Sara Krempel

For over 45 years, Sara has been working in non-ferrous metals. Her fascination with metal working continues because the number of techniques and the combinations of techniques for working with metal is an endless exploration.

Sara Krempel is professor emeritus at Central Oregon Community College where she taught jewelry/metalwork, ceramics and three-dimensional basic design from 1990-2012.

My Process…

Bi-metal jewelry

The techniques used for the patterned jewelry include using a torch to fuse silver and copper sheets together to make a single sheet of metal called ‘bi-metal’. Then I select an area of one of my black and white photographs of textures or patterns. For example, sand ripples on the coast or cracks in wood; or my hand-marbled paper. The selected area of the image is transferred to the copper side of the bi-metal and prepared for etching. The white part of the image is etched off the copper until it meets the underlying silver layer. The copper that remains is what was the black part of the photo. The metal is outlined with a suitable shape, sawed and formed to make rings, bracelets, pendants, or earrings. The finished pieces are occasionally enameled (fusing colors of powdered glass into the recesses) or have a chemical patina applied to add a contrast in color and enhance the surface.

“Special Occasion” jewelry

The techniques for this body of jewelry include etched images from my black and white photographs to create texture on the silver. Then the textured silver and untextured silver are sawed into specific shapes and soldered together. The finished pieces are sterling or fine silver and occasionally include gemstone accents.
The designs for these one-of-a-kind “special occasion” pieces begin with an evolving series of sketches. My goal is to develop a design with shapes that make a visually strong whole, but which is composed of opposites: organic and geometric, textured and untextured, positive and negative.

Images of her work are published in:

Sara Krempel 1

Art Jewelry magazine; March 2014

Sara Krempel 2

Pewter Studio, Contemporary Projects and Techniques; Lisa Slovis Mandel, (2010)
ISBN-10: 1600591914 ISBN-13: 9781600591914
Publisher: Lark Books, New York, NY

Sara Krempel 3

Chasing and Repousee, Methods Ancient and Modern; Nancy Megan Corwin , (2009)
ISBN-10 : 1929565321 ISBN-13 : 978-1929565320
Publisher : Brynmorgen Press; Brunswick, ME

 

Sara Krempel 4

500 Metal Vessels, Contemporary Explorations of Containment; Marthe Le Van, ed., (2007)
ISBN-10 : 1579908764 ISBN-13 : 978-1579908768
Publisher: Lark Books, New York, NY

Sara Krempel 5

PMC Annual, Exceptional Work in Metal Clay; (2007)
ISBN-13 : 978-1929565252
Publisher : PMC Guild, Inc. Brunswick, ME

Sara Krempel 6

Metalsmiths and Mentors; Chazen Museum of Art, (2006)
ISBN-10 : 093290081X ISBN-13 : 978-0932900814 ASIN : B001E0322I
Publisher: Chazen Museum of Art; Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison