Kathleen Dennison was born in NYC. Her parents represented artists and musicians in their business and she learned an appreciation of all kinds of art from this early exposure. Kathleen’s career as an award winning metalsmith began after becoming friends with Ruth S. Roach, one of the shining stars of the American Modern Jewelry movement. Ruth became her teacher and mentor in a special friendship that endured for the last eight years of Ruth’s life. Kathleen met Ruth after she and her husband Robert M. Dennison, relocated their retail shop from Maine to Naples, Fl in the early 1970s, moving next door to Ruth’s art gallery.

Further studies followed with metalsmiths Arline Fisch , Eleanor Moty and Deb Stoner, at Haystack in Maine and Penland in North Carolina. Kathleen credits two workshops with renowned metal smith, Arline Fisch as career altering. This was where she learned that pleating, sewing and weaving precious metal was possible.

Recent workshops in glass bead making and electroforming with Kate Fowle Meleny, have added yet another new facet to her work. With torch, hammers, pliers, and precious metals Kathleen fabricates each piece of her jewelry by hand in the studio she shares with Robert, who is also a metalsmith.