- About the artist
Aileen Lampman harnesses the elemental strength of metal, stone, and glass to give pause and appreciate the fleeting beauty of the natural world, rendering it permanent in luminous, wearable form. Her discerning eye for composition transforms jewelry into sculptural conversation pieces, balancing elegance with vitality. Metalsmithing runs in her lineage—her great-grandfather was a blacksmith, and she now works at the very anvil that once bore the weight of his craft. Her journey began in adolescence, when she reimagined scraps of electrical wire left from her father’s projects and deconstructed her mother’s vintage jewelry to create her first adornments. Shaped as much by Vogue magazine as by rural boredom, she quickly discovered her vocation. This passion deepened when she was accepted into the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts at Bucknell University, where she majored in jewelry casting and fabrication, and later earned a BFA with a concentration in Jewelry from Edinboro University. She refined her technical fluency as a bench jeweler, apprenticing in stone setting, soldering, wax carving, and an arsenal of innovative studio practices.
In 1997, Lampman launched Ai Jewelry, dedicated to hand-fabricated works that merge durability, comfort, and aesthetic distinction. Each piece, wrought from recycled sterling silver, 14k gold, gold-filled, glass, rock and gemstones, draws inspiration from botanical forms, landscapes, and natural patterns. Organic silhouettes become intimate sculptures for the body, animated by layered textures, luminous highlights, and often kinetic connections. Her meticulous process—sawing, hammering, forging, soldering—transforms raw material into refined adornment. Expanding her practice, she introduced micro mosaics after a workshop with Rachel Sager of Sager Mosaics. These intricate compositions, composed of foraged stone, metal, and glass, are set by hand into custom bezels, each tessera embedded like a fragment of place and time. More than embellishment, they serve as miniature archives—capturing color, history, and texture within jewelry that is at once tactile and timeless.
Aileen lives and creates in Ohiopyle and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and sometimes on the road in her travels. Her jewelry is featured in galleries across the country as well as The Sundance Catalog, Tommy Bahama and was gifted through the city of Pittsburgh, to President and Mrs. Obama and other world leaders, at the 2009 G-20 Summit.-
AWARDS:
Award of Merit, Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, 2025
Best Wearable Art, Mount Lebanon Artist Market, 2024
Award of Merit, Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, 2024
Fine Arts Award (2nd Place), Central PA Festival of the Arts, State College, PA, 2022
Best in Show, Mount Lebanon Artists Market, Mt. Lebanon, PA 2018
Award of Merit, Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, State College, PA 2018
Best in Show, Mount Lebanon Artists Market, Mt. Lebanon, PA 2017
Invited Artist, Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, State College, PA 2017
Best in Show, Mount Lebanon Artists Market, Mt. Lebanon, PA 2016
Best in Show, Fine Arts Festival of Manatee County, Bradenton, Fl 2015
Excellence in Jewelry Design/John C. Mason Award, Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, State College, PA, 2014
Juror's Choice, Three Rivers Art Festival, Pittsburgh, PA, 2013
Best in Jewelry, An Occasion for the Arts, Williamsburg, VA 2013
Jurors Choice, Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh, PA