A founding member of San Francisco’s Metal Arts Guild, Bob Winston was a respected craftsman and influential teacher who created abstract, organic forms in jewelry and sculpture. Born in Long Beach, Winston moved to the Bay Area to study at the University of California, Berkeley. In his earliest works, such as this pendant, he employed hand building techniques that included bending, hammering and soldering to construct shapes inspired by natural plant and animal forms. In a 1954 Craft Horizons article that featured this piece, Winston, referring to man’s creativity, observed that: "One derives his designs from the world around him."
Winston later became known for the revival of the ancient process of lost-wax casting, a technique he taught to others in his circle and promoted through his 1970 book Cast Away. In the late 1950s he resigned from his teaching position at the California College of Arts and Crafts to focus on jewelry making and later moved to Scottsdale, Arizona. He returned to California in the late 1980s.
Staci Steinberger, Associate Curator, Decorative Arts and Design, 2021
