What you’ll learn in this episode:   How Kristen decided to start the next phase of her career at Scotland’s University of Dundee Why metalsmithing and jewelry attracts people who like a challenge How creating jewelry can be like creating an opera What young jewelry artists can learn by entering competitive exhibitions Why curiosity can help artists overcome shyness and fear   About Kristin Beeler   Kristin Beeler joined the faculty of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at the University of Dundee, Scotland UK in 2023.   From 2002-2023, she was Professor of Art and Coordinator of Jewelry and Metalwork at Long Beach City College in the Los Angeles, California area. She is native to the Blue Ridge Mountains of central Appalachia and is a second generation graduate of historically interracial and craft-centered Berea College receiving a BFA in Crafts and Applied Design with a minor in Philosophy (1989). Her Master of Fine Arts in Jewelry from the University of Arizona (1994) was followed later by post graduate studies at Alchemia Jewellery School in Florence, Italy (2011) and  Atelier Rudee, Bangkok, Thailand (2013).   Solo exhibitions include Integumentum 2021 at Baltimore Jewelry Center, Baltimore, Maryland, Archive of Rag and Bone at Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, Phoenix, Arizona (2016) and Beauty and Other Monsters at Velvet da Vinci Gallery, San Fransisco, California (2007).   Additional Resources: Kristin’s Website Kristin’s Instagram Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design The Jewellery and Metal degree programme at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design Instagram  Long Beach City College Metalsmithing IG:@lbccjewelryandmetalwork https://thestrawfactory.com/ IG:@straw.factory   Photos Available on TheJewelryjourney.com   Transcript:   After two decades as a professor at Long Beach City College, artist and jeweler Kristin Beeler is heading back to school herself at Dundee University in Scotland. Although any international move comes with fear, Kristin has relied on a sense of curiosity to keep pushing her work froward. She joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about why certain artists are drawn to metal; how she tries to create context through her work; and why some of the most important lessons she learned were from submitting her work to competitive exhibitions. Read the episode transcript here. Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the second part of a two-part episode. If you haven’t heard part one, please head to TheJewelryJourney.com.    If you look at Kristin Beeler’s jewelry, she looks like she’s a risk taker, but that’s not really true. She has followed a well-worn path, but she also has risk in her work. She received her master’s and then became a professor of art at Long Beach City College. She teaches both metal arts and jewelry. She is the Coordinator of Jewelry and Metalwork for Long Beach City College. Welcome back.    Did you have to do a lot of looking to find a school like that in the U.S.?   Kristin: It was a school my mother went to, so I was second generation.   Sharon: Wow! What are your thoughts about metalwork versus jewelry arts? I saw that you did some gloves in Tyvek. It was hard to pin down what you do because it’s very esoteric. It has a lot of meaning. I kept asking, “Why this?”   Kristin: The work I do is more driven by an idea and trying to build a full context for an idea. The jewelry is part of that context. It’s a bit like going to the opera. I love opera, and I love it because it’s a full context. The stage is opera. The music is opera. The singing is opera. The costuming is opera. It is all of those things, and those things come together to produce this one idea. I wouldn’t say my work is theatrical, but I think it has some operatic qualities when it works well. It’s not meant to follow one particular pathway because, as I said, not everything is a piece of jewelry. Some things are meant to manifest through other