Karen Karg
For metalsmith and glass artist Karen Karg, the joy of creating is in the process. Coming up with an idea for each piece and using imaginative problem-solving to bring her vision to life is what she loves most about crafting her jewelry line.
Karen fuses layers of colored and dichroic glass, which she cuts into shapes to set like jewels into her work. She uses copper, brass, and argentium silver, known for their tarnish-resistant, nickel-free properties, which give her flexibility in highlighting different hues and characteristics of the glass. With an intuitive sense of color, Karen combines the shades and textures of glass and metal along with freshwater pearls and other materials, letting the vision for her work develop organically.
Combining metalsmithing with glass art is a culmination of the old and the new in Karen’s life. She began her creative pursuits in metalsmithing as a student at North High School in Wichita, Kansas, and later studied at the Hui No‘eau Visual Arts Center in Maui, Hawaii. Karen has explored working creatively in other mediums. She’s published a book of poetry and had her bronze sculptures shown at the Maui Airport. She’s had a successful business selling meditation benches. She’s also sold custom leather-and-wood purses at a gallery in Malibu, California.
When Karen moved back to Wichita, Kansas, and mutual friends introduced her to her future husband, glass artist and sculptor Rollin Karg, she knew nothing about glass. He invited her to learn and encouraged her to combine her metalsmithing experience with glass. Her new jewelry line has taken her lifelong passion for making jewelry, coupled with the new loves in her life, to embody a fun, playful brightness.
Karen enjoys spending time with her friends and family outside of the studio and gallery.
