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About the Artist: Kaminer Haislip
“Through my metalwork, I seek to enhance daily life by creating functional, handcrafted objects that give a nod to the past but are entirely contemporary in form. When a beautiful, well-designed object and domestic ritual are united, a connection between the person and material occurs, and then an appreciation of form results.”
A native of Aiken, South Carolina, Kaminer Haislip grew up in her family’s hardware store. Amidst the story-telling locals and gadgets for sale, she was inspired at a young age to create three-dimensional objects ranging from sculpture to art metal. Haislip received both a BFA in jewelry and metals and an MFA in silversmithing, design, and sculpture from Winthrop University, where she studied under Alfred Ward, an internationally acclaimed English silversmith. After graduating in 2005, she moved to Charleston and established her studio.
Nationally recognized for her unique silver designs, Haislip was most recently featured in the Museum of the City of New York’s exhibition Silver: Then and Now. Her handcrafted metalwork has been shown internationally and highlighted by numerous media outlets, including Antiques and Fine Art, Metalsmith, The Magazine Antiques, Traditional Home, Elle Décor, Garden & Gun, Southern Living, Charleston Magazine, and Handcrafted America. Haislip has also collaborated with Reese Witherspoon’s southern lifestyle company, Draper James, to create exclusive objects that reflect the South’s rich metalworking history.
Inspired by Charleston’s extensive silversmithing tradition, Haislip is dedicated to carrying forth that legacy. Hand-forging her flatware, hollowware, and jewelry, she uses the very tools and techniques employed by silversmiths for centuries, though her metalwork is always characterized by a contemporary approach to design.
A wholesale supplier to jewelers and metalsmiths since 1944, Rio Grande is proud to sponsor the work of acclaimed silversmith Kaminer Haislip in Interwoven: The Art of Indigo and Silver.
Kaminer Haislip’s involvement in this exhibition is funded also in part by the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs and the City of North Charleston Cultural Arts Program, through their joint administration of the Lowcountry Quarterly Arts Grant Program, and by the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation.
