The jewelry of Philippa Roberts is featured at Smith Galleries

Philippa Roberts

The jewelry of Philippa Roberts is a mainstay at Smith Galleries on Hilton Head Island. The gallery is featuring a special exhibit of her jewelry as part of their 26th anniversary.

Philippa was born in South Africa to a jewelry making family, she was naturally drawn to working with metals and stones. She graduated from Miami University (in Ohio) with a BFA in Metal Design and Photography. With California calling, she moved to San Francisco in 1994 to begin her career in jewelry design. Philippa started out working for different designers to develop and hone her jewelry and business skills. In 1996 Philippa established her first studio in the basement of her San Francisco apartment building. What started as a small, hopeful business has developed into a large design studio and retail store. She now works from a studio attached to her shop in Oakland.

Philippa’s signature look is simple, organic shapes combined with beautifully cut gemstones. Her love of the ocean plays a large role in the selection of clean, blue and green stones in many of her pieces. Philippa’s creativity stems from the nature around her, yet she also incorporates a feeling of the urban, with lines and patterns that imitate architecture and design seen around the city. Philippa creates all the original pieces by carving in wax or fabricating in metal. Her selection of new stones for each season defines how her collections will come to life. “I love going to the gem shows and being inspired by all the stones I see. To put the colors together and develop a collection is one of my favorite parts of the job.” Once the pieces are ready for production, her team of skilled crafts people make each piece by hand in her Oakland studio.

Using silver as her main medium, Philippa creates necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earrings that can be worn formally or informally, with an appeal to all ages. “I love to hear from customers that mine is their favorite everyday jewelry, or that they have been wearing one of my pieces for the past ten years. It is my goal to make jewelry that is beautiful, simple, wearable, and most importantly, timeless.”

Philippa Roberts jewelry is carried in specialty shops around the world. It has been a dream come

Necklace and Earrings by Philippa Roberts

true for her to be featured in such esteemed art museums as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the DeYoung Museum, and the Museum of Art and Design in New York City. Philippa lives in Oakland with her husband, Brian and their daughter Charlotte.

Smith Galleries is located in suite J11 of the the Village at Wexford at 1000 William Hilton Parkway on Hilton Head Island. Gallery hours are 10 - 6 Monday through Saturday. 800.272.3870

Glass Eye Studio featured at Smith Galleries

Paperweight by Glass Eye

    Smith Galleries is known as the premier source for art glass on Hilton Head Island. The ornaments and paperweights of Glass Eye Studio have been a continuous focus of the gallery for many years.    
    Glass Eye Studio has designed and created exquisite handmade glass for more than 30 years. Through vibrant paperweights, innovative ornaments, functional bowls and vases, our family of glass artisans strives to pass to our customers the same marvel and appreciation that we have for blown glass.
    The process, from start to finish, creates the true beauty and mystery of glass. Applying immense heat to a mixture of mostly sand, glass evolves. Each individual piece begins by gathering a precise amount of glass on the end of a blowpipe or rod. To reach the desired look, the blowing team uses a wide array of color and materials. Many of Glass Eye Studio's designs require days of preparation before a single piece is even made. Manipulating the look of the glass, the blower shapes the molten mass with light but precise touches of manual tools. After a quick fire-polish, the product is slowly brought to room temperature over a period of days. Finally. and annealed solid piece is finished using diamond wheel grinders and polishing stones. The artisans at Glass Eye studios create each blown glass vase by hand. Use with your favorite flowers or display as art in your home. Each piece, all handmade, receive individual attention as it is carefully crafted into it's final form. The process itself is almost as amazing as the final product. Because each piece is handmade the color or size may vary and bubbles may appear in the glass. This is not a flaw but your assurance that each piece is handmade.

Glass Eye Studio in operation

    Glass Eye Studio pieces are hand made by skilled artisans at the Seattle studio. Glass colors are from Germany, New Zealand and some from China. The colors are manipulated in the Seattle studio to produce cane, murrini and stringers. These cane and murrini pieces are used to create wonderful and beautiful handmade glass paperweights, votive lights and ornaments.Glass Eye Studio creates some of America's finest art glass,including ash from Mount St. Helens in some of their pieces.
    Smith Galleries maintains a large selection of glass ornaments and paperweights from Glass Eye. The gallery is located in suite J11 of the Village at Wexford at 1000 William Hilton Parkway on Hilton Head Island. Gallery hours are 10 - 6 Monday through Saturday. 800.272.3870

Brian Andreas, creator of StoryPeople featured at Smith Galleries

Brian Andreas, creator of StoryPeople

   Smith Galleries has featured the prints, sculpture and books of Brian Andreas for many years. His art is his ability to write every man's thoughts...not easy.
    Brian Andreas is an American writer, painter, sculptor, technologist and publisher widely known for an ongoing series of works presented by the author as StoryPeople.
    The StoryPeople collection now includes eleven books incorporating drawings and writings; color prints of his drawings and short stories along; and mixed-media sculptures incorporating salvaged wood in deliberately crude shapes, bright colors, hand drawings (especially faces) and rubber-stamped imprints of the authors writings.

StoryPeople wall scuplture

    In 1994, Andreas co-founded a company, StoryPeople, to distribute his work worldwide, and in 2012 he founded tumblecloud.com, a collaborative digital storytelling platform.
    Andreas was born in 1956 in Iowa City and grew up in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, in 1979 with a BA in Theater and English. He went on to receive his MFA in Fiber and Mixed Media in 1992 from the John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, California,where he focused on Fiber, with an emphasis on story as the fiber of human community.It was during 1992-1993, in conjunction with the Graduate School of Arts and Consciousness at JFK University, that he coordinated an early Internet experiment in collaborative storytelling called the Hall of Whispers.
   Smith Galleries is located in suite J11 of the Village at Wexford at 1000 William Hilton Parkway on Hilton Head Island, SC. Gallery hours are 10-6 Monday through Saturday. info@smithgalleries.com 843.842.2280

The candles of Rick Faulkner are featured at Smith Galleries

  

Rick Faulkner in his studio.

Smith Galleries has featured the candles of Rick Faulkner (Barrick Design) for many years. We are honoring Rick today with this post by thanking him for his passion for creating truly exceptional candles.
   
Rick creates unique artisan candles to add a modern, contemporary touch to any room. He prides himself in creating exquisite candles with a stylish yet functional design orientation. The candles are unscented which makes them ideal for celebrations, holidays, and everyday use.
   
Handcrafted in his Lancaster, Pennsylvania studio, his candles add a touch of elegance to any room. Barrick Design Candles are as aesthetically pleasing as they are functional, which makes them ideal gifts for a myriad of occasions. They are wonderful as decorative accents in any interior whether contemporary or more traditional.
   
Rick makes candles in over 30 color groups with several shades of most colors so that people can find a color that enhances their space. Moreover, his candles have a distinct crackle pattern, ensuring that they look phenomenal in various room styles.

Barrick candles with holders by Girardini Design

   
For more than 30 years, Barrick Design Candles has been proudly crafting simplistic and elegant candles.
   
Smith Galleries is located at 1000 William Hilton Parkway in suite J11 of the Village at Wexford on Hilton Head Island. Gallery hours are 10-6 Monday through Saturday. 843.842.2280

Thomas Davin and Mary Kesler are featured at Smith Galleries during the "26 Days in May" celebration.

Thomas and Mary with Tilly at their pond.

Smith Galleries continues the "26 Days in May" celebration of their 26th anniversary with a focus on the fine woodworking of Davin and Kessler. Their work has been a feature in the gallery for many years. The gallery features their bookmarks, business card holders, letter openers, valets, pill boxes, and cufflinks.

Thomas Davin and Mary Kesler have been woodworking together since 1979. Their professional training began during their college years in California where Tom studied cabinetmaking and design at C.S.U. Northridge. Mary began woodworking to help pay expenses toward her Bachelor of Science degree at U.C. Davis. After college, they began a business and life partnership. They now reside with their three children, two boys, Morgan and Roland, and a girl, Joanna in the countryside of Rhode Island.

Working out of a nineteenth century mill overlooking Dorset Mill Pond, Mary and Tom utilize the

Man's valet - cocobolo & cherry

beauty of their surroundings to create objects that are simple yet elegant in design. Their woodcrafts are both serviceable and handsome. With minimal care, they can be appreciated for years to come. The hallmark of their work is its combination of artistic expression and utilitarian design.

Smith Galleries is located in suite J11 of the Village at Wexford at 1000 William Hilton Parkway on Hilton Head Island, SC. Gallery hours are 10 - 6 Monday through Saturday. 843.842.2280

Leigh Standley - "Curly Girl" - is featured during the "26 Days of May" celebration at Smith Galleries

Leigh Stan

Smith Galleries is celebrating their 26th anniversary with a special month-long event called "26 Days in May." The gallery is honoring artists who have been with the gallery for a long time. Click here to learn more about the "26 Days in May."

Leigh Standley (Curly Girl) is one of the gallery's favorite artists. The gallery features her gift cards, art blocks and coasters.

Leigh’s whimsical and witty work has been in the making for the better part of her thirty-ish years. Born and raised in St. Louis, Leigh began designing in seventh grade, where she got poor marks in Math class for doodling. She went on to attend University of Kansas School of Design and holds a BFA in Visual Communications. Her work has been featured in national design publications and regional art shows and is inspired by her incredible friends and family. Leigh has lived in Boston for over 13 years and likes it so much she only occasionally wishes it were Paris.

Leigh enjoys traveling, old movies, and singing. She can’t live without: yoga, her family, Snickers and Lucy the Wonder Dog. She has strong feelings about education, believes in magic, and is quite certain that given a cape and a nice tiara, she could save the world. 

Smith Galleries is located in suite J11 of the Village at Wexford at 1000 William Hilton Parkway on Hilton Head Island, SC. Gallery hours are 10 - 6 Monday through Saturday.

Roger Gandelman is featured during the "26 Days in May" celebration at Smith Galleries

Elegant Perfume Bottle by Roger Gandelman

Roger Gandelman is a glass artist and has been blowing glass for 30 years. Early in his career he decided to put the bulk of his energy into making art glass perfume bottles. He believes he is the only glass artist in the country, perhaps in the world, who has devoted his full artistic efforts into making this object. His bottles, although small in scale, make a grand statement.

He sees perfume bottles as small, elegant treasures; made to be turned, touched, and relished. He strives to make the form organic, smooth, and familiar, with very few sharp angles. The lip is simple and unobtrusive. The interior decoration adds life, movement, and dimension to the piece.

He uses both furnace and torch techniques to make his work. Colored glass is applied to the clear glass surface to build the flowers. The piece is then encased in more clear glass to achieve a multi-layered 3D optical effect. The flowers appear to be suspended inside the glass. Many of his bottles have various exterior lusters applied while the glass is still molten. The bottle is then cut and polished the next day (using diamond grinding equipment) to open up windows in the glass to expose the interior decoration.

He does all the glassblowing in his studio. He works without assistants. Because he does not work with a team, every progressive step in the creation of the piece has to satisfy him. No piece is finished until he thinks it is a beautiful perfume bottle.

He strives try to make his designs timeless…unmarred by passing trends; with flavors from the age of excellence, encased in a contemporary form.

See more of Rogers work here.

Smith Galleries is located in suite J11 of the Village at Wexford at 1000 William Hilton Parkway on Hilton Head Island, SC. Gallery hours are 10 - 6 Monday through Saturday.