Grants & Scholarships

Current Grants & Scholarships
Grants
Scholarships

Current Grants & Scholarships

MAG Small Business Grant – Spring 2023

The purpose of this grant is to help MAG members who are small business owners make improvements to their businesses in 2023 by providing grants of up to $500. Here are the 2023 recipients.

2023 Professional Development Grant for MAG Members

Recipient: Olivia Shih

Instagram: oliviashihdesigns
Web: oliviashih.com

As an introvert, Olivia Shih designs and makes jewelry for other soft spoken and thoughtful people, and her work reflects her vibrant inner life. As a Taiwanese American and a second-generation immigrant to the US, and as a woman-run business, Olivia believes that diversity is the future – the more we come in contact with different perspectives and lived experiences, the more we become open minded and empathetic human beings.

Also, a believer in conscious consumption, Olivia’s jewelry collections are made of recycled and ethically sourced materials whenever possible. Her eponymous brand came about from a desire to transform acrylic cut-outs she rescued from the waste bin at art school. She stumbled upon an image of an iceberg that had flipped upside down and she knew exactly what to do – to capture the starkness and vulnerability, yet defiance of this iceberg with her newfound materials. These days Olivia hand carves rock crystal and thoughtfully combines the sculptures with warm gold and fine gemstones in her Lucid Collection.

Shifting from demi-fine to fine jewelry in the past few years, MAG’s Small Business Grant will help Olivia move her current website to Shopify, a powerful e-commerce platform that is shopper friendly. This move, which will aid in more direct sales, will help her diversify her revenue streams and not rely so heavily on wholesale.

Recipient: Jena Hounshell

Instagram: jenahounshell
Web: jenahounshell.com

Jena Hounshell has operated a wholesale casting shop that services designers and retailers in the SF Bay Area with castings in bronze, silver, and gold since 2012. She graduated with a BFA in metalsmithing from University of Washington in 2005 and began working that same year at Outcast and Co., a wholesale casting shop in downtown Seattle. Mentored under James Magetteri, Jena learned the mastery of precious metal casting, and the shop focused on quality production casting using low tech equipment by understanding the innate properties of how metal flows, cools, and forms.

As a woman-owned and operated casting business, Jena is proud to have carved out a space in the Bay Area jewelry community where designers feel comfortable trusting her with their work, and she strives to make the casting process as transparent as possible. Now a new mother, Jena is looking to streamline her casting process and increase her production volume by purchasing a vacuum assisted wax injection machine. She plans to use the Small Business Grant to help with this purchase. As Jena creates more efficient work processes, she also plans to dedicate part of her time to teaching and mentorship to inspire and empower the industry’s next wave of casters.

All Jena Hounshell photos: Ryan Leggett

GRANTS

Previous Grants by Year
MAGrant
MAGrant Recipients

Previous Grants by Year

2022 Professional Development Grant for MAG Members (partnership with Silvera Jewelry School)

Recipient: Camille Torres

Instagram: camilletorresdesigns
Web: camilletorresdesigns.com

Camille Torres is the owner of her eponymous jewelry brand, Camille Torres Designs. She earned her BFA from the Jewelry/Metal Arts program at California College of Arts, and currently works out of her home-based studio making small batch, artisanal jewelry using keum-boo, sterling silver, and gold-plated metals. Camille is currently moving her collections toward one of a kind, gem-forward pieces with an emphasis on 14k gold.

Camille draws her inspiration from natural forms — flora, fauna, and the cycles of nature are the foundations of her work. She thrives on detail and many of the shapes and designs in her jewelry are constructed in sacred geometry that acts as homage to our myths and lessons of ancient culture. Her work often calls attention to the ecological interdependence of nature and the human experience.

Camille will be using the grant to take Stone Setting: Tube, Flush, and Prong, at Silvera. Such skills gained from the class will be invaluable and will help to grow her business with the creation of high-end, gem forward, and custom pieces.

2022 Emerging Artist Grant

Recipient: Gillian Shewaga

Gillian began taking jewelry courses in Austin, Texas in 2018, and has lived in San Francisco for 9 months. In the short time she has been here she has already taken Jewelry 2 at Metalworks SF and a stone setting course at Silvera. With the grant she will begin taking the casting series at Silvera. Gillian currently has a jewelers bench at home to practice her skills.

Gillian is drawn to metal arts by the craft itself and the story each piece tells. She loves the practice of stone setting, especially flush setting, and hopes to learn pave setting.

In five years, Gillian hopes to launch her first collection and transition into fine jewelry. She loves the idea of making personal heirlooms — something people will cherish forever and pass down to generations.

MAG Small Business Grant – Winter/Spring 2022

The purpose of this grant is to help MAG members who are small business owners make improvements to their businesses in 2022 by providing grants of up to $500.

Recipient: Shana Astrachan

Shana Astrachan has been a MAG member since 1996, served on the board and organized exhibitions for the guild. Throughout her many years making jewelry she has worked with various materials aside from the traditional metalworking techniques she is trained in, including resins, glass, plastics and fibers. Her Fox & Doll jewelry line is fun and colorful, made with glitter and pearlized acrylic with a nod to vintage fashion jewelry of the 50’s and 60’s. Keep an eye out for a fun retro inspired photoshoot with these pieces thanks to a grant from the Metal Arts Guild.

Recipient: Katy DeWeese

Katy DeWeese creates one of a kind pieces inspired by the beauty of nature using the technique of chasing and repoussé to add dimensionality. Handmade in her one-woman San Francisco studio she focuses on using only traceable and recycled materials to form sculptural jewelry.

Recipient: Sudha Irwin

Sudha creates jewelry inspired by the unique textures and forms found in nature. These inspirations are expressed in silver, gold, enamels and often include gemstones as well as the employment of different techniques ranging from forging, fold forming to casting.

Recipient: Metal Arts Academy

Metal Arts Academy is committed to offering students the opportunity to learn a skilled trade in the time honored craft of handmade jewelry and the metal arts. We are eager to teach the next generation of craftsmen and women who honor their field with knowledge, skill and passion.

Recipient: Sonia Roberts

Sonia Denise Roberts Art is inspired by hip hop culture and plant life. Sonia’s great passion in life is to design jewelry that crosses the bridge between art on a wall, something you could wear and jewelry that expresses the desires and aspirations of oppressed people.

2021

Recipient: Suzane Beaubrun

2021 Professional Development Grant for MAG Members (partnership with Silvera Jewelry School)

How did you get into metals/jewelry making?

I fell into working with metal and making jewelry in a roundabout way. I was working on a project that needed a metal frame and I had no idea how to solder. YouTube didn’t exist, so I did the next best (really the very best) thing and took a basic jewelry-making course at the Craft Students League of YMCA in New York. What a gem of a resource! I was extremely lucky that my instructor, artist Lisa Spiros had an infectious passion for jewelry and metal arts. She didn’t just show her students the fundamentals, she talked about the history of jewelry making, showed us conceptual pieces, and whetted our appetites with all the creative possibilities of the medium. She was so inspirational it was impossible to not get hooked (although I never finished making that metal frame).

Tell us about your jewelry/metal art, techniques you like to use, and what inspires you to create it.

The process of making art is what inspires me. I start with a bit of planning and sketching, but I always leave room for improvising. That way each piece I create is unique and has its own energy. I do a lot of intricate piercing and sawing and often crochet because I like the feeling of attentive meditation and intimacy as the works come to fruition. I want my work to be well crafted, but it also needs to feel organic and human. One of my favorite hobbies is gardening and my love for plants and insects is a big influence. I’m also very inspired by living in an urban area, which is why I often include found objects in my artwork. I like combining materials, textures and colors in unexpected ways to stimulate the imagination and senses.

Tell us about the class you plan to take, and why you would like to take it.

I am very excited to take the Alternative Settings for Enamels and Other Objects course at Silvera Jewelry School. I often incorporate found objects in my metalwork and learning some different approaches to settings will open my designs to more possibilities. I’ll also have the opportunity to learn ways of mounting pieces for the wall, which will be great for the work I’m in the process of creating.

What is your 5 year goal in metal arts?

My goal is to continue to develop my current series of wall and body art and eventually have the solo show I envision. I’m also refining a jewelry collection and aim to expand its visibility by connecting with galleries and venues beyond the Bay Area. These may seem like modest goals, but the past year and a half has made me a bit nervous about voicing plans. I feel like I should go polish a horseshoe for luck just thinking about it!!

Recipient: Hsiao-Yun Chu

2021 Educator’s Grant

I took up amateur jewelry making in earnest after having my first child. Taking jewelry classes at Sharon Arts Studio in San Francisco was a great way to combat the loneliness and stress of being a first-time parent. Within a few years, I had become part of the community as a volunteer studio assistant and teacher of youth arts classes.

I like to combine organic shapes with more rectilinear ones, and I like to incorporate natural, variegated materials, like agates, into my designs. I often use hand hammered textures to animate the metal. At present, my stone setting skills are limited to simple bezels; I’d like to take a class in basic stone setting to expand my range.

My goal in metal arts is not necessarily to become a professional; it is to become a better teacher so that I can continue to serve the community through the arts–whether by teaching at Sharon Arts Studio, through the YMCA where I am also a frequent volunteer, or via the public school system.

Community arts bring youth and adults together in the shared goal of creation and self-expression. Teaching, volunteering and contributing to building communities through the arts is my way of giving back to the city and community I love. In five years, I see myself continuing to teach jewelry design classes and promoting the arts as a powerful tool for promoting community cohesion, mutual respect, and appreciation for diverse points of view.

Recipient: Anousha Mohsenidarabi

2021 Emerging Artist Grant

Born in 1985 in Mashhad, Iran, Anousha Mohsenidarabi holds a bachelor’s degree in Architecture and is currently a Jewelry and Metal Art student at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California. While in Iran, Anousha worked at her family’s custom paint manufacturing business for many years and gained a lot of experience with the technicalities of color. After an opportunity to travel to India and Africa, Anousha discovered her interest in gemstones and artistic jewelry, and later in 2017, moved to San Francisco to pursue her newest passion at the Academy of Art University. Anousha has developed a skill set in metal fabrication, stone setting, enameling, wax carving, and casting. She is planning to open her own jewelry and metal art business in the future, where she can work both as a designer and a gemologist. Anousha’s work is heavily inspired by the beauty of nature’s colors and textures. She enjoys working with gemstones, beads, semi-precious and precious metals, glass, wood, found objects from nature, and ceramics. Anousha loves crafting beautiful objects to wear and hopes that people will enjoy owning her pieces as much as she enjoys making them.

MAGrant

Open only to MAG members, the MAG grant took place annually from 2012-2014 and consisted of $1000 to a MAG member for a Community based project.

MAGrant Recipients

2014 Winner

Raissa Bump, “Bay Area ‘Stretches to Keep You Making’ Project”

The goal of Bay Area ‘Stretches to Keep You Making’ Project was to bring to the awareness of metals students, teachers, hobbyists and professionals in the Bay Area the importance of ongoing and preventative stretching as part of the studio practice and to teach them stretches that are easy to implement. Our bodies are our primary tool and need to be in good health in order for us to make whatever it is that is our passion. Thanks to the MAG Grant, I created the first version of a stretches booklet and had four workshops within the community. This conversation was broached and I added tools to the community’s toolbox – all of which can enhance the quality of life for our community at large, reduce physical stresses and surgeries and keep individuals making for many years to come.

Broaching this topic within the Bay Area metals community gave me many insights and, since completing the grant, I have moved forward to start a business, Reset, to bring this conversation and these skills to an even larger community. Reset’s mission is to educate individuals and groups to be attentive to their bodies’ signals and to provide them with practical Self-Tuning techniques.

Self-Tuning can be done quickly–you don’t need a trip to the gym or a block of time set aside.
These are simple stretches and exercises that can be done in in-between times of waiting or indecision or in moments you feel stuck. They can be done whenever and wherever without needing any special equipment or prior experience to perform.

Reset’s techniques are appropriate for all types of people and all ages: creatives and makers, office workers, gardeners, musicians, coffee shop dwellers, mechanics, dog walkers, surgeons, CEOs, and caregivers.

About Raissa
A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, Raïssa Bump continued her studies at Alchimia School of Contemporary Jewelry under Giampaolo Babetto. She has been exhibiting her jewelry for over ten years and is skilled at making both intricate one-of-a-kind pieces and beautiful edition collections – all of which speak to her interest in wearable arts, textiles & textile techniques and slow & methodical handwork. Raïssa is a keen observer of her environment, very curious and enjoys adventure–her jewelry is a reflection of this. She collages together her observations into pieces that are bold from a distance, yet draw you in, ask you to look closer and notice subtle details or how light coruscates across surfaces. She is a Certified Forrest Yoga Instructor and part of the Forrest Yoga Hoop of Teachers.

www.reset-stretch.com
www.raissabump.com

2013

Christine Dhein, “Bay Area Green Jewelry Studio Project”

“The 2013 MAG Community Grant that funded my “Bay Area Green Jewelry Studio Project” allowed me to share my passion and knowledge about eco-friendly studio practices with students in our community. The students’ enthusiasm energized me, and now I am looking forward to expanding the reach of the program. Many thanks to MAG for being the catalyst for making this happen.” Christine Dhein

See the video about Christine’s Bay Area Green Jewelry Studio Project on YouTube
Watch now

2007 – 2011

From 2007 – 2011 the MAG grant was awarded for Outstanding Student work in an accredited Metals programs – Please see Scholarships for further detail on past winners.

SCHOLARSHIPS

Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts Scholarship

After 39 years, we were sorry to see Revere Academy close and our scholarship end. We wish Alan Revere all the best in his retirement and thank him for all the wonderful education he provided to so many jewelry artists all over the world as well as his collaboration with MAG.

Here are our previous winners of the MAG Revere Scholarship:

–Michele C. Dodge, 2017

–Jani Mussetter, 2017

–Hsinyu Chu, 2016

Past Student Scholarships

MAG partners with local colleges and universities with accredited metalsmithing programs to recognize outstanding student work. The scholarship award money is given to each student as a “no strings attached” style grant. The winning student is then interviewed for our newsletter and their work is promoted through our social media. Each scholarship is juried and the jurors for each year are chosen from among current MAG members based on their level of achievement and commitment to the field.

2017 – Yu-Yang Winston Wang
Website
Interview
School: California College of Art, Oakland CA
Juror: Aimee Golant