Nicole Ringgold

For Nicole Ringgold, the road to silversmithing, instructing and authorship began along a zigzag path between the United States and countries abroad. Born in Massachusetts and raised in Europe, Nicole made her way back to the United States for college before spending time in West Africa in the Peace Corps—where she met her husband. They eventually moved back to the U.S. and steadily migrated west. In 2006 they landed in Winthrop, Washington, and in 2009 they began to build their home in the North Cascade mountains. As an avid lover of the outdoors, Nicole immediately felt drawn to incorporate natural elements into her space as functional art. She drilled holes into river rocks to create knobs for her kitchen cabinets, ultimately leading Nicole to learn wire wrapping because she loved working with the stones.
Over the course of two to three years selling her wire wrapped jewelry, she saved enough money to purchase her first torch in 2011. Nicole recalls, “When I decided to buy my first torch, I was researching and reading, primarily on Rio, about different types of torches and about the gases. I bought a Smith® Little Torch™ and am now a huge proponent of that torch.” She continues, “It can do everything. I mean, I make sculptures with that torch. It’s incredible.” Through determination and trial and error, Nicole not only taught herself basic torch skills but began to discover her own techniques for fusing sterling silver.
While working her primary career directing nonprofit organizations and raising a young daughter, Nicole continued to develop her skills and sell her work. She saved each penny earned with aspiration and a plan to pursue her art as a full-time silversmith. However, life doesn’t always go according to plan—in 2014, a wildfire claimed her home and studio. Not to be discouraged, Nicole and her husband transformed this brush with tragedy into a new beginning. “It was then that my husband said, ‘You’ve wanted to be an artist your whole life. Let’s just buy a small house and make sure we can live within our means.’ So, that’s what I did.” With a leap of faith, she quit her job and embarked on her silversmithing career.
The first year was “nerve wracking” trying to determine her direction. Feeling swallowed by anxious comparison, doubts crept in. However, during one of her routine morning runs in the backcountry surrounding her home, inspiration dawned on her. “I felt like I was seeing a lot of cast work and electroformed nature-inspired pieces, but I had never really seen any fabricated from scratch. So, I decided to set a learning challenge and teach myself how to fabricate plants.”
For three months, Nicole dove deep into botanical study. She dissected leaves and flower petals down to their unseen connections and subtle textures while experimenting with ways to translate her findings into metal. “I was totally hooked! It just kept going from there—100% self-taught.” She continues, “Since then, I’ve come up with much more efficient ways of creating—making sure the solder joints don’t fall apart, but I still do some key things that I learned early on. I don’t really use chemicals in my work like no-flow or white out. I’ve learned how to use heat sinks and I’ve built upon the fusing [technique] of sterling silver, which allows me to do a lot of sculptural work.”
Some of Nicole’s proudest works are her kinetic pieces such as her pill bug, horseshoe crab and wearable five inch wide brown bat with kinetic wings. “The [bat] body was 100% fused, carved and hollow. What’s really cool is that you can do hidden connections inside a hollow body and since its totally fused no solder is involved.”
Before long, Nicole decided to branch out and become an instructor. She’s held various workshops and classes around the globe, emphasizing proper use of the torch and passing on techniques she’s developed. As a proponent of experimental learning, Nicole encourages her pupils to think outside of the box before discounting any technique as impossible. “It’s a lot of hands-on work and I give them a ton of time to play!” Extending her wisdom as a metal artist she advocates, “It’s really important to find your own voice as an artist. Look internally and understand what it is that really sits well in your heart and in your soul—then create from there.”
With her workshops in high demand around the world, Nicole decided to develop a comprehensive book called The New Silversmith: Techniques for Creating Nature-Inspired Jewelry. Co-collaborating with her daughter, who photographed the book, Nicole captures years of study, hard work and devotion. She teaches readers her personally developed, advanced metalsmithing techniques that break away from conventional methods and help reduce waste and exposure to chemicals.
The future seems bright for Nicole as she speculates the possibility of writing more books moving forward. Today, she continues to develop small collections and refresh her shop inventory, teach classes and when she has time, she occasionally accepts custom orders that “push me into directions that I never would have necessarily come up with.”
To view Nicole Ringgold’s work be sure to follow her on Instagram @ringgoldnicole and visit her website at https://www.nicoleringgold.com/. You can watch her tutorials on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@ringgoldnic.
Category:Silversmithing
Category:American people
Category:People from Massachusetts