About - my bio in art
I'm Nancy L. T. Hamilton (middle initials stand for Lee Tool or as others will testify, the L. T. stands for "Loose Tongue") and I am a jeweler, a jewelry designer and an artist. I create jewelry that I call "modern romantic". My jewelry tells stories.
I use a variety of different materials in creating my work. The design dictates the type of material that is used.
The Past
Mom and Dad and little Nancy. Here's Susan (one of the sisters) and me. By the time the picture on the right was taken, I'd already decided to be an artist.
Do you think my mother used a "bit" too much tinsel on that tree?
High School
Let's just skip this part. It wasn't fun.
College
In college I majored in fine art, interior design and archaeology. I couldn't choose just one.
Such an old graduate, you might say? I ended up spending over 10 years here!
Graduation day.
The Art Car and The Mid-Life Crisis Center
I also became an art car artist and a performance artist.
The Street Leopard was a 1979 Chevy Malibu and spent her last 9 years as an art car. I formed a group of crazy woman called the Mid-Life Crisis Center and we danced our hearts out on the streets of the west. We won 21 first place awards and numerous second place awards (we didn't count those as wins). Finally, we ended up dancing on a trailer and I realized we were getting too old. I guess I could form the Senior Crisis Center but I'm too tired.
Here is the Mid-Life Crisis Center after winning first place at the Santa Rosa Rose Parade.
Jewelry
I wanted to make jewelry but was NOT going back to college. Nope, no way, you couldn't make me! So, I became a stained glass artist instead. Eventually, I noticed that the stained glass windows were getting smaller and smaller. Soon, I was making stained glass pendants. (I got really good at cutting tiny pieces of glass!) Deep down, I knew that I really wanted to work with metal, but that school thing bugged me. So, instead, I beaded, I wove beads, I crocheted beads. I made ribbon flowers, did Irish crochet. I made polymer clay beads. I strung beads. I wrapped wire. But, I knew that what I really wanted was metal! So, after much hemming and hawing, I dragged myself to the registrars office and signed up for that damned jewelry program at our local college. Linda Weiss, my teacher, led me down the metal road. I knew immediately that I wanted this! After my first class, I started settting up my studio in our 16' X 16' storage shed and we hadn't even started our first class project yet! I bought tools that I didn't know the use for and a small propane torch even though I didn't know how to solder. After much experimenting and a whole load of books for reference, I learned to solder. Linda saved me from completely reinventing the wheel and taught me the rest of what I needed to know. The books still help and I often jump headlong into stuff I shouldn't be playing with but, who cares! I'm having a blast. When I tell people that I have to work, I am actually saying: " get out of my way, I want to go play".
Today
After about 10 years, I'm still in that studio I set up. Except, that now, the studio has totally taken over the storage shed and I finally know what all of those tools are for. I've added many, many new tools to my collection. Actually, I'm a self proclaimed "tool whore". I told myself the other day that I have pretty much everything that I could ever need and should now stop buying tools. But, immediately, I knew that I was lying - there's always new tools or a new skill to master. Who did I think I was kidding?
I work with a four legged studio assistant - LuLoo who is murder when I work with the metal clays. I'm constantly picking fur out of everything!
Bella LuLoo
As you can see from this site, I work with Metals of all types and do all sorts of cruel and unusual things to it: bending, forming, hammering, etching, coloring, rolling and drilling. It rarely complains and always delights. Guess I'll keep doing it.
