Susie Ganch

What a blast! This past weekend I had the pleasure to work with Susie Ganch (Assistant Professor and Head of the Jewelry/Metals Program at Virginia Commonwealth University) as the Southwest School of Art & Craft hosted her workshop, "Designing with Multiples." We met briefly this past year at the SNAG conference in Savannah, GA but beyond her website and a recent article in Metalsmith magazine, I didn't really know a whole lot about her. Well, she definitely lives up to expectations and then some. With a constant smile and calm demeanor, she showed creative variations of classic techniques and began stretching my student's minds with not just approaches to designing in multiples, but design in general. Of course I have a bias because, like Susie, I like to encourage students to not always focus on learning every technique under the sun, but to intead come up with dozens of applications for more basic techniques and processes.

I think it's safe to say that my students and I had a blast this past weekend, Susie. Thanks!