Monica Deadwiler has been metalsmithing since 2018, working across fabrication, modeling, wax carving, fold forming, die striking, enameling and soft soldering in a range of metals.

Her wearable pieces run in two directions: antique impression dies finished in enamel — champlevé and cloisonné especially — and free-form soldered settings built around natural hand-cut stones. There’s something in those older techniques that keeps pulling her back.

The stones are cut by hand, some by Monica and others by fellow Cleveland-area lapidary artists, so the material is as local as the work.

She came to metalwork later than she’d have liked, after years of putting other things ahead of her own creativity. That shapes what she makes and why she teaches. Through Hermara Creatives, her Cleveland Heights studio, she runs hands-on workshops for people who’ve always wanted to make something and never knew where to start.