From the most intricate art jewelry and intimate art objects to architectural scale metalsmithing, Victoria creates timeless treasures in metal, stone, and pigment that delight and inspire. Each piece is painstakingly crafted in millennea old techniques from ancient Egypt, Classical Greece, and the Silk Road. For Victoria, there are no shortcuts to fine craft. Every clasp, chain link, and fitting is hand fabricated. Each piece of meticulously crafted art takes weeks, months and sometimes years to complete.
She begins with an idea, inspired by her love astronomy, cosmology, and ancient and Medieval art, and architecture from both the East and the West. She sketches, sometimes creating multiple paper maquettes for complex, dimensional designs, and, only when she is satisfied that she has brought something truly new and unique to her influences from the past, she dives into the material to begin the process of creative chaos into physical order,
Victoria brings over three decades of expertise in the visual and performing arts to her work. Her passion for preserving knowledge has brought about a renaissance for thousands of people by making her processes for rare, ancient, metalsmithing techniques, available to others through her workshops, videos, books, and online classes.
Victoria’s work is collected and exhibited worldwide by people who value unique design and fine craftspersonship.
Bio
Victoria Lansford is a polymath, internationally known for her meticulous and original metalwork, as well as her illumination, calligraphic, and unique book work. An established writer of non fiction and instructional material, Victoria has created a world wide renaissance for ancient Metalsmithing techniques through her videos, books, and workshops.
Her award winning artwork ranges in scale from wearable art jewelry and hand illuminated artist books to bespoke architectural metal installations for one of the world’s largest super yachts. Her art has been widely exhibited, including at the Museum of Contemporary Craft, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Wayne Arts Center, the Mulvane Art Museum, the von Liebig Art Center, Houston Center for Contemporary Crafts, Rochester Institute of Technology, and the Georgia Museum and in numerous publications, including the Lark 500 book series, Metalsmith and Jewelry Artist magazines, Repousse and Chasing (Brynmorgen Press), On Body and Soul: Contemporary Amulets to Armor (Schiffer Publishing) and on Home and Garden Television.
Victoria created the metals program and served as head of the Metalsmithing Department at Spruill Center for the Arts, Atlanta from 1997-2004, was an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee, and served as a 2015 Saul Bell Design Award finals judge.
Her instructional publications in the series, Metal Techniques of Bronze Age Masters, including Russian Filigree (DVD, 2006), Rings (DVD, 2008), All Chained Up (paperback, 2008), Eastern Repoussé and Chasing (DVD, 2009) and her iPhone™ app, iMakeJewelry have sold throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas.
Victoria earned her Bachelor of Arts in jewelry design and silversmithing at Georgia State University in 1993 where she studied with Richard Mafong and Gia Gogishvilli. Her artwork is in private collections around the world and is available in art galleries and through this website. She creates and lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
Read more about Victoria’s inspiration…
Read Victoria’s blog Crafting an Artful Life: Imaginative Musings on Creativity