About Melanie Brooks Lukacs
Melanie is a ceramic artist, specializing in the miniature world of beads and jewelry. Working in the comfort of her home studio, she has been making and selling ceramic beads and jewelry of her own design for much of the ten years since she graduated art college. She has sold her work in galleries, bead stores, bead shows, and through the Earthenwood website . In the last three years, the studio business has become a full time occupation, and is the realization of life long dreams. Melanie works at the home studio with her husband and fellow artist Chuck, and they are "assisted" by their loyal companion, Zoey the studio dog.
For her beads, Melanie is drawn mostly to working in fine white porcelain because of the detail it provides and how it acts as a blank canvas for the colorful and varied glazes in her palette. The beads are all fired to a mid-high fire temperature (about 2300 degrees F) in an electric kiln. Custom molds are used for some of the most detailed beads, and others are hand formed individually. Some of the beads are made with a combination of mold techniques mixed with hand forming using wooden tools, stamps, and small sprig molds. Melanie especially enjoys imagery of fairyland, goddesses, and the natural world. She finds inspiration in historical ceramics like Yixing Teapots and Egyptian Amulets, as well as the miniature carvings of Ojime and Netsuke of Japan. Fantasy artwork and Anime also are an endless source of inspiration.
Melanie always loves to see her beads come alive in the bead and craft creations of others, enjoying this collaboration with artists and designers, and the pleasure when her beads can inspire someone's imagination! She spends most of her business time chatting with customers and fellow artists online or in person at the various bead shows she attends. This interaction with creative people is one of the most rewarding thing about the Earthenwood Studio business.
Melanie also places importance on working with others in the ceramic bead community. She is the co-founder and co-moderator of the Beads of Clay group, which has a galley website and a discussion group. This group works together to raise awareness in the bead world about the beauty of handcrafted, artisan ceramic beads through education and collaborative efforts.
About Earthenwood Studio
Earthenwood Studio is a name dreamed up many moons ago by two artist who fell in love while studying at art school and started to plan their personal and professional lives together. The name combines Melanie’s love of earth clays and Chuck’s love of wood engraving and paper arts.
Earthenwood Studio specializes in a wide range of Arts and Crafts. Our handcrafted craft gift line includes handcrafted porcelain jewelry components and kits, ceramic earthenware gift tile, terra cotta scent and spa products, and stoneware sculpture. We also feature prints and original paintings in the sci-fi fantasy genre.
Although the two artists work independently, they share their home studio space, the Earthenwood Studio website, and they travel together for shows and conventions supporting and helping each other out as often as possible.
About Chuck Lukacs
Chuck has been illustrating for the SciFi and Fantasy community for around seven years. For the last four years he's been working mainly in oil paintings, but has worked in a number of different Crafts since finishing college, from ceramics (which he's picked up from his lovely Wife) to historical book-craft, papermaking, and wood-engraving. In terms of technique Chuck has been influenced by a number of artists, a short list being; Alphonse Mucha, Alma, Leighton, Gerome-Jean Leon, Waterhouse, NC Wyeth & the Brandywine School, Wm.Heath Robinson, Wm.Pogany, CF Leyendecker, Dali, Moebius, Frank Frazetta, Charles Bragg, Maurice Sendak, Kelly & Mouse, Patrick Woodruffe, Robert Venosa, Thomas Blackshear, and Bill Waterson. Chuck is also influenced by the many Craft revival movements throughout history; Japan's Ukiyoe period, the Pre-Raphaelites, Art Nouveau, Music Poster Art of the 60's & 70's, and their Hip-Hop torch bearers, not only for their remarkable techniques, but also for their ability to create positive Socialistic change through supporting Hand Craft.
In terms of philosophical influence, Buddhism, Taoism, and a number of World Religions have played a rather large role. Chuck keeps on top of global political and economic news every day, is both an activist and advocate of the modern Progressive and Peace movements, and even though Chuck will be the first to revel in gratuitous RPG and video game violence, he believes that educated poets, writers, actors, and artists have a duty to promote an ideology of International Peace. Chuck is a huge fan of comedy, and is influenced in a Religious way by such performers as; Lord Buckley, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Flip Wilson, Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Martin Short, Monty Python, Billy Connolly, Marc Maron, and the Tenacious D.
As for temperament, Mr. Lukacs is about as loopy as a chic-pea sandwich, bereft of any useful social skills, and being prone to extraordinary lapses of common sense, he stays up late into the morning dreaming his daft-wit little dreams, and trying his best to bring them into light. When he is not pushing paint around, he is thinking about solar power projects, craft brewing, manned kites, musical effects and instruments, and wind-up toy design.
To view the Illustrations of Chuck Lukacs, please visit his online portfolio website
