About the Item

Silver Earrings

About the Artist

Rachelle Thiewes is an artist based in the Chihuahuan desert of West Texas, where she creates jewelry that is designed to engage and challenge the wearer, making them an active participant, an initiator of sounds and body rhythms. Light, movement, sound, order and chaos are integral elements of her work.

Thiewes's jewelry is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Museums of Scotland, Victoria & Albert Museum, Metal Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Cooper Hewitt, Yale University Art Gallery, and the Museum of Arts & Design, among others. Her work has been featured in numerous publications including Inspired Jewelry: From the Museum of Arts and Design, Craft for a Modern World, Jewellery in Europe and America: New Times New Thinking, One of a Kind: American Art Jewelry, American Craft and Metalsmith

In 2009, Thiewes was named Texas Master by the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and the Stanlee & Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts honored her with the Access & Excellence in the Arts Award in 2014. In 2023 the Metal Museum awarded her the title Master Metalsmith. Thiewes is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowship, the University of Texas Regents Outstanding Award for Teaching, and Distinguished Achievement Awards for Research and Teaching at the University of Texas El Paso where she is Professor Emerita in the Department of Art.