Bios

Sally Stevens

Sally at workSally Stevens is an artist and jewelry designer with nearly 40 years of experience in a variety of art forms. After spending many years pursuing decorative painting and photography, she has for the past decade teamed with her daughter Shannon, an experienced lamp work artist. Sally uses her creative metal working skills and the torch worked beads that Shannon makes to produce a unique line of jewelry pieces. She reports that her inspiration comes from the wide array of impressive beads that her daughter creates. Although many of her skills have been hard earned as the result of trial and error, Sally learned her basic wire wrapping skills from Connie Fox’s website tutorials. She credits her emergence as a metal work artist to her classes with Beth Carey and a semester at the Maryland Instidtute College of Art. Sally attained her PMC Certification and has added this medium to her repertoire of skills.  She shares her talents by teaching locally and at nationwide shows. She has appeared on Beads, Baubles and Jewels discussing her work. Her work has been published in several trade journals, among them, Step By Step Wire, Lapidary Journal, Bead Unique, Step by Step Beads, The Flow Magazine, Stringing, Art and Design of Metal Clay, Metal Clay Magazine, Bead Design Studio and Easy Wire. Sally sells her work at bead shows primarily in the Mid-Atlantic region and on her website. Samples of her work can be viewed on her website www.sunroomstudiosonline.com. Sally can also be reached at sunroomstudios@aol.com .

Shannon Steele

Shannon at workShannon is an accomplished lampwork bead artist with work published in several trade magazines. Interested in art from a young age, she first learned about lamp working in 1995 when she studied with Judith Conway and Cindy Jenkins. She began to pursue this art form seriously in 2002. She further developed her skills while studying with Lisa St. Martin, Leah Fairbanks, Larry Scott, Chad Trent and Tom and Sage Holland. She is inspired by the colors and forms of nature, as many of her beads reflect. Frogs and flowers and organic shapes are some favorites. Shannon has become proficient with metal clay and has been recognized for her accomplishments in this medium by the PMC Guild Annual, Art and Design of Metal Clay, Art Clay World and Metal Clay Magazine.

Shannon received a bachelor’s degree in Art in 2001, and a master’s degree in Education the following year. When not at the torch, she can be found teaching art in an Anne Arundel County, Maryland elementary school.