About

The Jewelry/Metals Department of BARN presents a free lecture featuring Mary Lee Hu, retired UW professor of metal arts, speaking in new BARN building, 8890 Three Tree Lane, Bainbridge Island, WA, on Wednesday, July 19th at 7:00pm .

The talk will be followed by a reception with the artist. The event is free, but advance registration is requested.  

A four day workshop, Working with Wire, with Mary Lee Hu, will be held at BARN July 20-23. Click here for more information.

Instructor: Mary Lee Hu first became fascinated with metalwork during high school courses. She went on to attend Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, for two years and then went to Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan to complete her undergraduate degree. It was during this time that Hu started to work with fiber inspired techniques after taking a fiber arts course. This led to the development of her signature style of wire wrapped jewelry. Since the late 1960s Hu has developed new techniques in coiling, wrapping, weaving, knitting, and twining wire. Her work consists mostly woven wire earrings, rings, bracelets, brooches, and neckpieces that emulate natural forms, movements and symmetry.
After completing her MFA, Hu traveled to various places and took up different teaching positions until she joined the metal arts program in the University of Washington School of Art in 1980. She retired from the University as professor emeritus in 2006.
Hu is a member and past-president of the Society of North American Goldsmiths. In 1996 Hu was inducted into the American Craft Council College of Fellows. Hu has received three National Endowment of the Arts Craftsman Fellowships. Her work is in major collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Renwick Gallery, the American Crafts Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago. Hu is the winner of the 2008 Irving and Yvonne Twining Humber Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.