About me
Hi! I’m Melissa, and I am the owner, artist, and metalsmith behind Ascendant Jewelry.
I hold an MFA in Studio Art with an emphasis in metals and jewelry design from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville where I studied under Professor Emeritus Paulette Myers and Professor Aimee Howard-Clinger. I also hold a BA in English Literature from the University of Missouri, Kansas City.
My studio is based in St. Louis, MO, and I live and work in a classic STL style brick bungalow. I share this cozy space with my amazing husband, our sweet rescue pup, Mac, and a very vivacious sun conure named Little Drummie. With the support of my family and friends, I’ve been pursuing my love for handmade jewelry since I was a young girl. I chose the name Ascendant for my business because I believe art has the power to uplift us all so that we may ascend to our highest selves. Art is my passion, and jewelry making is my calling.
Artist Statement
Artist and metalsmith Melissa Hampton launched Ascendant Jewelry Studio in August 2019. Although she has been making jewelry for decades, she took time after graduate school to build her business while working full time in the nonprofit sector. Born and raised outside of St. Louis, MO, Melissa became fascinated with jewelry and the idea of adornment after inheriting her grandmother’s collection of vintage costume jewelry as a young girl. She went on to explore this field and in 2015 earned a Masters in Fine Arts: Studio Art from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville where she majored in Metals and Jewelry Design. She uses a variety of traditional and unconventional metalsmithing techniques to express big ideas in the form of wearable sculpture.
In her conceptual work, Melissa strives to visually express the power of origin stories to merge the physical, geological, and spiritual and how these stories often become powerful metaphors for human experience. Her work is a meditation on how process and concept poetically overlap. It is a study in dichotomies: rugged yet elegant, ancient yet modern, bold yet delicate, dark yet light, traditional yet unconventional, minute yet expansive. The act of creation often involves destruction. While making, whole creation scenes play out in the artist’s imagination as she pierces, saws, and carves into metal only to join it back to itself in new ways with the torch flame. The unique aesthetic of the work is achieved through a playful balance of traditional techniques such as fabrication, forging, reticulation, and fusing alongside more experimental and unconventional methods such as a special technique that she calls "Flow," which is the hallmark of her work. Using the heat of the torch, she flows alloys of gold and silver on top of sterling. This process allows her to "draw" on the surface of the metal creating unique textures and compositions. In the Primordia work, this molten metal “flow" represents magma and volcanic eruptions in an exploration of the geological processes that form the landscapes we inhabit. In the Genesis line, the “Flow" is more streamlined and less rugged. It represents the power of the first beams of light as they radiate through what once seemed like endless nothingness. This interplay of practiced traditional techniques and playful experimentations allows for work that is more than just jewelry. Each piece is a small, wearable metaphor that expresses big, awe inspiring ideas; miniature explorations of monumental questions through precious, every day reminders of who we are, where we come from, and, perhaps, where we might ascend.
- Melissa Hampton / Ascendant Jewelry Studio
