Mary Lee Hu

Mary Lee Hu (b. 1943 in Lakewood, OH) creates jewelry using refined textile weaving techniques to sculpt her pieces. Her designs are base on natural forms, movement and symmetry. The many hours of repetitive twining are a meditative activity.

She is currently a professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. She received her BFA in Metalsmithing from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI, and an MFA in Metalsmithing from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, IL. Hu has received three National Endowment of the Arts Craftsman Fellowships. Her work is in major collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Renwick Gallery, the American Crafts Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago. Hu is the winner of the 2008 Irving and Yvonne Twining Humber Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.

Mary Lee Hu, Choker #88, Twined 18K and 22K gold, 2005. Courtesy of Ornament Magazine, Robert Liu photograph