Susan Lister Locke is an accomplished artist and metalsmith living on Nantucket Island.
”While I may start with an idea – a specific image – it is through the process itself that shape and form take on lives of their own – often surprising me. It is as if what emerges as a finished design was there all the time, with its own energy, just waiting to be released,” she says of her exciting discovery process. Incorporating gemstones and pearls into her work and working directly with metal, Ms. Locke’s collection now includes bracelets, necklaces and men’s jewelry.
Commission work is a specialty. “I love to have people bring something to me and ask me to give it new life. I believe jewelry is very sentimental; so much of it has a very personal ‘story’. Creating new stories is also a great experience – often in my travels, I will find stones which remind me of a client – so, I’ll make a piece of jewelry for them and surprise them with the results – they are always thrilled and so am I!”
The Nantucket Sign Collection, Quarterboard bracelets, commission work and gems. She is most noted for her rings, working primarily in 18-karat gold, and using the time-honored “lost-wax process”, in which sculpting and carving reveal the chosen image.
