Karen Trexler is our Cool Tools resident artist. Karen discovered her interest in jewelry and metalsmithing in 2009 when she took a jewelry class in high school. Thoroughly hooked on making and interested in expanding upon the basics of metalsmithing that she acquired from this class, she continued to study metalsmithing and jewelry design in college and received a BFA from Ball State University. Karen then continued her studies at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and received her MFA in the spring of 2018 before joining the Cool Tools team.

In this video, Karen creates an all clay FS999 Cloisonne pendant. This method eliminates the use of silver wire which can be a challenge to attach to the surface. She includes tips on creating a border around the pendant which prevents distortion during wet clay assembly. Karen finishes this project by wet packing thin layers of color and firing after each layer is applied.