A Gallery of Handmade Unique Fine Jewelry by Artist Todd Alan home  one-of-a-kind originals  earrings  bracelets  pendants  sets  about the artist    contact  guarantee  ordering and shipping  links  site map About The Artist Jewelry Artist Todd Alan     Todd Alan Todd Alan:  the Artist and His Life  "After becoming intrigued by gemstones and crystals in 1986, I started teaching myself jewelry work and gemstone properties.  During that time, I found a crystal that I mounted in steel wire and wore it as a necklace.  Friends soon asked me to make one for them.  So, I purchased some sterling silver wire and began my experiments.  After I had created a dozen or so pieces, I displayed them at an event where they sold well.        After experimenting with pounds of copper and bronze wire, I began to discover my own style of working wire.  I avoided the study of existing styles because I wanted to develop my own style without being too influenced by others.  For the next few years, I kept making pendants and earrings with crystals and tumbled stones while looking for ways to make rings and nicer jewelry with faceted stones.           Wayne Wirebender   By chance or destiny, in 1988 I found myself merchanting at a show next to a great wire worker named Wayne Wirebender.  Wayne could shape copper and silver wire into amazing wire jewelry as well as intricate, realistic sculptures.  After several days of getting to know each other, Wayne helped me learn my first braid.  For many years after that, him and I would meet at different shows and exchange ideas with each other.  If not for his sad death years ago, I'm sure we would still be meeting at shows and contributing to each other's work like artists of an ancient guild.  His kind sharing gave me the building blocks I needed to discover many different types of braids.  My jewelry became more and more elaborate.  I progressed from being a wire wrapper to a jeweler who uses wire as a structural element in his jewelry.     With the birth of my first daughter in 1990, our family-owned storefront art gallery in Peninsula, Ohio, opened.  During the decade (Oct 1990-Oct 2000) that we operated Creations Gallery in the Cuyahoga Valley, I honed my artistry at a bench there and dreamed of a day when I could move to Southern Ohio with my family and continue my artistic life. I kept experimenting with ways to make my jewelry stronger and more interesting.  I bought a torch and started teaching myself soldering and fusing.  Because of my long experience in working with round wire, I found ways to melt little sections in drips by fusing pieces of gold together without solder. .           I later found out this technique is called "fusing."  Very few jewelers use this technique because of the split-second timing it takes to melt the right amount of metal ends together without accidentally melting the entire piece of jewelry.  For many years now, I have worked on mastering this art in combination with my unique style of shaping and bending round strands of gold.       We became known in the area for fine and exotic gemstones and my distinctive jewelry.  Our store was quite beautiful and glittered with stained glass hanging throughout.  We also featured the work of potters, beaders, woodworkers, and weavers.  At that time, downtown Peninsula was filled with galleries and artists' studios.  Along with other professional artists and local entrepreneurs, we became founding members in the Peninsula Area Chamber of Commerce.  We were warmly accepted in the community and our second daughter was born there.         While Creations Gallery was operating, we also showed our work at many events throughout the year and throughout the country.  We traveled to many shows on different themed circuits - art shows, gem and mineral shows, fantasy and progressive culture events, and renaissance/medieval festivals.  We exhibited quite often at large international gem and mineral showings in Cleveland and Columbus area where I found wonderful stones for my jewelry and gained a vast knowledge of various gemstones.       In October of 2000, much to the dismay of our loyal customers, we closed our store and moved to Southern Ohio. Since then, I have been making my heirloom jewelry from my studio in the rolling foothill of the Appalachian Mountains - dreams do come true! With my family and community, I have been very, very happy to have a nurturing and beautiful natural place to live my life.  I now work at my bench making jewelry for our internet customers.              My work is always evolving because I don't like repetition and am always seeking new ways to create new additions to my style. I think of my jewelry surviving as heirloom pieces treasured for generations, which I believe has helped me originate a truly unique and beautiful form of fine jewelry unlike any other work I have seen anywhere.     Via our website, we continue our long-standing reputation of courteous and personal customer service.  We understand how important, personal, and symbolic this kind of jewelry is for people.  Our decade of experience from owning and operating a retail storefront taught us how to provide good service and good quality products to our internet customers.   We realize that we still operate a store in a sense - we just show our work in a virtual gallery instead and people from all over the world now enjoy finding and shopping for my jewelry.         I am very excited about this new website and my original one-of-a-kind gallery. For the last decade or so, since the closing of our gallery, I have focused mostly on making unique braided wedding and engagement rings. Through this time, I refined my skills to a point that I can originate intricate details and mount very small diamonds and stones. I am now taking all the delicate skills that I have acquired over the past 25+ years to move back into making exclusive pieces of art. Inspired by the patterns of nature, my unique art form has evolved into my signature style - each piece of jewelry is a miniature work of art. As I create each original piece, I will be displaying them here on this site.   Thank you for taking the time to learn a little of my history as an art jeweler.  If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to call me, facebook me, or e-mail me." -- Todd Alan www.handwovenbands.com www.toddalanstudios.com       Artist Todd Alan creates his pieces one at a time. This jewelry is not cast or mass produced, but exclusive, individually handcrafted creations. Todd Alan has been a full-time metalsmith creating heirloom jewelry since 1986.  After operating an art gallery for over a decade, Todd has now settled in Southern Ohio. From there, he sells his one-of-a-kind art jewelry to fine galleries, specialty shops, and on-line customers all over the world. Inspired by the patterns of nature, Todd's unique art-form has evolved into his signature style - each piece of jewelry is a miniature work of art. Todd Alan Studios  740 249 4442  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Todd-Alan-Studios/255979147775923 Braided Wedding Rings: www.handwovenbands.com Email: todd@toddalanstudios.com   We take all major Credit Cards.