Prentice Gallery Fine Art and Custom Picture Framing

Information may not be reliable

I was born in San Francisco and transplanted to Ohio in the early 1950's. My father, Bill, was an Architect and my mother, Shirley, a painter. So, I came by my talent naturally.

I am a self-taught Gold/Silversmith. I have used these talents in my retail jewelry store for the last 30 years. My "roots" have always been calling me back, therefore I have returned to the Northern California Coast to pursue my dreams of creating and designing works of art in jewelry and precious metal sculptures. My wife Susan, and I currently reside in Irish Beach.

For the past thirty years I have been primarily, designing commissioned pieces and custom work for individuals. In addition, I do a great deal of repair work, especially as a silversmith. There seems to be a lot of jewelers, where I used to live that could "sell" silver jewelry but not silversmiths who could repair the jewelry once it was sold. Over the years I have performed restorations on antique flatware and jewelry for many antique dealers throughout Ohio.
The majority of my jewelry is often designed with a general concept in mind. However, while creating a piece, my surroundings, and the metals and stones in which I am working with, influence me to the desired end result.

When designing for an individual the aura of that person plays a part in the creation that takes place. This same concept is used in the carving of my wax designs. The designs just seem to flow from the wax, as I see something in my mind, and everything else is cut away.

I work with all types of stones; be it a natural specimen, a faceted stone, or one of the many varieties of cabochons, (precious stones of convex, hemispherical, or oval forms, polished but not cut into facets).

I believe jewelry should be an adornment to the human body, just as a painting is to a room, or a sculpture is to that special place in a home, building, or yard. My works-of-art jewelry or treasured precious metal sculptures are designed for today's artistically minded consumers.

Currently, I am a GIA Association member, (Gemological Institute of America) and a member of the Gualala Arts Center and Gualala Arts North Coast Artists Guild and a member of the Mendocino Arts Center.

My works have been featured on the television program, Cleveland PM Magazine, for creative, designer jewelry. There were, also, articles published in the North Coast Magazine, Crane's Business Magazine, and local papers of Akron, Ohio. In the past five years, I participated as a judge for three dimensional art and jewelry classification at the Hardesty Park Art Show in Akron, Ohio. In order to stay in touch with the very latest technology in the GIA jewelry trade I have taken numerous GIA courses over the years.