Workshops

As members of the Board for the Metal Arts Society of Southern California we have had the opportunity to work with some of the very best teaching artists in the U.S. Without reservation, Victoria Lansford is among them. Her workshops are presented in a clear and engaging manner that is both highly informative and entertaining. As students, our skill-set was dramatically improved during the course of a workshop. We were able to put the techniques we learned to immediate use, and made the cost of the workshop back on the first piece we sold. 2Roses

I just spent the most wonderful week-end with one of the best teachers that I have ever had the pleasure of learning from. Victoria is a true artist and shares her gift teaching with patience, passion, good humor, and enthusiasm...she has an infectious laugh, and you can't help laughing with her while she encourages you to achieve levels of skill that you didn't know you had. 11 other jewelry students and myself came into her workshop on Saturday having never picked up a hammer to do repousse ever before and all learned more from her in this one weekend than we thought possible. She spent time with each of us, pointing out better ways to solve whatever problems that we were having pushing the metal around to make it do our bidding. Victoria, I can't wait until you come back to us! Patti D'Arbanville Artist, Actress

Victoria teaches techniques used for millennia to create many of the great works of art one can see in museums. Though these techniques had fallen into disuse due to their labor intensive nature, Victoria has found many tricks that streamline and improve the processes, and she uses them to make strikingly contemporary pieces rooted in the ancient world. One will never go into a hardware store with the same mind set again. Students are given a series of challenges and opportunities to grow their own inner voices and are encouraged to create works unique to them, at their levels of ability. The number of places one can learn these skills in the US can be counted conveniently on one's thumbs. In Japan, Victoria would be considered a national treasure, and she would be funded to pass these skills on to the next generation. Al Boyers, Metalsmith