Amanda Ward is a South Bend native working as a freelance Graphic Designer and Gallery Curator at Fernwood Botanical Garden in Niles, Michigan. She has been the secretary of her neighborhood organization for nearly 4 years, volunteering her skills to create/maintain their website, handle marketing and publish a monthly newsletter.

In her spare time, she enjoys sous-vide cooking, sewing and making jewelry, along with spending time with her boyfriend of 8 years, their cat, Binx, and pet rabbit, Pee Wee.
Amanda and her boyfriend have also spent the past few years lovingly renovating an 1892 Queen Anne Victorian home in the historic neighborhood of West Washington.

Amanda Ward was inspired by a welded-steel sculpture by Robert Kuntz, titled "Standing Figure" in the permanent collection of the South Bend Museum of Art. The black, semi-gloss metal, bent and shaped into forms meant to resemble a human figure reminded her of a material she had once used, but long
forgotten.

For this years' ArtSlam!, she chose to work with that unconventional material (again) to create a collection of unique jewelry that was reminiscent of the Robert Kuntz piece. The material of choice was recycled bicycle inner tube, repurposed to make sophisticated, modern jewelry that is an interesting
talking piece for its wearer; Especially when those complimenting the pieces learn that the jewelry is not in-fact leather as it appears at first glance, but instead made of rubber made from an otherwise discarded material.