​Kelly Jean Conroy was born in 1983, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Growing up in New England she was raised by an artist mother who encouraged innovation and creativity. This maternal influence eventually led her to attain her BFA from Syracuse University in Art Education and Painting. She recently completed her MFA in Jewelry Metals from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2013. She is currently teaching metalsmithing at Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School, and Metalsmithing courses at Metalwerx. Her work focuses on life cycles in nature within a jewelry format. Her specialties are enameling, working with natural materials: carving bone, piercing mother of pearl, and casting.  

“I see my jewelry as layered paintings- collages with dimensional elements that allude to a story.The stories areabout loss, something that touches us all eventually, but also about the beauty of life. If I can make death and the subsequent feeling of loss something beautiful, I can soothe my fear of future loss. We all carry these experiences of life and loss within the inner layers of our being, and I see my necklaces as a way to wear these moments on one’s outer layer”.

​-Kelly Jean Conroy