Marlena is an artist and metal smith with home and studio in the San Francisco area; her work includes design and fabrication of fine jewelry and small sculpture.
Email: marlenagenau@sbcglobal.net
Telephone: 925.254.2498
Simple design marks my work and careful fabrication insures quality and durability. I try to coordinate form, color and light so that jewelry is comfortable and small sculptures are distinctive. Careful construction ensures that my work will stand the test of time.
With hand hammer and stake, my work enfolds. I use the anticlastic raising technique of my mentor Heikki Seppa. A shape is cut in sheet metal, then hammered and manipulated. The hammer blows alternately contract and stretch the metal, slowly forging it into shape. The hands work simultaneously with the hammer blows to bend and direct the metal. Slowly a piece emerges and it is hand wrought.
My path to art was not direct, family and career were distractions. Recognizing a need for change, I returned to school. Classes in painting, drawing, two and three dimensional design, art history, pottery and metal fired my imagination and taught me skills. For the past fifteen years I've worked as a metal smith showing my work in solo and group shows, galleries and on the web.
