Elizabeth Nutt always knew, since the age of 12 when she discovered metalworking at a summer camp in New Hampshire that she would grow up to be a silversmith.
She became all the more determined after meeting Irina Brynner at a League of New Hampshire Craftsmen’s Fair. The sophisticated Brynner, a famous jeweler and Yul Brynner’s cousin, made a big impression on the teenager.
By the time she was a senior in high school; Nutt had won a national award and saw her work exhibited at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. After graduating from the Cleveland Institute of Art, she left her native Cleveland to buy a farm and build a studio in Candia, NH.
While building a national reputation for her work, she also taught and mentored dozens of aspiring craftspeople at the University of New Hampshire and served a quarter of a century as head of the Metalsmithing and Jewelry Department at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester. Her imaginative designs have inspired a generation of students.
The League of New Hampshire Craftsmen honored Nutt with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Smyth Library is honored and pleased to be able to display some of Elizabeth’s work below……
Congratulations to our own Stitching Up the World won the 2016 Spirit if New Hampshire Award for all of their volunteer work!
