Fragments and Fringe
Fragments and Fringe
DOROTHY NORTHERN, "Fragments and Fringe," 2026; Sterling silver, ruby, kyanite, quartz, pearl, red aventurine, tourmaline, Ethiopian opal, amethyst, fire opal, pink sapphire, sunstone, hessonite garnet, dendritic quartz, amber, and bronze; Courtesy of the artist
Fragments and Fringe
DOROTHY NORTHERN, "Fragments and Fringe," 2026; Sterling silver, ruby, kyanite, quartz, pearl, red aventurine, tourmaline, Ethiopian opal, amethyst, fire opal, pink sapphire, sunstone, hessonite garnet, dendritic quartz, amber, and bronze; Courtesy of the artist
Northern The Wandering Branch
DOROTHY NORTHERN, "The Wandering Branch," 2026; Sterling silver and Roman glass; Courtesy of the artist
Northern Iridescent Memory
DOROTHY NORTHERN, "Iridescent Memory," 2026; Sterling silver and Roman glass; Courtesy of the artist
Northern Archipelago
DOROTHY NORTHERN, "Archipelago," 2026; Sterling silver, rainbow fluorite, and emerald; Courtesy of the artist
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Mallory and Wurtzburger Galleries

Through Our Hands: Memory in Metal Tootsie Bell, Beth Lonsinger, and Dorothy Northern

Jan 10, 2027 - Apr 4, 2027

Through Our Hands: Memory in Metal celebrates the vibrant small metals community in Memphis through jewelry, vessels, and sculptural objects made by Tootsie Bell, Beth Lonsinger, and Dorothy Northern. “Small metals” refers to a category of metalsmithing that focuses on intimately scaled and portable objects often crafted from precious materials such as silver, gold, or platinum, but that may also incorporate other non-ferrous metals such as copper. While the three artists have distinctly different trajectories, their work shares a dedication to craft and a belief that the materials they work and the objects they create bear witness to memory.

Tootsie Bell holds a BFA in sculpture from the Memphis College of Art and has been an independent artist and jeweler in Memphis since 1995. She works primarily in silver, employing techniques including raising, forming, chasing, casting, and fabrication to create “story boxes,” vessels intended to hold the memory of people or events; nature-themed jewelry;  and commemorative sterling silver cars made annually for her son as special gifts memorializing each year in his life.

Beth Lonsinger, now the manager of the Metal Museum’s retail gallery, came to Memphis recently after personal tragedy forced a change that she had not been expecting. In September 2024, her home near Asheville, North Carolina, was destroyed by the floodwaters of Hurricane Helene. Digging through the mud downstream from her home site, she unearthed nothing of real value—electrical cords, an occasional button, broken odds and ends. For this exhibition, Lonsinger is finishing work she abandoned at the time of the disaster, making new jewelry and objects that serve as memorials forged out of the bits and pieces of her former life that she scavenged from the creek.

Dorothy Northern holds a BA in studio art with an emphasis in printmaking from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and an MAT in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Memphis. She was a secondary school visual art teacher in Memphis for more than twenty years. Largely self-taught as a metalsmith, her silver jewelry incorporates vibrant precious and semi-precious stones in a rainbow of hues. She fuses, forms, hammers, and distorts the metal, experiments with patinas, and refuses to polish away all the imperfections, finding particular beauty in the irregularities of the metal and stones, distilling a lifetime of experience into works that serve as sculptures for the body.