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K. Ray’s Creations
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: 2018/08 - August
For 35 years Karen Ray worked a government job as a mechanical engineer. Her drawings became the stuff of engines and machines. Over time, stoked by the inspiration from weekend jewelry-making classes, she began to see her day job as a lab to practice 3-D design. She made the leap from mechanical drawing to conceptualizing small sculptures/jewelry when she retired a year and a half ago.
She and her husband moved from Washington D.C. to the North Carolina mountains. The surroundings were inspiration enough to last a dozen lifetimes. Leaf shapes (for Green Men), tree forms, mountain vistas, woodland textures, fungi, flowers, animal silhouettes, and all of Mother Nature’s beauty were icons for wearable wire and metal castings. It’s enough to make one wax poetic:
She had her start mechanical, then
Retired and went organical.
Some of her early pieces employed beading. She worked with a friend designing a jig/tool that would simplify the wire-working process. Sadly, her friend developed terminal cancer. After her passing Karen continued to work with the family and helped produce the tool while writing a book about its use.
Art is a thread that weaves through her friendships and family. Her mother was a trained professional artist and her husband is a world-class wooden kayak maker. Another dear friend (they worked at the Pentagon together) is a weaver. Together they collaborate on repurposing scraps from weavings, encasing them in epoxy resin to create exquisite one-of-a-kind earrings that resemble stained glass.
To learn more about Karen and her delightful work, visit her on Facebook, Etsy, or on her new website www.KarenRaysCreations.com. To contact her about a purchase or commission, call (571) 217-8367 or (828) 743-8274. Her email is: [email protected].
