Kristina Malcolm - fluxusmetalworks

08/19/2026

i have a piece at Kent State currently!

The School of Art Collection and Galleries is pleased to present “Best of 2026!”

This juried exhibition showcases contemporary fine craft by 69 artists, on view in the CVA, Payto and Crawford Galleries located in the Center for the Visual Arts, Aug. 25 - Oct. 7, 2026. There will be a reception on August 28 from 5-7 p.m.

The exhibition was organized by the Ohio Designer Craftsmen. The Ohio Designer Craftsmen is a statewide organization that engages and enriches the community through high-quality exhibitions, education programs and supports/promotes the professional development of fine craft artists. This year’s exhibition was juried by Carol Sauvion, creator of the Peabody-award-winning PBS series, "Craft in America," and the recently retired executive director of the Craft in America organization. They selected 73 works in clay, glass, metal, wood, fiber and mixed media from nearly 400 entries. Thirteen artists received awards of excellence.

Learn more at the link below ⬇️
https://www.kent.edu/galleries/event/best-2026

Image: She Held Her Breath, mixed media, by April Felipe.

08/14/2026

my next class!

08/09/2026

❤️ introducing my newest obsession, proving myself wrong.
recently, during a class, someone asked if you could cast a tufa mold with stones in place. i immediately said "no way." then i slept on it and then said the next day during class that there might be a way. and a few weeks ago, i finally got a chance to experiment.
this is my first try! and that's a ruby!
= yes, casting sterling in tufa with stones in place!

06/16/2026

i woke up the other morning knowing the grief held within these pieces. this work is not polite. it is not delicate, and it insists on being felt. weight does not pretend. it says: this took something, this mattered. these pieces are about holding what cannot be fixed and transforming what remains.

06/08/2026

yesterday was my 65 slides in 65 minutes Artist Writing and Representation Workshop. if you missed it and are still interested, there's a recording... keep your eye out for a link.
there are still many activities scheduled! make sure and support the artists and check out the show before it closes next weekend!

.groundhog.show

06/05/2026

Akron creative types: this event is free and meant to support Akron Artists even if you haven't started your career yet or don't think you'll be full time. .. and i think i'm funny so i hope it's entertaining and educational.
come see me on Saturday!
groundhog.show

06/02/2026

🌈happy pride y'all! and just in case you haven't heard me geek out about this recently - there no such thing as straight lines, binary systems, or race in nature so get your rainbows on and come celebrate diversity this month in Akron. i'll be personally hosting the Artist Writing Workshop - which i promise won't be as boring as it sounds - on June 6th at 2pm and plenty of other awesome events are scheduled. see you there, Akron! 😘

05/29/2026

it is an honor to be included in Enduring Legacy: Celebrating 25 Years of Ohio Decorative Arts at .

it is an honor to be recognized as an Ohio metalsmith.

it is an honor to have been practicing for more than 30 years

i ponder legacy often.

do i make work that matters?
do i make a big enough impact?
am i contributing something real to the field, to Craft, to Ohio, and to the people who come after me?

i don’t always know the answer. but i do know this: i keep making. i keep teaching. i keep writing. i keep trying to honor silver, Craft history, and the long line of hands that made room for mine.

to be included in this exhibition — alongside so many artists working across glass, fiber, wood, metal, and clay — feels deeply meaningful.

Enduring Legacy: Celebrating 25 Years of Ohio Decorative Arts
May 30 – August 30, 2026
Decorative Arts Center of Ohio, Lancaster, Ohio

Curator Talk 1: Sunday, May 31, 2:00 pm
with Betty Talbott and Tracy Rieger

thank you to the curators and everyone preserving and expanding the story of Ohio decorative arts.

if you're in Columbus this summer stop by and enjoy the exhibit! with metalsmithing greats like and wood turning experts like Tim Niewiadomski, it's sure to be a great show!

05/27/2026

what do i have in common with these metalsmiths?
Mary Lee Hu,
Alan Revere,
Charles Lewton-Brain,
John Cogswell,
Andrea Kennington,
Arline Fisch,
Cynthia Eid,
Marilynn Nicholson,
Deb Stoner,
Bette Barnett,
and David Hwang.

somehow, beautifully, unbelievably, we have all taught at The Norman Firehouse Arts Center in Norman, OK.

Elyse Bogart has been building and tending this metalsmithing lineage at the Firehouse since the early 1980s, and i am deeply honored to have my name placed anywhere near this history.

i just got home from teaching a four-day tufa casting workshop, and i came back feeling overwhelmed, invigorated, grateful, proud, and a little bit more hopeful in the state of our nation. there are good pockets of people everywhere and i'm proud to be included.

the people, the place, the fire, the stone, the generosity, and of course the food — all of it.

what an amazing experience.
what a gift to teach.
what a gift to be included.

thank you, .
thank you, .

go Craft. :)

05/20/2026

Ohio is a true creative corridor for women who helped redefine the history of American Craft. let me prove it to you.

in the Rust Belt, women metalsmiths turned metal into technology, textile, painting, protest, pedagogy, and care.

Ohio was not the only important region for women in American metalsmithing, but it produced a distinctive kind of metalsmith: one shaped by industry, design education, enamel, labor, and material reinvention.

where other regions emphasized Southwest silver traditions, California modernism, or East Coast academic studio jewelry, Ohio’s women metalsmiths helped turn metal into technology, textile, painting, critique, and care.

Ohio is not the only important place for women in American metalsmithing, but it has a weirdly powerful concentration of women who expanded what metal and Craft could do.

the “why” is the good part:

Ohio had industry. rubber, steel, manufacturing, industrial design, machine culture, tools, and material intelligence were already in the air. Mary Ann Scherr is the clearest example: Akron-born, nationally influential, and known for body-monitoring jewelry decades before contemporary wearable tech became common language.

Ohio had design education with women at the root. Cleveland Institute of Art began in 1882 as the Western Reserve School of Design for Women, which gives this whole story a serious historical spine. that means women were not an accidental sidebar in Ohio design education; they were part of the foundation.

Ohio had enamel. Mary Ellen McDermott, born in Akron and trained at the Cleveland School of Art, worked across painting, fashion illustration, jewelry, and enamel; she helped push enamel toward painterly, experimental expression rather than just “pretty surface.”

Ohio had metal crossing into textile and body. Mary Lee Hu, born in Lakewood, became known for jewelry made with textile techniques — metal behaving like woven thread, structure, softness, and bodily ornament all at once.

the pattern is real. let's celebrate the power on women in Craft.