Joan Tenenbaum: Goldsmith, Anthropological Jeweler, Jewelry Teacher

Joan in her studio

From the age of 13 Joan’s first love was always making jewelry. However, her path led at first to an academic life. Joan received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Research for her dissertation took her to a tiny village in Alaska where she lived with Athabaskan Indians and wrote a grammar and dictionary of their language. She also compiled 24 stories for her book Dena’ina Sukdu’a: Traditional Stories of the Tanaina Athabaskans. She later lived with Yup’ik and Iñupiaq Eskimos in several other villages, teaching and coordinating programs for the University of Alaska. During all these years, she continued to make jewelry and never gave up her dream to one day be a full-time artist. In 1990 Joan moved to Washington State, where she now focuses on her jewelry and teaching.

Joan was already winning awards for her jewelry when she was in high school in Detroit, Michigan. She has continued to add to her knowledge and skills, studying in such varied places as the University of Mexico, the Craft Students League in New York, the University of Alaska and in Portland, Oregon with a private mentor. She has shared her knowledge by teaching jewelry at the University of Alaska in Anchorage, in workshops and with many private students.

Joan’s work consists of detailed, culture- and nature-inspired wearable pieces that are hand fabricated using precious metals and gemstones. She uses such techniques as engraving, roller texturing, fold forming, mokume gane, granulation and stone setting to create the fascinating textures, colors and contrasts that narrate her work. Many of these pieces are part of a series exploring a theme, and each is individually hand made. Her native-inspired pieces frequently take the form of a mask or human figure, symbols of the spirituality in the cultures in which she lived, or are translations of ancient artifacts. In these pieces she pays homage to some of the last remaining hunting societies, which she feels have been kept alive by their deep connection with the Arctic land and animals that support them. Her pieces that speak of landscape and animals carry environmental messages. In all her work she is able to convey the interplay of delicacy and vastness that she observes.

Joan’s work is shown in galleries nationwide and has been featured in Ornament, Lapidary Journal, American Craft, American Style, Niche, AJM and Metalsmith magazines.