Judy Babin graduated from the Maine College of Art in 1998 with a degree in printmaking, and discovered metalsmithing while a student. Chain making quickly became her passion, the repetitive nature of the craft reminding her of the processes of printmaking. Her experimentation and exploration of this technique have led her to produce her unique chains, the trademark in her work.

Cathy Berse-Hurley (Groton, MA) operates with the motto, "We've got your back - AMERICA!" She is founder of a designer for CBHstudi, a family-run, woman-owned company committed to American creativity, innovation and quality. All CBHstudio bags are designed, cut, printed, stitched and inspected by hand. Berse-Hurley's designs range from career-appropriate totes and handbags to her popular line of Little PackratsT backpacks for kids and toddlers, as well as accessories of all kinds.

Keelin Brett (North Branford, CT) approaches her embroidered bead jewelry as works of art, sewing each bead, precious and semi-precious stone, or pearl into place to create a rich, colorful image, as in a drawing or painting. Asian cultures and New England landscapes are inspirations for pieces reflecting a country garden or seaside with an Asian mood. Bead embroidery is a time-honored art form dating back to ancient China, and passed down through generations in many cultures.

Rebecca Bunting of Guilford began making jewelry as a teenager, mesmerized by fine metals and gemstones, and having inherited watchmaking and tool & die tools from her grandfathers. She gained bench workshop experiences at Castle Hill School of Art in Truro, MA, Brookfield Craft Center in Brookfield, CT, and the Sharon Art Center in Sharon, NH. She then worked for a number of jewelry companies, becoming inspired by workmanship and quality, and gaining influence for the choice of gemstones, settings and notions of wearability for her own work. Combining these with her love of wire and organically curved compositions, Bunting expresses her unique style, "a precious jewelry alternative for those looking for something special but a little different."

Tracye Chin Mueller of Chester creates jewelry designs that reflect her love of simple organic shapes and working with metal wire. Her pieces are made of fine, sterling and argentium silver, occasionally precious metal clay (PMC) and occasionally fresh water pearls, which she incorporates for their own unique shapes.

John Crouse operates a workshop and studio in Wolcott, New York, where he designs and produces custom cabinetry, fine furniture, and lathe turned bowls and accessories.  He has exhibited in crafts shows throughout the Northeast. A woodworker since the early 1950s, at the age of 13, Crouse's love for the medium, appreciation for the inherent qualities of wood, and his understanding of the tools and equipment necessary for the production and finishing of his woodwork is evident in the beauty and functionality of his pieces.

Elisabeth Delehaunty leads a small but hearty team of cutters and stitchers at Elisabethan: Clothes with a History in western Colorado. She unearths past fabric gems, her obsession for finding these "experienced textiles" complimenting her desire not to add any more "new stuff" to the world. She travels widely, collecting her eclectic supply of materials, which are selected with an eye for quality, using mostly natural fibers, "but an occasional irresistible synthetic does get thrown into the mix," as she says. She held a series of jobs costuming for theatre before founding Elisabethan.

Chris Evans, originally from Dartmoor, England, spent over 30 years working in precision engineering, optical manufacturing and testing. He is largely self-taught as a wood turner, creating functional and "dysfunctional," whimsical wooden forms in his studio in Higganum. Many of his pieces are crafted beautiful local wood--interesting specimens of which he is often given by his friends-or from exotic treasures he finds on his trips around the world.

Karen Ford (Westport,CT) is drawn to historical Asian ceramics-- porcelain in particular--as part of her quest to connect with her heritage. A balance of beauty and function plays a strong role in culture, community and ritual, a tradition she honors with her own work. She strives to harmonize form, function and nature, making each piece aesthetically pleasing as well as completely functional. To avoid distraction from food, she employs simple organic forms and stays clear of fussy decoration. Her goal is to enhance the everyday ritual of eating, drinking, and living by making it a beautiful, calm and peaceful experience. Her pieces can also be used decoratively.

Beth Gaertner has been making her glass bead jewelry since she was teenager. She studied jewelry design and metalsmithing at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Penland School of Crafts., but she is largely self-taught with glass and developed her skills working trial-and-error with a torch. As a visual, hands-on designer, her version "sketchbook" is the many containers of beads, color studies, wire squiggles and half-finished jewelry designs that surround her in her studio in Somerville, MA.

Alexandra Geller is a ceramic artist and teacher and maintains a studio in Easthampton, Massachusetts. She draws inspiration from the ceramic vessels of ancient cultures and from her natural surroundings. Simplicity and the use of color inform her work.

Leslie Green (Stony Creek,CT) is a former weaver and practicing massage therapist who began Beadazzled in 1986, when she was at home with her toddler son and missing a creative outlet. Her love of jewelry led her to begin design, produce and sell beaded adornments in shops and individually. She derives great pleasure from the process of starting with a tray of individual beads and having them evolve into something beautiful and unique for the wearer to enjoy for many years.

The simple geometric shapes of Heather Guidero's jewelry's are inspired by elements of modernist design. She uses line three dimensionally and explores volume, movement, and pattern. The use of wire and thin sheet allows her to incorporate shapes into larger forms that are lightweight yet have a presence of their own on the body. The very nature of being worn produces sound-- the gentle noises of metal rings and disks sliding and clinking-and transforms the pieces into personal, interactive sculpture.

John Jessiman has been influenced from his earliest years by the abstract expressionist aesthetic. After committing to clay as a medium, he was drawn to potters who “moved clay much as the expressionist painters approached painting” and clay forms that clearly show the hand of the maker. He taught at the State University of New York, Cortland, for over thirty years and in 2002 formed the Cub Creek Foundation, a residency program where emerging ceramic artists prepare for advanced study and/or develop their careers.

Barbara Katz (Storrs, CT) is a sculptor and potter who creates simple forms based on, and evocative of, ancient ritual vessels, artifacts, and shamanic figures. Her figurative sculpture, abstract forms, and vessels explore both three-dimensional configuration and surface decoration. Katz's surfaces retain natural clay color with areas of various textures, thin washes of color, and sometimes pictorial elements. turquoise glaze is used for color, along with copper, iron, rutile, Mason stains, and a black slip glaze. She travels frequently to Europe and other, more exotic, places for both pleasure and for inspiration.

Craig Kaviar (Louisville, KY) of Kaviar Forge & Gallery, specializes in a wide range of forged metal objects in both iron and bronze. The workshop is cluttered full of large antique machines and lots of tools and metal where the artist creates furniture, sculpture and architectural elements, as well as decorative objects. Some of his industrial tools like the 200 pound Chambersburg Air hammer were originally built to be carried on a battleship during WWII. "I feel," says the artist, "that by reusing this machinery of war for the making of artwork I am in a small way helping to turn swords into plowshares."

The Kriska silk painting studio is one of the longest established and best known in the country. Their work has been exhibited at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, has received numerous national awards of excellence in wearable art and has been commissioned by the International Olympic Committee, the Hyatt Regency, the Hilton Hotels, Takashimaya Gallery in Tokyo, Intel, and The Boeing Corporation.

Donna McGee (Hadley,MA), loves working with wet clay, scratching thru a layer of slip and painting on a slab—the sgraffito technique, which gives her work its vitality. The strength of her line drawings in clay and the spontaneity of gesture are her unique signature. McGee’s motif inspirations include the timeless beauty of the human figure, fields, folks about, and domesticity. Inspiring her also are the materials themselves, “a grounded knowledge of what has gone before me, and the limitless future,” in the artist’s words. She works in low-fire red earthenware clay, and sometimes paper clay, with slips, underglaze pens, pencils, chalks, stains, and transparent glazes.

Diane Port works with natural semi-precious and precious gem stones and minerals found and collected from all parts of the world. She is inspired by the ocean, natural textures and colors, and an interest in metal designs and shapes. Metals used are fine silver, sterling silver and 14K and 18K gold-filled and vermeil metals.