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Carolyn Morris Bach

This master goldsmith crafts wearable vignettes that characteristically feature faces and figures, both animal and human. At home in the woodlands near Carolina, Rhode Island, the artist is influenced by her environment and by the mythology and traditional anthropomorphic imagery that addresses the natural world. Carolyn states that she is interested in representing “the powers of sun, moon, wind, rain, stones, plants and a selection of animal residents that determine the rural, non-industrial landscape.”

Her expertly built pieces are formed from18 karat gold, silver, copper and a variety of wood, stone and bone. Each piece is fabricated entirely by the artist and, although she revisits motifs and design elements, each object she makes is original. “While I strive for perfection in my design and craftsmanship, I am not overly concerned that every form requires perfectly rounded edges or that every element be an exact replication of its counterpart,” says Carolyn. “If this is art, it should be individual and unique and preserve for the viewer deliberate traces of the decisions for fabrication; the passage of the hands through materials.”

The artist studied jewelry and metalsmithing at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been featured on the covers of Lapidary Journal and Ornament Magazine and in both Elle and Vogue. Although her work is represented in the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Art, the Museum of Art & Design in New York City and the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts, the artist intends that her pieces function as adornment. “In the journey from the artist’s mind, through the transformations of the forge,” she says, “the work is not really completed until it reaches the wearer.”