Blake High School (Tampa, FL)

Emma Olivia Chandler is a metalsmith, artist, and arts educator at Blake High School in Hillsborough County. Her first experience with saw-and-torch was at Blake High in Tampa, where she now teaches the next generation of metalsmiths. She holds an MA in Metals + Jewelry from Ball State University and an MFA in Metal from SUNY New Paltz. Her artwork explores nature, history, and folklore, illuminating their commonalities. She fabricates contemporary heirlooms, translating ephemeral objects such as clouds, maple pods, and cicadas into wearable sculpture. Carapaces of insects, brittle bird bones, and shards of pottery are noticed, retrieved, and pored over – as fodder for the next works of art.