How did you get into 'This'?

We get asked this a lot, and it's hard to quantify. Despite our mutual love of art, we never planned to make art together. Twenty plus years ago, we were fresh out of college and five years into burgeoning tech careers. (It was the rise of the Internet and boy was THAT a new toy to play with.)  But, we also both missed access to the art studio spaces available during our college days. We both enjoyed the tactile experience of making art with our hands. The Internet was all about coding and hours upon hours of working on computers. We wanted to get messy again. So, Joanna enrolled in a jewelry metalsmithing class and John in bronze and sculpture casting at the Columbus Cultural Art Center--and a new world opened up to us. 

We began to experiment with materials and tools and discovered that our technical minds and artistic hearts were perfectly suited for jewelry-making. The engineering required to create a durable, yet beautiful piece was a puzzle waiting to be solved. An artistic “problem” of sorts that drives us both to experiment with new techniques and technology.

We spent years just playing around, making stuff for ourselves. Sometimes teaching jewelry and metalsmithing classes.  Until about, 2012ish we decided to try to sell our work. We started small at first; local markets and pop ups - before applying and being accepted to the Columbus Arts Festival as emerging artists.  And let me tell you, that show is the big leagues. And it was fun and peopled loved our work and they really seemed to like us as well.  From there we went on the 'art show circuit" doing all sized shows all around the midwest and the DC metro area. And here we are.