My medium is metal, most often transformed into jewelry. The most significant aspect is that all embellishment is hand chiseled with gravers, to create floral, animal or patterned detail.

The jewelry itself is completely hand fabricated from flat sheets of various types of metal and wire, combined together by solder, polished, stones set, hand engraved, and finally polished again. Often the engraving is darkened to highlight the detail.

The engraving is done using hand gravers, similar to tiny chisels, which carve angled bright cuts for decorative reflection or fine lines for detail. Engraving is an embellishment technique that is very rare today due to its high degree of difficulty. Among jewelers and metalworkers, hand engraving is considered the highest degree of ornamentation, often requiring the additional mastery of metal fabrication and finishing.

Today, engraving is such a rarity, that in over ten years of exhibiting at 15 to 25 juried art fairs per year, I have never encountered another engraving artist.

No assistants, outsourcing, or collaborations are used at this time. With the exception of minor findings (earring post, nuts), all components of jewelry are the sole creation of Brooks. Some gift items such as pens, cigar cutters, etc., are purchased to use as canvasses for engraving; in such circumstances, the item itself is a minor portion of the sale price, with the engraving the focal point and the significant majority of the finished item’s value.

Awards Received for Artwork:

Best of Category, 2001 ‘Art Fair Off the Square,’ Madison, WI; Award of Excellence, ‘Monument Square Art Fair,’ Racine, WI; 3D Merit Award, 2000 ‘Artstreet,’ Green Bay, WI; Purchase Award, 2000 ‘Art in the Park,’ Wausau, WI; Best of Show - Jewelry, 2000 ‘Kansas River Valley Art Fair,’ Topeka, KS; 2nd Jewelry, 1999 ‘Art in the Park,’ Clinton, IA; 1st Jewelry, 1998 ‘Art in the Park,’ Clinton, IA; 1st Place, 1998 ‘Swedish Days,’ Geneva, IL; 1st Jewelry, 1997 ‘Kansas River Valley Art Fair,’ Topeka, KS; Jewelry Merit Award, ‘Artstreet’ ’97, Green Bay, WI; 1st Jewelry, 1997 ‘Wo Zha Wa Days,’ WI Dells, WI; 1st Place 3-D, 1997 Oshkosh Fine Arts Assn, WI; Best of Show, 1997 Art in the Park, Clinton, IA; 1st Place Jewelry, 1997 ‘Arti Gras,’ Green Bay, WI; Award of Excellence, 1996 ‘Arti Gras,’ Green Bay, WI; 1st Place, 1996 ‘Wo Zha Wa Days,’ WI Dells, WI; 1st Place 3-D, 1996 Oshkosh Fine Arts Assn., WI; Best of Show & Best of Jewelry, 1995 Edgerton Art Fair, WI; Award of Excellence, 1994 Lakeland Art League, WI; 2nd 3-D, 1994 ‘Artfest,’ Green Bay Art League, WI; Twice, Top Ten – International Entry, Australian Geolong Gem Federation.