a remarkable and purpose-filled organization.”
The name of Loretta’s business is Loretta Hackman Designs; she can be reached at lorettahackmandesigns@gmail.com.
