I am pleased to introduce you to “Whoa Baby Studio”
I am Julie Papageorge - a Metalsmith/Jeweler/sculptor and an Art Educator. Once upon a time I was a Student, Produce Clerk, Student, Waitress, Gallery Assistant, Injection Molding Plastics Technician, Graphic Designer/Artist, Student, Ice Cream Truck Driver, Decorative Ceramic Dinnerware Painter, Student, Elderly Caregiver, Student, Antique and C
ollectibles Dealer, High School Art Teacher, Middle School Art Teacher, unemployed, Substitute Teacher. I have spent the last 10 years as an art educator, teaching the most inspiring high school and middle school students!! Due to budget constraints and administration values, I lost my position. What to do, what to do what to do???? Meanwhile, I had been working on my own designs, trying to regain my personal creative voice, experimenting with new materials and processes.
---And now I am a jeweler and partner in a new studio I recently formed with my fiancé - David Doran. Insert love story here:
I reconnected with an old friend (read into that; huge crush, had a model girlfriend at the time). He is someone with whom I worked in a pottery shop over 20 years ago. -A classic unrequited love story, until last August. Seeing (thank God for Facebook) that I needed help with a move and a flea market, he called and asked if he could help. After our reunion lunch date, I asked if I could kiss him; I'd waited 20 years. He said yes, 2 months later we were engaged, 8 months later we took a Mokume Gane workshop together, after he proposed that we start our own jewelry/metal studio, and now, after sharing our love story with you, we want to share our work with you. He is an extremely talented and intense wood sculptor. Working with wood, understanding the material, listening to it's nuances set him up with an intrinsic sense of pattering for the Mokume Gane process. My jewelry metals training at Mass Art, past production jewelry experience, has prepared me to help transition him into working with metal to create jewelry and accessories and also to the business of creating work to sell. He has picked up the metal process so quickly it’s scary. We are working on many new and exciting designs. We will combine them with my one-of-a-kind pieces, a limited production run of studio jewelry, and accessories for hair and clothing. We are also experimenting with hollowware and flatware items. My work has and always been inspired by the world around me. Living by the Sea - Pop Culture - History – Music and all of Humanity’s eccentricities! His work is inspired by nature and listening to the materials, together we hope you find delight in the things that we make and sell.
