Jera Rose Petal Lodge is a jewelry designer who works primarily with steel and silver. Her wire-based artworks range from small-scale production and limited-edition work to large-scale, sculptural jewelry pieces. The forms she uses are frequently geometric in nature, utilizing patterns and repetition to create bold graphic shapes. Design and function are Jera’s primary concerns, and the strength and durability of steel allows her to create forms that are lightweight and visually delicate, yet sturdy and easily wearable. She often uses cold connections to introduce elements of motion, sound and playfulness into her jewelry.
Jera received her BFA in jewelry/metalsmithing from Edinboro University in 2012. Since graduating, she has worked as a jewelry production assistant, as a summer studio technician at Peters Valley Craft Center in New Jersey, and, most recently, as a summer staff assistant at Haystack Mountain School of Craft. In 2013, she started her studio jewelry business and exhibited in Craft Boston’s Spring Show as an invited artist. She was recently published in 500 Art Jewelry Necklaces.
During her residency at HCCC, Jera plans to continue with her current bodies of work, dealing with jewelry as a set of non-static objects whose significance can change when placed on or removed from the body. She will also pursue new work that explores the pluralistic results of individual creative decisions that occur during the process of making. She will be with HCCC from September, 2014, through April, 2015. To learn more about Jera, visit www.jeralodge.com.
