Proving Her Metal

A Baltimore-based jewelry designer remains committed to her craft and plans to attend Paris Fashion Week for the first time this fall.

If you’rea woman in Baltimore, there’s a very good chance that you own a “Shana Kroiz”or know someone who does.

Fornearly three decades, Kroiz has decorated women’s fingers, necks, ears andwrists with her sculptural and whimsical pieces of jewelry reminiscent of thesea.

ABaltimore native, Kroiz says she knew she made the right career choice aftercompleting her first project at New York’s prestigious Parsons School of Design— a cuff bracelet of flat, unfinishedbronze.

“I wascompletely hooked once I cut out my design and learned to sand and polish the scrappymetal,” says Kroiz, 51, a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts whodouble-majored in ceramics and jewelry at Parsons.

Everythingabout jewelry inspires and intrigues Kroiz, from the scale and relationship ofa piece to a wearer to the techniques she uses to transform and manipulatematerials sculpturally and with color.

During college, Kroiz says she fell in love withelectroforming, a technique that uses electrodes and electricity to cause achemical reaction. She perfected the technique while pursuing her Master of FineArts at Towson University and continuesto use electroforming, as well as other methods — some traditional, some new — inmuch of her jewelry making.

Kroiz’s earlier pieces often were reminiscent of tools and primitive forms, and better suited for galleries and museums than for personal wearing. Indeed, some of her jewelry has been exhibited at the Museum of Art and Design and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, both in New York. Her work also has been featured in magazines such as Metalsmith and in books such as “The Penland Book of Jewelry: Master Classes in Jewelry Techniques” (Penland) and “500 Brooches: Inspiring Adornments for the Body” (Sterling Publishing).

About a decade ago, Kroiz began designing and selling a line of wearable jewelry that enables her work to be enjoyed more intimately and casually. Working in her home studio in Mount Washington — where she lives with daughter Galya, 17, son Isaac, 13, and husband, Eddie Seidel, owner of Salon 36 in Owings Mills — Kroiz’s work continues to evolve. Recently, she added powder coating to her enamel and electroforming repertoire.

“I useenamel as fields of color, texture and abstract imagery,” she says, “and workwith the powders for all sorts of applications. I often use foils and gold andsilver leaf to create reflective and metaling details in the surfaces.”

The resultis lighter, more durable pieces that combine metals including gold, rose gold, rhodium and sterling silver with such colors as fuchsia,turquoise and white.

In addition to designing and selling her contemporary jewelry, Kroiz teaches at the Baltimore Jewelry Center, an educational nonprofit organization in Station North that she co-founded, and gives specialty classes around the country. She says teaching and supporting new jewelers is a passion for her.

Early in hercareer, Kroiz helped start and served as director of the now-defunct MarylandInstitute College of Art Jewelry Center and director of the Jewelry Center atthe 92nd Street Y in New York. For a time, she regularly commuted to New Yorkto teach at Parsons, her alma mater.

Aself-described Kroiz “junkie,” Owings Mills resident Alyson Friedman owns fivepairs of Kroiz’s earrings. “She’s so talented and contemporary,” says Friedman.“I’ve been following her for years and am always keeping my eyes out for newShanas.”

Besidesmaking elegant jewelry that people occasionally want to buy right off her body,Kroiz has become an expert in self-promotion and marketing. She shows her workat approximately six juried fine arts shows annually, including the AmericanCraft Show in Baltimore, and sells it on her website, on Facebook and Instagram,and at such local galleries as the Rebecca Myers Collection gallery at theVillage of Cross Keys.

Kroiz alsoserves as official jewelry designer for Carlous Palmer of the Baltimore-based CarlousPalmer Designs. She will accompany Palmer, a fellow BSA graduate, and textiledesigner Kirk Shindle to Paris Fashion Week this fall.

Showing at a ParisFashion Week is a lifelong dream of Kroiz’s, and she says she is currentlysketching pieces for the show.

The trip alsowill be a learning experience for several fortunate college students who willaccompany the designers as assistants on the journey. “We want to give them ataste of the process while immersing them in the Paris fashion scene,” Kroizsays.

For information, visit shanakroizjewelry.com.

Faye Rivkin is a Baltimore-based freelancewriter.