Dawn Middleton

Dawn Middleton uses words like harmony, natural and beautiful to describe her jewelry and studio in Greenville, along the Ohio River, and says her connection to nature started at an early age.

“As a child, I remember being entranced by the organic and whimsical designs of the earth,” she says. “Paying homage to this in my craft brings me daily joy and great energy to my life.”

Dawn says ideas “just flow,” every time she steps into her in-home studio, typically four to five days a week. For materials, she assembles natural stones, fine and sterling silver, bronze, brass, copper, and precious and semi-precious stones.

“Sometimes I don’t know what I will create until I sit down at the bench and start to form a new piece of jewelry,” she explains.

Interestingly, it was Ford Motor Company that nurtured Dawn early on. She worked as a welder in Ford’s body shop, and left when the company downsized. She went on to study interior design for four years, where she learned she could produce artful objects by applying the shapes, colors and textures of nature to jewelry design.

“This passion and my skill were enhanced through metalsmith classes,” she says. “I am inspired by my natural surroundings, and I love gardening and being one with nature, and my jewelry designs reflect that special part of me.”

Dawn has been metal smithing for only a few years, but her growth and the results have been stunning.

“Handcrafting, actually using my hands, always has attracted me to metal smithing and to the making of jewelry pieces,” she says, “When I light up the torch, design ideas flow to me as I go through the process, and inspiration spills out from my soul. I spend a lot of time ruminating and then I create.”