Portfolio Metalwork is a name we chose for our business partnership in 1986. A portfolio is a collection representative of a person's work. Ours is a collection of jewelry and fine metalworks of our unique designs.
About the partners: Kathleen Doyle and Thomas Reardon
Kathleen Doyle received her BFA from Memphis College of Art. Thereafter, she moved to North Carolina to fulfill a residency, teaching enameling, at the John C. Campbell Folk School. She then returned to school and received her MFA degree from the University of Illinois @ Carbondale. In 1978 she returned to North Carolina to become a resident at the Penland School of Crafts.
Thomas Reardon was an interior designer for the State of New York when, in the evenings, he studied metalsmithing at the State University of New York @ New Paltz. He received his MFA in Metals in 1976 and soon became an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois @ Champaign Urbana. In 1978, he took a leave of absence from teaching to work as a goldsmith and small metal model maker in New York City. He moved to San Francisco in 1980 to accept a teaching position at California State University @ Sacramento. After a year, he left teaching to venture out on working on his own as a self-employed goldsmith in San Francisco.
In 1981, Kathleen accepted a one-year sabbatical replacement teaching position at the California College of Arts and Crafts where Tom was also teaching a class. Tom and Kathleen met and later married. They decided to blend their two jewelry collections into one entity that would reflect the strengths of each. They call their collaboration Portfolio Metalwork. In 1995, they were invited by the Grovewood Gallery to be resident studio artists. This potential opportunity, coupled with their network of friends in the area and the area's natural beauty and central location, resulted in Portfolio Metalworks decision to relocate to Asheville, North Carolina.
Since then, we have, and will continue, to produce unique jewelry and other small metalwork, which we show and sell throughout the United States. These works comprise our personal Portfolio Metalwork.
Kathleen Doyle and Thomas Reardon