Crochet Oval

Argentium silver, resin coated silver plated copper

2” X 1” X 1 1/8”

Jill's work explores her personal experiences as a woman through material, color, and pattern. Often utilizing crochet, the white wire is reminiscent of traditional white crochet work, including doilies, collars, and other accessories. The wire allows these lacey forms to hold their shape and reference the female form and historical lace items. White crochet work might bring a viewer or a wearer back to another era, remind them of elders in their own lives, or spark nostalgia for a person or another time.

Artist bio:
Jill Baker Gower is an artist, jeweler, metalsmith, and educator who resides near Chicago, IL. She holds a bachelor’s in art education from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and a Master of Fine Arts in Metals from Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz.

Jill has taught metals and jewelry courses and workshops at universities, craft schools, and colleges across the U.S. She has exhibited her jewelry and sculpture in numerous exhibitions nationwide. In 2019, she had a solo exhibition at the Metal Museum in Memphis, TN. Her work has been published in Metalsmith magazine, the book CAST, Little Dreams in Glass and Metal: Enameling in America 1920 to the Present, and is in the permanent collections of The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Penn., the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., the Metal Museum, Memphis, Tenn., The Enamel Arts Foundation, Los Angeles, and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, Tenn.

She is currently an Assistant Professor of Art - Jewelry/Metals at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, IL.