Lanning Gallery Hosts Master Jeweler Michael Grant

Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:17

Sedona, AZ - Lanning Gallery’s holiday celebration gets underway in Sedona with an artist’s reception on Friday evening, December 7^th from 5 to 8 p.m. The gathering will feature the latest one-of-a-kind jewelry collection from master jeweler Michael Grant with the artist in attendance to answer questions about his techniques and inspiration. Grant, an Arizona native, is one of only a half dozen full-time stone bead cutters in this country today. On exhibition from December 7th through December 24th.

At a time when many stones are machine-cut, Grant continues to use the simplest of lapidary tools to produce beads, rondelles and stone inlays that must be felt for their smoothness to be fully understood. One of his necklace and earrings sets features small fire opal beads, cut completely under water into forty-two facets each. For Grant, his devotion to stones began as a youngster: Quartzsite, AZ and its celebrated mineral show was a favorite destination. By his early twenties Grant was apprenticing with a renowned jeweler. It was his love of stones, and the potential hidden within each, that led Grant to begin hand-cutting his own. “Stones are very slow and patient,” he says. “I spend my workdays alone with them in my workshop and their slowness rubs off on me.”

For over two decades Grant has honed the skills that keep collectors across the country, and beyond its borders, aware of each new collection’s launch. This year it is pastel tones of turquoise and coral that will distinguish many pieces. New ring designs, for both men and women, and smaller earrings of turquoise and coral will be featured. An alternate version of Grant’s Egyptian Necklace style is also anticipated. “The way I build jewelry is much the same process as a painter approaches a painting,” Grant explains. This is clearly in evidence with each rare version of this necklace, guided by the singular colorations of each new set of stones.

Grant’s work continues to be a transforming experience. “[The stones] refuse to move swiftly, forcing the jeweler to still his anxiousness . . . they will be complete only when I have learned to follow them and not lead them. Sometimes when I resist this lesson my life is filled with anxiety, yet when I am mindful of this lesson I feel balanced and beautiful. The stones have given me this, and I sincerely hope the finished jewels which I create can offer the wearer this helpful sort of harmony.”

Friday’s reception concludes another Sedona Gallery Association “Art of Gold” event. Michael Grant will also be at Lanning Gallery December 8^th and 9^th, from 2 to 5 p.m. Lanning Gallery, Hozho Center, 431 Hwy 179, Sedona. 928-282-6865 or www.lanninggallery.com. Open daily: 10-6 Mon-Sat, 11-5 Sun.