Tavia Brown
From her Charlottesville, Va., studio, Tavia creates her unique line of subtly powerful and expertly crafted jewelry.
Studying arts and crafts throughout her education, Tavia developed her love and talent of making small-scale, three-dimensional forms. While continuing her artistic studies in college, she discovered her love of jewelry and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Metals in 1998 from Appalachian State University. After college, she then worked for a high-end jewelry designer for 4 1/2 years - an experience that has proven to be invaluable to her growth as a skilled metalsmith and as a business owner. Following her work as a bench jeweler, Tavia kept her business part-time, helping her husband in his own entrepreneurial endeavors and sharing studio space with him. In 2007, Tavia made her transition into working full-time for taviametal.
Tavia's work has developed along with the changes in her career and family. Married to an Entrepreneur (her husband owns Frontrunner Sign Studios), and now a mother of two, she is constantly working to keep taviametal a perfect match for her and her family. Tavia thoroughly delights in being at her studio creating her one-of-a-kind and limited edition jewelry. Working closely with clients, she also enjoys designing custom jewelry - engagement rings, wedding bands, memorial objects, etc - creating the perfect item. Inspired by the dichotomies in life, by memory, by texture and by nature, Tavia designs and creates each piece of jewelry herself using lost wax casting, cold and hot fabrication, die-forming, etching, raising, and stone-setting. Expressing her style of elegance with an edge, Tavia’s jewelry continues to enhance and refine as she grows through life.
Tavia's Statement
My jewelry is both industrial and delicate, it is edgy and sweet. Inspired by the dichotomy of life, my style of elegance with an edge connects me to this duality that exists within my life. Being a mother and an artist is a constant balancing act of two things that at times seem extreme opposites, yet at other times appear to be born of the same seed. My inspirations come directly from life experiences, namely family and memories, but they are also derived directly from the material which I am working, the tactility of textures and the awe I have for nature.