Grants & Scholarships

Current Grants & Scholarships
Grants
Scholarships

Current Grants & Scholarships

There are currently no open calls for grants or scholarships. Please check back as we tend to have two sessions of applications per year. The Spring 2025 round has concluded.

Spring 2025 Skill Development Grant Winners

Recipient: Lily Marylander

Lily Marylander is a San Francisco-based, Chinese-American artist whose work explores the themes of mixed identity, queerness, and cultural dissonance, embracing discomfort and reclaiming motifs that have been historically exoticized or rendered taboo, transforming them into sites of power, humor, and pride through mixed media arts. Lily is currently a BFA student at California College of the Arts, double majoring in sculpture and jewelry design and works at Shibumi Gallery & April Higashi Jewelry in Berkeley. The grant will help Lily to enroll in courses at Silvera Jewelry School to expand both her jewelry and sculpture practice, including Electroforming, Fancy Cut Flush Setting, Japanese Metalwork and Chain, Chain, Chain classes. Lily is also considering pursuing an MFA in Jewelry to be able to teach others to appreciate high craft and lend more diversity and support to the young JMA community.

Recipient: Mercede Sheybani

Mercede Sheybani began her journey in metal arts as an immigrant artist searching for a way to speak for herself and for others who are often unheard. She recently earned an MFA in Jewelry and Metal Arts from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Her work tells stories of displacement, transforming complex emotions of grief and identity into something real and lasting. She currently teaches metal arts to young adults who experience the world in unique and sensitive ways. Her goals for herself and her students are to be understood, to create something honest, to find peace through making, to trust their hands, their ideas, and their inner voice. The grant will be used for a Wax Carving & Casting Workshop at Silvera Jewelry School and workshops at The Crucible in Wax Figurative Sculpture, Jewelry Weaving and Metal Clay: Forms from Nature.

Recipient: Olivia Shih

Instagram: oliviashihdesigns
Web: oliviashih.com

Olivia Shih is a San Francisco based jeweler, an educator at California College of the Arts and a writer working for SNAG as the Assistant Editor at Metalsmith magazine. Born in the US to immigrant parents and raised in Taiwan and living at the intersection of two cultures and two sets of societal values that were sometimes fiercely at odds, Olivia translates emotion into jewelry, from finding comfort in the simple things during chaotic times, to fiery anger over reproductive rights, to the love and cruelty embedded in sibling rivalry. Olivia’s goals are to become a senior adjunct professor at CCA, a custom jewelry artist and a volunteer at SNAG and MAG, giving back to the metals community that has gifted her a sense of belonging and meaning. The grant will go to a hand engraving class and an electroforming class at Silvera Jewelry School and an advanced cobblestone inlay online class with Caitlin Albritton.

Spring 2025 Small Business Grant Winners

Recipient: Meristem Inc.

Web: Autism Program for Young Adults – Meristem

Meristem Inc. is a school in Sacramento for autistic and neurodiverse young adults. The goal of the school is to prepare their students to enter the workforce or higher education, transition to increased independence, enhance social capacity and build a strong sense of self. The grant will help to create a dedicated wax carving and casting area in the metal arts studio by bringing in specialized tools and safety equipment, including a burnout kiln and flex shaft tools. They plan to build a collaborative sculpture titled “Awaken the Possible,” made from individual wax carvings contributed by each student. These pieces will be cast in metal and assembled into a single sculpture to be permanently installed in their welcome center.

Recipient: Rachel Morris

Web: https://eclecticnaturejewelry.com

Rachel Morris of Eclectic Nature Jewelry & Design, LLC is a metalsmith, educator, and business consultant who teaches both virtual and in-person workshops in metalsmithing and in art-as-a-business. Her goal is to create a comprehensive, exercise-based book on clasp-making that builds on the clarity and structure of Creative Stonesetting while offering progressive, step-by-step instruction emphasizing how design can emerge from a solid grasp of mechanism and function. Makers will not only construct a wide variety of clasps, but also develop the conceptual tools to innovate by learning the principles behind form and function. The grant will help her to fund a professional photographer for the book’s images.

Recipient: Natalie Esfahanian

Web: www.SalayiDesigns.com

Natalie Esfahanian of Salayi Designs is an independent jewelry artist and educator based in Redwood City, currently offering a range of local classes including Lost Wax Casting, enameling, and benchwork in her home studio. Her goal is to expand the capabilities of her home studio to include small-batch casting services for local business. Natalie already owns a vacuum table and plans to invest in a burnout kiln, an electric melting furnace, and the additional supplies necessary for small-batch lost wax casting. The grant will partially cover the costs of a Paragon w13 burnout kiln that will help her support local small business owners and jewelers.

GRANTS

Previous Grants by Year
MAGrant
MAGrant Recipients

Previous Grants by Year

Fall 2024 Skill Development Grant Winnera

Recipient: Sydney Brown

Instagram: Sydney (@mamasstudio) • Instagram photos and videos
Web: Sydney Brown

Sydney Brown’s journey in metalsmithing began in high school and became more fully realized through the Sculpture program at Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She went on to study metals at Laney Community College in Oakland as well as sculpture across disciplines, earning an MFA at San Jose State University. Sydney teaches at Mission College in the South Bay. For her, teaching is a source of fulfillment, to lead others to a place of success and confidence in their own ability to learn and thrive in the arts. She believes in the healing abilities of using one’s hands to translate what resides in our hearts and minds. In order to position herself in the pool of community college teaching assignments she needed to expand and refresh her skills of welding, casting, and woodworking. Receiving the grant allowed her to enroll in classes and workshops covering all of these techniques at The Crucible in Oakland.

Recipient: Alison Antelman

Instagram: Alison Antelman (@aantelman) • Instagram photos and videos
Web: Alison Antelman

Alison Antelman has been a member of MAG for many years and served as the newsletter editor from 2003-2006 as well as the president of the board from 2007-2011. She studied metal arts at City College in San Francisco and learned from many instructors in the Bay Area including Jack Da Silva and Susan Wood. Allison taught intermediate and advanced jewelry at the Richmond Art Center, honing her puzzle-solving skills and working with adventurous adult

students. She ventured into the art fair world where she amassed a clientele of collectors

from across the nation who share her vision for jewelry as art and small wearable sculpture. Receiving a grant allowed Allison to study with master goldsmith Kent Raible in an online workshop called “Going Tubular” where she learned several techniques including, making various shapes and sizes of tubing for setting, thick-walled bezels, seating stones, hinges and hinge variations, bail variations, and adding kinetic movement.

2024 Small Business Grant Winners

Recipient: Killean Evans

Instagram: JR Casting (@jrcasting) • Instagram photos and videos
Web: JR Casting

Killean Evans has owned and operated JR Casting since 2014, taking over the business after working for the previous owner for seven years, learning every aspect of the casting process. Customers include two prominent flute companies, several full-time jewelers and small businesses and several individual artists at all different levels. Killean keeps the pricing affordable so that even a beginner wax worker or new jeweler can explore new designs and ideas more easily and helps customers reuse their metal scrap for casting. As a queer woman in a heavily male-dominated field, Killean has worked hard to bring on new customers that may have felt dismissed by other casters. The grant helped to replace a unique sanding setup that was used in the shop every day. Killean was able to set up a new sanding machine and process that is more efficient when removing the gates and sprues, bringing the casting back to look exactly like the original.

Recipient: Amber Romero

Instagram: Chimera Arts Jewelry Studio (@chimera_jewelry_studio) • Instagram photos and videos
Web: Chimera

Amber Romero is the director of the Chimera Arts Jewelry Studio in Sebastopol. Chimera provides a creative and collaborative environment for artists, craftspeople, and creators and is the only community-based nonprofit jewelry studio in the North Bay, with a mission to foster creativity, skill development, and artistic expression. The jewelry studio is equipped with tools such as soldering stations, anvils, casting equipment, and polishing tools, supporting both beginners and advanced jewelers in their craft. Members can work on their own projects, while non-members have the opportunity to take classes and share skills with others. Receiving the grant allowed Chimera to enhance the capabilities of their jewelry studio, including upgrading student kits, hand tools, wax tools, bench pins, torch equipment and soldering areas, purchasing additional hammers, mandrels, and forming tools, investing in a desktop drill press and rolling mill, completing the build-out of a sandblaster and purchasing better camera equipment for close-up views during classroom demonstrations.

Recipient: Olivia Competente

Instagram: Olivia Competente (@jewels_by_olivia_c) • Instagram photos and videos

Web: www.jewelsbyoliviac.com

Olivia Competente runs Jewels By Olivia C, a woman and minority owned small business. For nearly 25 years Olivia has taught a wide range of classes from metal fabrication, enameling, jewelry making, and fused glass through both small class settings and private lessons at her studio in San Francisco’s Sunset District. Her mother, Dina Competente, shares with her students a life long expertise in design through both china and glass painting classes. Olivia offers classes that are affordable and often below market rate to make sure other metal jewelry artists have opportunities to create. Many of her students have continued to take classes for 8-12 years. Receiving the grant allowed Olivia to expand her classroom equipment, helping to buy a rolling mill, a bench shear and a hydraulic press for her studio so her students could expand their artistry in her personalized classes.

Recipient: Rebecca Kosinsky

Instagram: Metal Arts Academy (@metal_arts_academy) • Instagram photos and videos
Web: Welcome to Metal Arts Academy!

Rebecca Kosinski is a co-founder of Metal Arts Academy in Auburn. Rebecca handles all administrative tasks and her husband Michael is the main instructor for the school. They have recently had the opportunity to offer new classes such as Beginning Hand Engraving taught by

Paul Lowe, Anticlastic Raising and Sculptural Metalsmithing with Alexandra Hart, and a Pewtersmithing course with Lisa Slovis Mandel. Recognizing the need for support, Rebecca hired Sundance Coaching working with Michael Oakes and Illayne Mayson who have helped to stabilize the administrative side of the business, rewriting policies and organizing student information. The grant helped Rebecca to continue working with Sundance Coaching as the school grows, to both manage the current demands of the business and strategically plan for future expansion.

Recipient: Maya Kini

Instagram: Maya Kini (@mkini) • Instagram photos and videos
Web: Maya Kini Jewelry + Objects

Maya Kini is a jeweler who has been making rings for people for over twenty years. Some are worn on special occasions and are the big conversation starters. Some are worn daily, through all the moments that make a life on hands that age, hands that hold newborns, hands that play instruments, hands that nurse patients, hands that prepare food, hands that make objects. After making a ring, Maya tries to capture images of it on the hands of the wearer, to bring the jewelry object into relationship with the body and create a story. The grant is helping her to bring this story to life in the form of a professional photo shoot and a series of images that highlight the many hands that wear her work. Her dream is for these photographs to become part of a book of original poems and essays with a distinct lens on how an ancient object expresses meaning and relevance in today’s world.

2023 Professional Development Grant Winners

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

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.

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