Louise and Don Coulson

Design team of Don & Louise Coulson have been married for 37 years; raised two great kids; rebuilt a 50 ft. boat; and hand built a cabin on the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway. They have moved 40 times in the 38 years and traveled thousands of miles on their boat. They are fortunate to have seen wilderness from Canada to Mexico. From birds to bears and orchids to cacti, they have observed the natural world. The beauty of the water, rocks, sky and nature along with historical textile and marlinspike techniques influence their designs.  Don and Louise Coulson create all of the jewelry for Kingfisher Designs.

Don is a Civil Engineer with a background in Construction Management. He brings the attention to detail and precision in his craftsmanship to everything he does. His time spent at sea is reflected in his wonderful knotted pieces.  His designs are developed through painstaking experimentation and research.  Louise has a background as a teacher and fiber artisan.  She is a writer with a long-running column in a national boating magazine.  She definitely has both feet firmly planted in mid-air. She designs "outside the box" with a fanciful constant questioning of the materials and their possibilities both accidental and  by design.

Working closely together, they design and create your special piece of jewelry using their combination of natural skills, experience and learned expertise.

Artist's Statement

“We use many techniques on the wire that we have used on yarn.  After many years as a knitter, a weaver and a hand spinner, it was jut a natural transition to use fiber-related techniques on the wire.  We weave, twist, knit, knot, tat and even sculpt the wire into jewelry that is intended to be timeless and elegant.  Precision and craftsmanship are critical to the success of this type of wirework.

We love working with wool and silk, but, we find that jewelry design and fabrication interests both of us like nothing else. It is exciting to see the piece of wire take on shape, shadows and highlights as it crosses and interweaves with other pieces of wire and stones.

Most of our work is done with a few simple hand tools, however the anodizing process for titanium and niobium requires a 110-volt anodizing machine.

We are both inspired by early metal work from the Egyptians, who were the first wire workers, the Vikings, who were among the first who did nalbinding and the chainmaille artisans, who created armor from the Roman times to the Middle Ages.

Our design process is a journey of discovery. It consists of sketching, modeling and making practice pieces to get the proportion, technique and detail before the pieces are rendered in gold or silver wire. We incorporate the historical tradition and techniques for knitting, weaving, lace making, knotting, basketry and braiding in our work.”

Interview with Louise Coulson

CONTACT

www.wireweavers.com

Aberdeen, MS 39730
662-436-7153

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