UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 25, Page 6
March 25, 1993
Engineering interest may lead to metalsmithing career

     When Michelle Carpenter decided to study engineering through
Delaware's continuing education program in 1988, she never dreamed it could
lead to a career as a metalsmith and jewelry maker.
     Now, more than four years later, the adult college student and mother
of an elementary school daughter, has yet to take an engineering course.
     "I guess I got a bit sidetracked," Carpenter said.
     A machine operator at W.L. Gore & Associates, she decided to go back
to school for engineering because she felt her career was going nowhere.
Now, as she stands in the studio her husband has built in the basement of
their home, she says she never realized her career leap would be into art.
     She lovingly holds a brooch she showed March 1 at the Wayne Arts
Center multimedia show in Wayne, Pa. The brooch is one of Carpenter's
first, a sterling silver piece a little larger than a silver dollar with an
eight millimeter cultured pearl bursting through the metal.
     Although the untitled piece did not win any prizes, Carpenter said,
"It's an honor to get a piece in a show, whether it wins or not."
     Carpenter had never taken an art lesson before joining the continuing
education program. "I can't draw," she said, "but I've always been
fascinated with jewelry."
     She credits Joe Janvier, of Janvier Jewelers in Christiana Mall, with
encouraging her to take a metal class at Delaware.
     "I was looking for ways to make extra money," she said, "and since I
had an interest in jewelry, Joe told me about the metal-working class at
Delaware."
     She enrolled and has been hooked ever since.
     Prof. Anne Krohn Graham, Carpenter's metals teacher, said she tries to
train her students to be designers who are capable of marketing their art.
     "Michelle has matured in her work since her first metal class," Graham
said. "I tried to stretch Michelle's curiosity and encourage her to try new
solutions to problems."
     Currently, Carpenter is working on a portfolio with an Egyptian motif.
     Her pieces include ice tongs etched with hieroglyphics, a six-inch
locust broach and matching Egyptian burial doll pins.
     "I haven't sold any of this work," Carpenter said. "When I'm
matriculated, I would like to get a B.F.A. in metals, and I'll need this
body of work for show."
     She picks up the locust and turns it over, revealing an intricate
pattern on the back. "I try to make all the pieces unique," she said. "This
is a piece of art as well as something you wear. I try to make the back as
interesting as the front."
     Carpenter is still unsure which direction she wants her career to go
after graduation.
     "I'd like to go into the selling phase," she said. "Part of me wants
to do production work and part wants to continue doing unique work. I'd
make more money through mass manufacturing, but the work would lose its
artistic quality," she said.
     But that's a decision that can wait. Carpenter has more important
projects to keep her busy.
     Her work was accepted in the upcoming Fort Worth Arts Festival. She
also is hopeful about being included in Jewelry/ Metalwork Survey #3, a
book on jewelry and metalsmiths across the country.
     And as for engineering?
     Carpenter has not given up that dream yet.
     "What I'd really like to do is graduate with an engineering degree and
do metal work as well. You have to be a creative thinker to be an engineer
and being an artist allows you to think creatively."
                                        -Patti Ann Zielinski