Viktoria Tennison is a multi-medium artist with over 20 years experience as a jewelry maker and designer. Early in her artistic career she focused on fine art photography, much of which featured images from her time spent in Southeast Asia. She gradually shifted her efforts into the field of fine jewelry creating small-scale wearable and sculptural art. Viktoria began her jeweler's training working at Artistic Awards and Alpine Casting, a small production shop in Colorado, from 2000-2001 where she learned the lost wax casting process and hand finishing of silver jewelry for artists ordering multiples of their original works. After moving to Chicago in 2005 she spent the next 15 years learning and experimenting with soldering, fabrication and stone setting in her home studio and divided her time between art and her career as a professional dog handler and rescue worker. She now exclusively creates one of a kind jewelry pieces from her home studio in Valparaiso, Indiana using traditional silversmithing hand tools and techniques and has recently begun delving into lapidary work to create and incorporate custom cut gemstones into her pieces. She works in sterling silver, gold accents, precious and semi-precious gemstones and occasionally materials like brass, wood, feathers and fur. She hand fabricates every piece from start to finish often incorporating textural, patterned and dimensional elements to strike a visual balance between raw and refined. In her work you’ll find minimalist perfection, wabi-sabi imperfection, eclectic taste, detailed craftsmanship and a celebration of precious earthen materials.