Gary Bailey
Faceting
Gary’s hobby of faceting began just a few years ago when a friend taught him to cut a round brilliant. This led to an ever-increasing desire to learn as many designs as possible. Using “An Introduction to Meet Point Faceting” he mastered the basic cuts and moved on to more challenging competition-type cuts. He studied the oval cut under the tutelage of Jerry Call, Master Gen Cutter. Gary attended William Holland School of Lapidary Arts taking Faceting II with David Lonser. He has introduced many people to the joy of gemstone cutting on a one-to-one basis.
Mary Bailey
A self-taught scrimshander, Mary has been cutting scrimshaw pieces for over 20 years. Her love of this artform began by accident when she saw her first example of scrimshaw done on the handle of a custom-made knife. Through trial and error, research and practice, Mary has traveled this creative road to mastering this ancient artform. In addition to teaching at William Holland, Mary teaches and demonstrates scrimshaw at the Batson Blade Symposium in April in McCalla, Alabama. She is a member of the Middle Tennessee Gem and Mineral Club. Examples of her scrimshaw have appeared in Blade Magazine, Knives Illustrated, Knives Annual, Wire Artist Jewelry and Colored Stone. In 2003 she won the best jewelry award at DragonCon. Her work is also shown in Wirework, an Illustrated Guide to Wire Wrapping by Dale Armstrong.
Tom Benham & Kay Benham
Chasing & Repoussé
Intrigued by the ancient art of chasing and repoussé Tom read and experimented on his own for many years. With the recent resurgence of interest in this art form Tom has been privileged to study with Tom McCarthy, John Cogswell, So Young Park, Leonard Urso and Valentine Yatkov. Along the way, his enthusiasm sparked Kay’s interest and she now shares his passion and joins him in teaching and inspiring interested students. Recently, Tom and Kay spent a week studying with Victoria Lansford. Tom and Kay have authored more than 50 lapidary and metalsmithing articles and projects published in the Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist magazine and since January 2002, have co-edited their monthly column in which they field questions and offer advice on a variety of jewelry making topics. In addition to teaching Intarsia classes at William Holland for more than 10 years they recently changed their focus to teaching Chasing & Repoussé classes. They live and work in the Orlando area and are active members of the NE Chapter of the Florida Society of Goldsmiths; they teach a variety of lapidary and metalsmithing classes in Florida and Texas.
Sandra Bergquist
Chain
Junior Rockhounds
Wire
A two-hour class in wire wrapping in 2004 created a lasting interest in lapidary and wire arts for Sandra. Fortunately, her husband, David, a long time rockhound, was pleased to encourage and support her new passion by providing customized cabochons. Unfortunately, the limited opportunities for learning wire wrapping in her home area left her frustrated when she wanted to go beyond that initial two hour course-until she was directed to William Holland. To repay what she has called "The Gift of William Holland" and to help ease the instructional limitations she found at home, she vowed if she ever became "good enough" to teach others, she would teach every chance she got. Consequently, Sandra, who started teaching in 2008, has taught in a local craft store, at the Emerald Coast Bead Society's annual retreats, in association with the Playground Gem and Mineral Society and to a local Girl Scout troop as well as giving private lessons in a variety of settings. In addition to teaching wire and chain at William Holland, she is currently providing private lessons while also teaching two wire and chain workshops a week in her home area. Because the workshops include students of widely varying skill levels and interests, Sandra has become adept at managing multiple, concurrent projects for diverse groups.
Bill Boggs
Intarsia
Bill began attending William Holland School in 1993 and started teaching classes in 1997. He is experienced in lapidary, wirecraft jewelry, and metalsmithing, but his first love has always been finding and grinding rocks. For Bill, intarsia is a way to show off multiple rocks and minerals by combining them into endless combinations of colors and patterns.
Sarah Lee Boyce
Opals
Sarah Lee is a member of the Charlotte Gem and Mineral Club and has been teaching since the early 1990s. She teaches at William Holland and at her home outside of Charlotte, NC. In her classes you will learn triplets, doublets, Australian, and matrix opals.
Ellis Bray
Cabochons
Ellis Bray is a retired engineering manager, an enthusiastic teacher, past president of a local rock club, and a creative and gifted cabochoner and jewelry designer. Ellis and his wife Jackie make rock-based jewelry, featuring wire wrapping by Jackie and silver-smithed settings by Ellis. Their motto is: “We make heirlooms.” Ellis started cutting cabs in the 1990s and has cut many thousands, mostly free forms. He now uses almost exclusively a no-dop technique. He feels his philosophy and method promotes creativity (not all great pieces start as slab stock or end as ovals) and enjoys teaching like-minded students his skills and insights via several well-thought-out projects.
Jim Brogdon
Carving
Glass Fusing
Beginning in 1985 until the present time, he has worked in the arts-woodcarvings, mold making, and casting-jewelry from seashells, night-lights, and Christmas ornaments. He also taught woodcarving at BRMA Association. Jim has taken glass fusing from Addy DePietro at William Holland and has been fusing glass jewelry since 2001, and teaching glass fusing for the past few years.
Diane Brooks
Enameling
Retiring after 30 years in corporate information systems, Dianne needed an outlet for her artistic energy and, in 1999, discovered she loved making silver jewelry because it requires the skills of a technician and the eye of an artist. She also creates intarsia and fused dichroic glass to incorporate into her designs. Usually a stone will “tell her what it wants to be” and then guides the design. Dianne now works in various metals using fabrication, enamel, precious metal clay, and wire techniques. She has been teaching Silver I and II, Cold Connections, Enameling, PMC, glass fusing at the Visual Arts Center in Punta Gorda, FL since 2001. She has been teaching Cabochons at William Holland since 2006 and Enameling since 2011. She is a member of Florida Society of Goldsmiths and co-founder of the Jewelry Arts Group at the Visual Arts Center. She studied enameling under Karen Cohen and Linda Darty.
Bobbie Brown
Wire
Bobbie has been doing wirecraft since 1990 and has studied and taught wire wrapping since that time to the Jacksonville Gem & Mineral Society, Duval County Adult Education, bead shops and private classes. She received "Best in Show" in 1990 Jacksonville Fair, Gems and Minerals.
Pat Brown
Wire
Pat has been a wire artist since 1995. She teaches for the Cobb County Gem & Mineral Society and in her studio. Pat sells her wire art at fine art festivals and at gem and mineral shows.
Chuck Bruce
Inlay
With a background in interior design and fashion merchandising, Chuck turned his passion to jewelry. He has taken classes in cabochons, advanced chain making, lost wax casting, opals, inlay, intarsia, silver I & II, and spool knitting from William Holland, various workshops from the Society of Midwest Metalsmiths, and classes from Indianapolis Arts Center and FC Drea Design. He has spent 9 years silversmithing/lapidary as a Midwest regional artist in Indiana and teaching the last 5 years at various locations.
Carol Burks
Carol has studied design concepts under a state artist for the former USSR, as well as lapidary arts at various teaching institutes while developing her own unique style. Her class focus is on creative flexibility and individuality of design. She started teaching at William Holland in 1997.