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Summer Art Camp

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Anita Selinger

At age 3, I knew I was going to be an artist as soon as I started classes at the Brooklyn Museum’s pre-school art program. I earned a degree in art education at New York University and, after teaching one term, I took a jewelry class. I was immediately hooked.

The 1970s in San Francisco were a very free time for artistic expression, and I moved there and started creating and selling my jewelry. To refine my metal arts skills, I moved back to New York. I earned a jewelry design degree from Fashion Institute of Technology and then worked as a journeyman jeweler for several years. My career as a metal artist has spanned 45 years, and I have sold my jewelry at many juried craft shows including the American Craft Council shows in Baltimore and San Francisco.

Most of my original works of art are cast into silver and gold using the lost wax process. I achieve my fine details by sculpting and carving the wax models and working directly in the metal by sawing, filing, hammering, and soldering. My passion for color is fulfilled by the richness of combining different precious metals with exquisite colored natural gemstones. I feel that I am painting with gemstones when I play with different combinations of accent stones to create a harmonious composition of beauty and light. Traditional cloisonné enameling is my newest passion, and I am thrilled to be creating one-of-a-kind art jewelry that combines this technique with my metal arts skills. Inspiration for my designs is drawn from architectural detailing, nature, paintings, history—whatever catches my eye and fires my imagination.

I teach jewelry making and enameling in my studio in Santa Rosa as well as at the Mendocino Arts Center and Chimera in Sebastopol. As a new member of the Healdsburg Center for the Arts, I am delighted to be participating in this fabulous gallery. In the future, I hope to offer my classes in Healdsburg.

I also love working with individuals to create unique, custom designed, wearable works of art that are elegant and timeless: a combination of the past and present that will be cherished long into the future. With a custom order, I can draw an original design, show you the wax model, or create an original cloisonné enamel—and you can be part the whole creative process.