Victoria Lansford is an alchemical artist who coaxes cold silver and gold into a filigree dance, draws with fire, and hammers soft curves into hard copper.
Victoria Lansford is an artist and educator who combines historical metalsmithing and illumination processes with cutting edge technology to create contemporary interpretations of centuries-old craft forms. With a creative career spanning over 30 years, her genre-busting and award-winning art explores feminine power and ranges in scale from intricate art jewelry and miniatures to architectural metalwork.
Exhibitions and publications of Victoria’s artwork include the Museum of Contemporary Craft, Rochester Institute of Technology, the Georgia Museum, the Lark 500 series, Metalsmith and Jewelry Artist magazines, Home and Garden Television, and the monograph Radiant Echoes: The Metal Mastery of Victoria Lansford. Recent large-scale commissions include a copper room divider and Eastern repousse doors for one of the world’s largest superyachts and the digital/hardbound book Giving Voice, which she wrote, animated, and illustrated.
She has taught and mentored thousands of metalsmiths around the globe through her online school, sold-out workshops, instructional series Metal Techniques of Bronze Age Masters, and iPhoneTM app iMakeJewelry. As a result, she has created a renaissance for metal techniques, including Russian filigree, granulation, and Eastern repoussé. She is currently working to research the dissemination of metalsmithing techniques through ancient and Medieval cultures.
Victoria lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband Chris, son Skyler, and two Shelties Boudica and Elizabeth.
Involvement and Education
Technical Education Coordinator and SNAG Links Coordinator, Society of North American Goldsmiths
Saul Bell Design Award Judge (2015)
Adjunct Professor, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Creator of Metals Program and Head of Metalsmithing Department, Spruill Center for the Arts, Atlanta
Jewelry Design and Silversmithing, College of the Arts, Georgia State University (BA)
SOME VERY RANDOM STUFF ABOUT VICTORIA
Favorite Artists
Leonardo da Vinci
Vincent Van Gogh
Albrecht Durer
Rene Lalique
Nick Bantock
Maurice Sendak
Edward Gorey
Charles Schultz
Jim Henson
Marie Zimmerman
Mary Lee Hu
Bobbie Crow
Whoever made Tutankhamun’s mummy mask
Favorite Composers/Musicians/Bands
Beethoven
Mozart
Hildegard von Bingen
Dave Brubeck
Steely Dan
Ella Fitzgerald
Miles Davis
Joe Sample
Diana Krall
Yo-Yo Ma
Fleetwood Mac
Parliament/Funkadelic
Favorite Movies
Rebecca
Vertigo (both Hitchcock)
Women on the Verge of Nervous Breakdown (Almodovar)
The Color Purple (Spielberg)
Casablanca (Curtiz)
Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (Mira Nair)
Muppets from Space (Hill)
Top Hat (Sandrich)
Mo’ Better Blues (Lee)
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (Mannelli)
The Ritz (Lester)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Gilliam)
Like Water for Chocolate (Arau)
Favorite Books
Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak)
The Name of the Rose (Umberto Ecco)
The Venetian’s Wife (Nick Bantock)
Murder on the Orient Express (Agatha Christie)
The Doubtful Guest (Edward Gorey)
The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
Favorite Choreographer
Alvin Ailey
Copper, hand lettered and mixed media over printed photo montages of original collages
Featured in Lark Book’s 500 Handmade Books, Vol 2, juried by Julie Chen.
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Some Odd Facts
I’m barely 5’2″ but am frequently told I “look bigger on TV.”
I love nature but hate camping. I can ride a horse a bit but am a terrible swimmer. I am highly coordinated but am incapable of skiing (water or snow…just don’t even ask). If you throw a ball (or anything else at me), I will probably duck, for that is what intelligent people do.
If Apple ever fails, I’ll use an IBM Selectric Typewriter before I’ll buy a PC though this has nothing to do with why many of my books and apps only work on Apple products.
I am a practical idealist and a practical pacifist and can’t get enough deeply disturbing or convoluted British whodunits in book, radio drama, or TV formats.
One of my favorite moments in time was getting to hear Stephen Hawking deliver his paper “The Universe in a Nutshell” in person.
Despite being highly claustrophobic, I’ve been inside two of the three Pyramids at Giza…needs must.
There is no such thing as too much dark chocolate.
Some Favorite Spaces on Earth
Valley of the Kings – Egypt
Fortnum & Mason – London (A must if you like tea and all the works. Puts tea at the Ritz to shame.)
Tea & Sympathy – NYC (Ditto. If Miss Marple ducked into a tea shop to get out of the rain, she would step into this place. It also puts tea at the Ritz to shame, but in a mismatched china, killer scones, comfort food at Hogwart’s, shepherds pie, and bubble & squeak kind of way.)
Pike’s Market – Seattle (Just walk in and breathe that smell of spices and fish!
Elliot Bay Bookstore – Seattle
Ashmolean Museum – Oxford, England
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum – Boston, MA,
Rio Grande – Albuquerque, NM (If you are a metalsmith or jeweler, this is the ultimate candy store. Beware: ‘tool porn’ abounds. You may discover pliers or a hydraulic press you can’t live without.)
Michael C. Carlos Museum – Emory University, Atlanta
The Agyptisches Museum Berlin (Except it’s not there anymore. Everything got moved to the Neue Museum)
Zoo Station – Berlin, circa 1990 (Never been half as cool since they cleaned it up)
The Louvre – Paris (Yes, even I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid.)
The front terrace of the Winter Palace hotel – Luxor, Egypt
The Old Cataract hotel lobby and veranda – Aswan, Egypt
The Japanese garden at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens
The Fox Theater – Atlanta.
One of my favorite things to do in life is find independent art supply stores all over the world.
Here are a few places I literally dream of buying plane tickets to just so I can shop in person (maybe one day again…)
Kremer Pigments – NYC (If you go, be prepared to fall in love with color like never before.)
L. Cornelissen & Son – London (Near the British Museum. If Ollivander’s Wand Shop carried art supplies, it would look like Cornelissen’s)
Shepherd’s London – London, obviously (Paper, paper, and more paper, plus other book binding/artist book needs)
Binder’s Art Supply – Atlanta (My local. Been shopping there since I was 12, seriously.)
Sennelier – Quai Voltaire, Paris (The store, not just the brand. Open since 1887, not only will you leave with gorgeous stuff, you can’t help but feel the ghosts of your influences.)
Discover more on Victoria’s blog: Crafting an Artful Life: Imaginative Musings on Creativity
