Local ceramicist and metalsmith Linore Huss has always been adventurous and creative. She loves to explore new mediums, and the world around her is always an opportunity to find new shapes and textures. Linore encourages her students to show creativity in every process, and loves when they teach her something new as they come in with open eyes and minds.

Linore graduated with her BFA in metalsmithing and ceramics in 2018, and has since taught in Ohio, Maine, and Tennessee in various age ranges and topics. Her classes with us include a variety of jewelry workshops, as well as occasional other topics such as tie-dye.

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Molly Ison is an artist living in Johnson City and specializing in Ukrainian egg dyeing (pysanky). Her work combines traditional methods with symbols and motifs from many sources and cultures. She is currently working on a tarot inspired series of eggs.

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Brenden Bohannon is a full-time blacksmith, bladesmith, and lifelong artist hailing from Johnson City Tennessee. The opportunity to appear on the History Channel's “Forged in Fire” led Brenden to become a full-time teaching Smith. He focuses on iron age designs and functional pieces that will last a lifetime.

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Lilith Erbach is a non-binary, multi-media artist living in Blountville, TN. They recently graduated from ETSU with a degree in English, and are the Program Assistant at The International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, TN and a co-founder of the Fairy Boneyard Art collective. They are an active part of the Johnson City arts scene, as well as a member and model for the local figure drawing group Defining Bodies. Their artistic endeavors range from the fiber arts, to sculpting, collaging, drawing, sewing, music, modeling, and poetry. You can find more of their art in many other mediums at their instagram account @flowerbraincreations.

Paula is passionate about the preservation of artworks and cultural artifacts. She loves to share art through special exhibits and art education or appreciation events. Her explanation of the artist, culture, history, and fun facts helps to bring new perspective to an artist’s body of work. Paula’s workshops are inspirational and focus on encouraging artists to create new works inspired by Master artwork rather than creating copies of the work. The product is a fun and motivating experience for artists who create in all media types!

Paula’s curation and art ed experience includes exhibitions of Dead Sea Scrolls and King Tut. Her work as been shown in Iowa, Chicago, New York, and D.C. She has restored pieces by Francis Bacon, Georgia O’Keef, Benjamin Benno, Salvador Dali, and Yoko Ono (just to name a few)

Ginny Tallent earned her BFA from ETSU and has worked professionally as a graphic designer for over 20 years. With a rich heritage of strong, creative women and a trunk full of family-made quilts, she finds inspiration in the everyday. In 2019, she began creating wooden jewelry. She translates original hand-drawn designs into precision, laser-cut elements that are then hand-finished and assembled into one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces.

Shannon Kelly is a bookbinder and embroidery artist who lives and works in Kingsport Tennessee. She focuses on medieval bookbinding and uses traditional methods that were employed up until the mid-eighteenth century. She focuses on making books that are pleasant to hold, delightful to look at, and easy to write in.

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Byron Kindig is a graduate of the University of South Florida. He has been using the 3D animation software suite, Blender, since 2002 and has been teaching Blender since 2005. He organized the first Blender Conference in the United States in 2007 as well as two more conferences since then.

Besides teaching Blender in Kingsport a number of times and once in Casper Wyoming at Casper College, he also offers individual tutoring in person and virtually.

He has presented demonstrations of Blender at the Kingsport Art Guild twice, 3 times at the Kingsport Maker Faire, the University of Virginia, in Wise, and at the Geek Out Conference in Asheville.

Leslie is a jewelry artist of 14 years. After her husband was diagnosed with cancer, she needed an outlet; Leslie took a local class where she learned to make a pair of fringe earrings, and she was hooked. She earned a Certificate of Graduation from the New York Institute of Art and Design in Jewelry Design, and has since grown her abilities, using multiple mediums to create unique designs. Her main focus is on beading and knotwork, as well as bead embroidery and making metal findings. Her joy in jewelry design is that there is always a new technique to learn, which keeps her curious and interested.