Craft – New Orleans
My name is Michelle Lightcap and I am from St. Bernard, Louisiana which is about 20 miles from New Orleans. My primary medium is fine metals, but I occasionally will incorporate textiles into some of my pieces. I first became interested when I was younger and I began making jewelry from hemp. Years later I decided I wanted to evolve my jewelry making to using metals which then lead me to finding a college I could earn a degree in metal working. I graduated May 2015 from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania with a Bachelors in Crafts with a Specialization in Fine Metals. With this I not only learned how to make jewelry but to manipulate metal that I could use it for sculptural purposes as well. I also was able to take classes where I could learn how to use other mediums that I could incorporate into my pieces. Right now I have been making jewelry that incorporates using wire wrapping techniques and I have also been working on wire wrapping trees and wall art. I like to keep learning and using different techniques to keep evolving any of my artwork that I make. I lot of my inspiration comes from the different sides of New Orleans that you can see such as the architecture, culture, and nature that are unique to the city. I also use Japan as another source because to me I feel that just like New Orleans, Japan has its own beauty that can only be found in that country.