Frey, Kathy

Kathy is an artist in all aspects of her life. She enjoys cooking, gardening, and home decorating projects. For most of her adult life she lived in the urban landscapes of Pittsburgh, Boston, and Chicago. In 2009 she moved to a small artist community in rural Northern California so she could commune with nature on a regular basis. When she’s not working in her adorable fairy garden cottage home studio, she enjoys running and yoga, although you are more likely to find her hiking, rock climbing, or snow boarding when time allows. All of these pursuits are expressed creatively in her sculptural wire jewelry designs, which are abstract expressions of the pleasures she finds in simplicity. Much peace, joy, and love goes into creating each piece that she meticulously makes by hand.

Jewelry has always been a hands-on passion for Kathy, a life-long maker, designer, and crafter. Her jewelry career sprouted when she received professional representation in 1996 after she graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in graphic design. Wire allowed her to apply her training to a totally different outlet. As a graphic designer, Kathy worked in the abstract concepts of usability, flow, white space, and message. While it is easy to see the influences of graphic design in Kathy’s linear wire jewelry, the wire has expanded the dimensions to become a sculptural outlet for her to explore a new design aesthetic — the blank pages have been replaced by ears, wrists, necks, and fingers. Her restrained use of color flows from her emphasis on contrast, structure, and balance — positive and negative space — tension, and kineticism — all expressed in her handcrafted constructions.

For nine years graphic and jewelry design coexisted until the entrepreneurial bug bit her in 2005; she then turned her full focus to jewelry design and building a studio. Kathy’s book “Elegant Wire Jewelry,” published by Lark Books in 2007, established her as a significant voice in the field of wire jewelry.

Now more than 60 galleries and boutiques carry Kathy’s sculptural wire jewelry around North America, from urban museum shops to independently owned craft galleries. Kathy, an award-winning designer in both of her careers, also represents her own work online and at high-caliber art fairs across the U.S.

1 item found
Sort By: