Kate Dannenberg
Kate Dannenberg is a jeweler and metal-smith from Philadelphia, PA. Despite growing up in the city, Kate spent much of her childhood outdoors exploring and learning directly from the natural world. Kate studied Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design at the School for American Crafts at the Rochester Institute of Technology. At the core of her work is a belief in the importance of the handmade and thoughtful craftsmanship. While her work is highly sculptural, wearability, comfort, and function are key to her designs.
Evolution presents the seemingly contradictory ideas of infinite possibility unde r limiting conditions; this constrained infinity fascinates me as I see it reflected in making. The result of these limitations is a convergence and recurrence of forms from different origins. This convergence of forms occurs both in nature and in human culture. Thus, some values seem to be constant throughout human history and cross-culturally; these values include our fixation with precious materials and our desire to adorn our bodies and the spaces we occupy, as well as a resulting desire to collect and study objects from the world around us. Aesthetically informed by direct study of natural forms, the scientific methods employed by Carl Linnaeus and Charles Darwin, and by museums of both cultural and scientific artifacts, this body of work explores the convergence of forms and values.