Mel Smit

Available at the Alberta Craft Gallery - Edmonton & Calgary

Mel Smit (Calgary, AB) is a goldsmith and jewellery artist. Her path into jewellery making started with an after school jewellery making club initiated by a high school art instructor. Mel Smit trained locally in the Jewellery and Metals program at the Alberta College of Art and Design (AUArts) in Calgary. She received her BFA; with distinction, and the Board of Governors Award in 2004. After graduating she worked as a goldsmith and designer at a jewellery design studio in Calgary for 10 years. Following this, she ventured out to create her own jewellery designs and work with clients on custom pieces. Her work has been exhibited throughout North America and Europe.

Although my work can vary in visual style, I focus on creating a quality of sturdiness and clean design. The materials that I use tend to be traditional high quality metals and stones, but I also find that incorporating unusual materials such as fossils or meteorites to be inspiring.

Currently all my pieces are made in the traditional method, that is, by hand. Age old technologies such as lost wax casting are sometimes used but the actual form of each piece is made by hand. I prefer to have a direct tactile connection to my work. The experience of changing raw materials into a beautiful object is satisfying and allows the hand of the maker to exist in each piece.

ACC exhibitions: Body Ornament West (2005), Albirda - Put A Bird On It (2022-2023), Ornament and Crime (2023).