Nancy Marland

"I enjoy the contrasts between precious and playful—the shiny, reflective quality of the silver against the playful, colorful, patterned, matte polymer—bridging the organic with the man-made, with one foot in the natural world and the other plastic, immediate, and whimsical."

Nancy creates contemporary jewelry—limited production and one-of-a-kinds—in a spirit of spontaneity and a connection to music and nature. She is particularly drawn to abstraction and color. Her creative impulses are also influenced by the work of midcentury modernists, jazz and improvisation, pop art, and the abstraction of patterns and shapes that are evocative of nature.

Nancy begins the process with drawings to create a variety of shapes and forms. Using a variety of techniques, she creates a prototype of the design elements by either sculpting or fabricating each original piece by hand. The prototypes are then cast into silver to which she often adds more shape, texture, additional silver elements and polymer clay when creating her final pieces.

Nancy received a BFA from the Art Institute of Boston with a concentration in painting and sculpture. She comes to jewelry design later in life after having spent 30 years as a self-employed graphic designer. Her experience working in a variety of fine art and craft disciplines (painting, ceramics, quilting, fine woodworking, and design) have all informed the passion she feels doing this work.