Leigh Ann Hurst has been making jewelry from all kinds of metals for the last 15 years.
“I love metals, I always have,” she said.
From necklaces to earrings, to bracelets, Hurst hand crafts each piece she needs to create the jewelry. Her process of transforming metal into art takes all kinds of tricks: sanders, hammers and anvils, tumblers and more; even paper can help give metal a one-of-a-kind texture.
“I really like to use gutter screen,” she said.
Her forge work is a far cry from where she started.
“My mother showed up with beads, like a box of beads, because she had been entertaining my niece and she said, ‘come do this with me!”
Hurst took metalwork classes from fellow local artists like Connie Ulrich. She found her style from there.
I sat with her as she hammered dainty pieces with equal parts force and precision. She jokingly said, “This is what it’s all about!”
This is her favorite part of the process.
“Forging is my favorite thing so this is what I really love to do,” said.
Faith has an influence on her work, like her signature elongated cross necklaces.
“I want it to mean something,” Hurst said. “I want it to be more than a fashion statement piece of jewelry.”
Her Decatur studio is filled with all kinds of jewelry, no two pieces identical. She also sells at boutiques and galleries in states across the South.
“I like to say I’m a jewelry artist, not a bench jeweler,” she said. “I just love making little pieces of art that you can wear.”
Like any artist, her product often evolves as she works.
“I really just like starting on a piece kind of like a painting, you start working on it and you start thinking, oh I want to change that. Something that starts as a bracelet might end up as a necklace or earrings at the end,” Hurst said.
This fluidity and originality is just one of the reasons she is such a hit at Panoply and comes back year after year.
“I start out with this wonderful plan and as the time gets closer and closer I work a lot harder and harder!”
At the end of the day, she said no show is about the number of pieces she’s able to bring with her.
“I’d rather have my best work,” she said.
Hurst said there is one thing she hopes for at each show she does.
“The biggest part of any art show, including Panoply, is meeting my customers,” she said. I’ve been doing this 15 years now and I’ll see someone pop in my booth and they’ll show me something they bought maybe 10 years ago and they’re still wearing it and enjoying it. They are my canvas for my art!”
Hurst will have a booth at Panoply all weekend long. Panoply doors open at 5:00 p.m. Friday evening. Panoply is 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on Sunday.