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Marlene True is a metalsmith working between Edenton, North Carolina, and Key West, Florida, creating jewelry inspired by nature and her fascination with overlooked materials.
A passionate collector of tin cans and found objects, she is drawn to their histories, colors, patterns, typography, and graphic imagery. She transforms these materials into distinctive jewelry, either preserving the original printed surfaces of the steel cans or stripping them away to enamel the steel beneath. Her love of enameling comes from its expansive possibilities for color, imagery, and richly varied surfaces.
Marlene shares her enthusiasm for metalwork, enameling, and repurposed materials through teaching. She has led workshops at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Penland School of Craft, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and West Dean College in the UK.
She earned her MFA from East Carolina University and her BFA from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Her work has been featured in numerous publications and is held in the collections of the Metal Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Mint Museum, the Racine Art Museum, the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, and the Enamel Arts Foundation.