About Julie

Award winning metalsmith Julie Sanford has always had an interest in rocks and jewelry. Her dad was a serious rockhound who did lapidary work, silver jewelry fabrication and made a living electroplating organic jewelry components. He passed away when Julie was 16 and she then decided all she wanted to was become a jewelry maker, to use the tools, metals and stones that he collected and cut by hand.
Julie started her career in fine jewelry retail, working for a well-established AGS store and began taking classes at the local art institute. Her formal education includes a Bachelor of Arts in Art Education from Western Michigan University. She attended classes at The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, the Oxbow Summer Program of the Chicago Institute of Arts, Kendall College of Art and Design and The Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts in San Francisco.

Julie has been creating quality bench-made jewelry for over thirty-five years. She enjoys combining organic elements and textures with contrasting contemporary details creating one-of-a-kind pieces that are fabricated, soldered, fused, formed, hammered and reticulated with various precious metals, final finishes and extraordinary gemstones. Her work has been featured in galleries, books, magazines and museum stores.

Julie’s teaching experience includes visual art classroom instruction with an emphasis on curriculum integration, art history, ceramics and jewelry. Julie also has extensive experience leading jewelry related classes and workshops at national trade shows, conferences, art institutions, technical schools, universities and private studios.

In 2007, Julie created Studio JSD, a teaching studio, artist community and gallery located in Grand Haven, MI. The studio supports an exciting, vibrant, collective of makers as well as local and regional instructors, artists and students. They support two private studios, 8 private benches, and 10+ instructors with more than 100 class sessions and hundreds of students each year. The studio is about the people and the community, their stories and their journeys as makers.

And check out the Jewelry Artist Podcast interview with Katie Hacker

Learn more about Julie and her creative process in this recorded interview with Tonya Davidson of The Jewelry Makers Guild