“Expressing what I cannot say better with words is the most rewarding virtue of making jewelry.”
INTERVIEWS WITH TRISTAN DUNN
SAUL BELL DESIGN “EMERGING ARTIST UNDER AGE 22” WINNER: PLEASE CLICK HERE
THE nationally distributed PODCAST “SOFT SERVE”, EPISODE 134, May 12, 2021:
“On the show is Tristan Dunn, an artist who focuses on making hand-made, wire-wrapped jewelry. In 2019 Tristan was runner up in the prestigious Saul Bell Jewelry Design Competition in the Emerging Jewelry Artists under age 22. We talked to Tristan about his life, art, process, and a whole lot more!”
Two-hour+ conversation; to tune in, PLEASE CLICK HERE
ON THE ART OF WIRE-WRAPPING
artist’s statement
“Wire wrapping is such a great way for me to calm my mind, weaving chaos into order, in gemstone mandalas and simultaneously in my emotions, creating symmetry and finding balance, doing repetition and growing patience.
My creations are the frozen snowflakes of my meditations on life, and I sincerely hope that the peace they give me during their creation can be felt just from viewing and especially wearing them.”
“Don’t think you need a wide variety of tools or valuable materials to begin. Buy a couple different gauges of copper wire and some pliers and just experiment. Instructions are not necessary, creativity comes from within.”
“Wire-wrap jewelry is being taken more seriously and there are so many more artists who make it now, even just in recent years.”
“I want my legacy to be innovation. Not repetition. I want always to be original and not to imitate.”
“I just use pliers and my hands. I focus on a geometric stained-glass look. Gemstones are equally set on the front and on the back of my pieces.”
artist’s bio
portrait of the artist as a young man
Tristan Dunn was born 24 years ago in Portland, Oregon, back before it was Portlandia, though that city’s maverick spirit is still with him. When he was two, his family moved back to the East Coast and he grew up along the rocky shores of Cape Ann, Massachusetts. At any early age, he exhibited—as one amazed art teacher remarked—“an unusual and exceptional ability to imagine and create in 3D.” He once got into trouble with his second-grade teacher for turning an entire box of paperclips into ornate designs. His hands were always busy, exploring materials and making things.
When a neighbor gave him origami paper, he launched eagerly into that realm, quickly learning classic designs like the crane and the frog. At age 8, he viewed a major origami exhibit at the nearby Peabody-Essex Museum curated by the renowned world expert Robert Lang. Young Tristan spent hours prowling the exhibit and examining every piece. He also picked up a flyer for an adults-only workshop with Lang and persuaded his mom to help him talk his way into it (they sent samples of his work in c/o the museum along with a note). Lang was so impressed he waived the fee and, when they met, gifted the young artist with an elaborate origami guinea pig.
in high school, he frequented the local bead & gem shop
Tristan attended high school in Herkimer County in central New York. There, he was befriended and mentored by the proprietors of the local bead and gem shop. He also began to learn about gems and geology and to mine in the local hills for Herkimer/Little Falls diamonds (two-pointed, 18-faceted crystals unique to that area). His wire-wrapping skills are self-taught, a mixture of trial-and-error, experimentation, inspiration, and dazzling natural skill.
Tristan excelled in art classes in high school and at the Pratt MWP School of Art in New York. In summers, he attended programs at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts School and Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island. He briefly attended SCAD (Savannah College of Art & Design), but found he thrives best outside an academic environment.
He now lives in Asheville, North Carolina, in the heart of the the famous River Arts District. There he spends his days enjoying that city’s unique creative energy, savoring his friends and accessibility to beautiful nature, and making his unique art.
