Instructor Bios
Barbara Becker Simon is a former university instructor, and has more than 35 years of experience as a jewelry maker and teacher. She has worked with PMC® for eight years and conducts PMC workshops nationally and internationally. One of her necklace designs “Winter” earned the grand prize in the “Millennial Metal, The Art of PMC” competition in 2001. Barbara also won the Saul Bell Design Awards’ second place in the “PMC” category.
CeCe Wire is a former director for the PMC® Guild and has been teaching PMC workshops since 1997. She authored the books Creative Metal Clay Jewelry: Techniques, Projects, Inspiration and New Directions in Metal Clay and has held a number of college teaching positions.
Celie Fago is regarded among her peers as an innovator in the combination of PMC® with polymer clay and metal, Celie has designed using PMC since she was first introduced to the material in 1998. During that same year, she was invited by Tim McCreight to become Mitsubishi Materials Corporation’s PMC liaison to the polymer community and was subsequently appointed senior instructor for the PMC Guild. She has authored numerous articles on PMC and polymer clay, co-authored the book Polymer Clay: Exploring New Techniques and New Materials, and recently released the book Keum-Boo on Silver. She has also appeared alongside McCreight in the video Push Play for PMC! Besides hosting workshops for the Rio Rewards PMC Certification Program, Celie holds 1-2 semi-private workshops a year at her studio in central Vermont.
Mark Nelson is a member of Rio Grande’s Technical Support Team. He has an MFA and 15 years of jewelry-making experience, including nine years of retail bench experience and five years of laser welding experience.
Chris Darway is a national and international exhibitor; he has been working in metals for almost 30 years. In addition to the Rio Rewards certification classes, he routinely holds PMC® workshops, and is an instructor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Chris has received many awards and recognition for his metal work.
J. Fred Woell has 30 years experience teaching technique-based workshops. He has also spent 16 years teaching Art Metals at the collegiate level. His work and writings have been featured in many industry publications and his work is recognized in the Smithsonian Institute’s “Archives of American Art.”
Jeanette Landenwitch has been the Executive Director of the PMC Guild since January, 2005. She has been teaching PMC workshops since 2000 and her work is included in the permanent collection of PMC pieces at Mitsubishi Materials Corporation in Japan.
Terry Kovalcik received his PMC® certification in 2000 and has since been actively holding classes, demonstrations and workshops. His work has been recognized numerous times by members of the PMC community and was featured in CeCe Wire’s book, Creative Metal Clay Jewelry: Techniques, Projects, Inspiration.
Thackeray Taylor is a member of Rio Grande’s Technical Support Team. He brings more than 20 years of experience to the classroom and has won several awards for his designs. His work has been exhibited in galleries across the country. Thackeray has been teaching with Rio Grande for more than four years.
Tonya Davidson has extensive experience in various mixed media, which includes fibers, glass, PMC®, contemporary ceramics, metalsmithing and bead-weaving. She has developed her own line of clay beads, Bisque Bead Blanks™, to integrate with PMC and has had numerous articles published in industry trade journals.
Yvonne M. Padilla is a member of Rio Grande’s Technical Support Team. She is an accomplished bead stringer and designer, a Certified PMC® Instructor and has been teaching at Rio Grande for seven years. The Rio Grande catalogs feature many of her designs.
Hadar Jacobson is a silver jewelry artist and teacher. She has been working with PMC since 1997 and has been teaching since 2000. Her work has been displayed in exhibitions nationwide and published in numerous books and professional magazines. Recently she has published her first book: The Handbook of Metal Clay: Textures and Forms.
