The 2026 CoMA Conference

Erica Moody is a metal craftsman working in midcoast Maine, where she cultivates her line of forged and fabricated serving utensils, and continues her craft’s foundation of fabricating custom metal hardware commissions for architects and designers. Erica teaches metalworking classes and workshops at locations such as Rhode Island School of Design, Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Penland School of Crafts, Haystack, Center for Metal Arts, and The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship.

Her utensils have been exhibited internationally, including at Homo Faber Craft Biennial in Venice, and has been featured in publications such as Bon Appetit, Saveur, Metalsmith, Maine Home & Design, London’s Financial Times, and New Yorker’s The Cut.

@ericaemoody

In our modern culture of mass-produced commodities and fast fashion, Gary Roe’s interest as an artist lies in keeping handcraft alive by creating meticulously handmade, one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry. Originally on track for architectural drafting, he unexpectedly became enthralled by the world of handmade jewelry during college and graduated with a BFA in jewelry and metalsmithing from Maine College of Art and Design in 1994. Since then, Gary has dedicated his career to excellence in the craft, focusing on traditional fabrication, metal sculpting, stone setting, and wax carving.

Gary’s artistic inspiration draws from over 25 years of service restoring antique, historical, and museum jewelry. This work has shaped his aesthetic toward the beauty of small details and old-world craftsmanship. He is particularly inspired by the Art Nouveau, Etruscan, Renaissance Revival, and Art Deco eras.

As an educator, Gary’s goal is to impart what he has learned in over thirty years of devoted study and experimentation. His mission is to pass down the importance of excellent craftsmanship and innovative techniques.

@garyroejewelry

Kevin Potter earned an art degree in painting from the University of Arizona. He soon discovered that his true passion was making jewelry, and he called them mini-sculptures. Kevin became a fine jeweler, designing jewelry and building pieces through fabrication, carving wax and casting. Following the 2008 economic downturn, he found himself with little work and decided to create the tools he had always wanted to make while in college. This led him to make silversmithing stakes and sell them. He eventually began making various tools for jewelry making, including a hydraulic press, and Potter USA was born.

In 2016, Potter discovered the Parisi Tool & Die Company, a historic jewelry hub and die company in Providence, RI, that was set for the graveyard. He couldn’t stand to see all that history get buried, so he brought the collection back home to Tucson, AZ.  Saving old jewelry hubs and dies then became his all-consuming passion. Kevin created a way to share the art of the hubs with others, thus preserving their history. Potter USA has saved designs from 74 different companies from the US, Finland, France, and Germany. Kevin continues to make fine jewelry and pieces with the hubs and dies, as well as design and sell tools to jewelers around the world.

@potterusa

Leah Aripotch is a metal sculptor based in Oakland, California. She was born in 1987 and raised in Montauk, New York. She spent her childhood in swamps catching bugs and reptiles, surrounded by the lore of the abandoned air force base in her childhood backyard. She studied painting at SCAD for three years before transferring and receiving her BFA in sculpture from Academy of Art University.

Upon graduating, she began a paid apprenticeship in a commercial fabrication shop under her mentor, Brian Martin. Three years later, she opened her own metal shop where she has since focused exclusively on making art. Her work has gone down the runway at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, featured in various magazines and publications, and displayed in museums across the country, including the National Museum of Metal, the Fuller Craft Museum, Haggin Museum, and the DeYoung. A forever student of the metal arts, she continues to train and learn under masters of the craft and is constantly pursuing the equipment and knowledge necessary to push the limits of what can be hand built in steel. She lives in Oakland with her husband and two cats and builds monsters and aliens out of her metal shop.

@leaharipotch