Join Linda Darty, Professor of Jewelry Design at East Carolina University and author of The Art of Enameling, as she shares highlights from her life as an artist working in enamel since the 1970s. 

She will discuss inspirations, design solutions, and techniques that motivated changes over the years, eventually leading her to Italy, where she now lives and teaches.

Linda Darty learned enameling and metalwork in the mountains of North Carolina, where for seven years, she lived and worked as assistant to the director of Penland School of Crafts. As professor and coordinator of the metal design program at East Carolina University, she has recently begun a new life in the medieval town of Certaldo, Italy, where she teaches enameling and directs ECU’s ITALY INTENSIVES art program for fall and spring semesters and also spring and summer short workshops. Surrounded by vineyards and olive groves in the heart of Tuscany, the beautiful studios are located in a medieval palace near Florence, where Linda began her own art studies in 1973.

Linda has an extensive national and international exhibition record with work in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC and The Arkansas Art Museum. She is the recipient of the North Carolina Board of Governor’s Teaching Award as well as The Lifetime Achievement Award for Research from East Carolina University, and The Lifetime Achievement Award from The Enamelist Society, an international organization. In 2003, as a more organized way of providing notes to her students, Linda wrote The Art of Enameling, published by Lark books, and currently used as a text in many universities.