Celebrate Art!
SIERRA ART TRAILS 2014
Yosemite Foothills Open Studio Tour

Friday, Saturday and Sunday, October 3rd, 4th, & 5th, 2014

---

This years 2014 Sierra Art Trails open studio tour has many talented artists. The Sierra Sun Times will be featuring a sampling of area artists leading up to the show. Check back regularly to see who the next featured artist will be.

---

LothLorien Stewart
Jewelry, Metalsmith

Why “Mostly Sweet?” Would you really trust anything that claimed to be entirely sweet? Mostly Sweet Jewelry is made for those who will adore it too much to take it off. My handmade jewelry is charming in its design, authentic in its creation, and elegant in its simplicity. Mostly Sweet. Nothing more, nothing less.

Mostly Sweet Jewelry designs are inspired by the character of the place I live, at the edge of Yosemite National Park. Yosemite's stunning landscapes, charismatic wildlife, and rustic lifestyle influence my work; a day rarely passes without the gift of a new idea that beckons me into my studio. Each design provides an opportunity for me to reveal a little piece of beauty from the place where materials, tools, and my artistic vision overlap.

As a self-taught metalsmith with a background in science, my work is driven by a process of experiment, often beginning with “I wonder if I could...” I began my journey by deciding to figure out how to create wedding bands for my husband and I. From the start, I was enamored with the combined toughness and malleability of metals, and the blended power and delicate precision in the tools used to shape them. As I explore the possibilities, I continue to discover the inherent qualities and character of the interactions between my tools and materials.

One day a woman stopped by my jewelry booth wearing a striking silver pendant – she had made it herself with silver metal clay. Metal clays, made of microscopic particles of silver or copper held together by an organic binder, can be sculpted and fired into pure metals. Suddenly, my years of sketching wildflowers and birds as a naturalist could be applied to my metalwork. The opportunity to capture such fine detail in such an enduring way has opened a whole new world of creative possibilities.

It's hard for words to express the satisfaction I feel when my artistic vision takes form as a solid precious metal. It's a satisfaction only surpassed by seeing somebody wear their Mostly Sweet Jewelry with love.

LothLorien can be reached at her home studio in El Portal: Call (209) 379-5009 or by Email: lothlorien@mostlysweet.com.

You can also visit LothLorien's website at: www.mostlysweet.com.

---

---