Tucson Makers: Claire Webb uses metalsmithing to craft contemporary jewelry that are works of art

You may have heard of contemporary art, but have you ever heard of contemporary jewelry?

For Tucson jeweler and metalsmith Claire Webb, who specializes in contemporary jewelry, her work is as much about expression and exploration as it is fashion.

“Contemporary jewelry is jewelry that engages with ideas in a more similar way to contemporary art,” Webb said. “It uses a lot of alternative materials, it might be large on the body, it may be wearable or not. It might really question what jewelry is and how something can interact with the body or how something can signify identity in different ways.”

The draw to jewelry in particular, Webb said, is the connection jewelry has to our everyday lives, identities and bodies.

“It's very vital to human culture- the way that we use jewelry to signify different things about ourselves,” she said. “I think people connect to that more sometimes than even a painting.” 

Webb said she was first introduced to contemporary jewelry and metalsmithing during her undergrad years at the University of Houston. 

“I had this friend in class, and he had this crush on a girl, and we saw her in the courtyard of the art building, and she had made this bra that was metal, and I was like, ‘where did you make that?’ And she said, ‘in this metal smithing class.’” Webb said.

Webb eagerly signed up for the class, and she said she quickly fell in love with the craft of metalsmithing. 

“There's something comforting about the permanence of metal. If you have the skills, it will respond and you can form it in so many different ways, and then you have this really durable form that can be super detailed,” she said. “It's basically this interface between nature and culture. And then jewelry is really interesting as an art form because it’s probably one of the oldest art forms.”

Webb went on to earn an MFA from The State University of New York at New Paltz in 2021, and her current research explores “unexpected material manipulations and juxtapositions to examine relationships between human inquiry, wonder, and our fundamental needs and desires.” 

She said she is interested in the ways humans seek out hidden truths and mitigate uncertainty, as well as the role metals and other precious materials play in human culture.

“I'm really interested in why we're drawn to those things, and what they mean to us in human culture,” Webb said. “Why is it that we choose those materials for important objects?” 

In her pieces, Webb often uses a mix of classic jewelry elements like Swarovski crystals and silver, and non-traditional materials like epoxy clay and resin to create wearable art.

“The most recent body of work I've created is waste aluminum and embedded stone shells,” she said. “I like mixing order and chaos and geometry and randomness and things like that. I really love luminous materials, transparent materials.”

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After three years as Visiting Artist Assistant Professor of Jewelry & Metalsmithing at the University of Oregon, Webb is bringing her talents to Pima Community College West, as the new Jewelry & Metalsmithing instructor.

“You know these programs are really dying and shrinking,” Webb said. “So I was really happy to find that there was a college level program here.”

Teaching the craft to a new generation of metalsmiths is a passion for Webb, and she said she enjoys working with her students to help them pursue their individual goals and their own creativity.

“I'm excited to introduce the field and the kind of work that we do,” Webb said. “This craft is an ancient craft that has to be passed on person to person through apprenticeships or by classes and things like that.”

Her main focus for her classes, she said, will be on providing students with technical metalsmithing and jewelry-making skills.

“It's very hands-on.” Webb said. “I'll do presentations where it kind of talks about the history of the field, but those are pretty brief.”

“I'm hoping that through my relationship with other faculty, with other professors, and other programs, that if students want to continue in jewelry and they want to be art jewelers and get an MFA like I did, that they can take that they might be able to transfer the jewelry classes to another institution,” she said.

To enhance student learning, she said she is also exploring the possibility of bringing in external teachers and guest artists and organizing after-hours workshops where students can explore more advanced techniques or practice new forms or metalsmithing.

Her goal, Webb said, is to fill an intro and an intermediate class every semester, and bring more of a contemporary jewelry presence to Tucson. 

“I would just want to invite people to think about joining if they want to learn jewelry and metalsmithing,” she said.

Currently, Webb’s production pieces can be found at El Be Goods, in a few select boutiques across the country, and on her website at yoursbyclairewebb.com. Her line of epoxy clay and crystal rings, earrings, necklaces and charm bracelets are inspired by whimsical costume jewelry. 

“It's a line that is very related to childhood fantasies of regal jewelry,” she said. 

As for Webb’s future dreams, she said she’d like to be able to curate an exhibition during Tucson’s spring gem show. 

“One of my actual goals is to find a good space and to co-curate a contemporary jewelry exhibition during the Gem Show,” she said. “The Society of North American Goldsmiths has one, but I want one that's bigger and different.”

She would also love to one day have her own gallery space downtown.

“A space that would be wonderful, especially if I could bring more contemporary jewelry into the city for people to view,” Webb said. “If I could expand a little bit more, then my business might be able to propel me into some new spaces and give me some more opportunities.”