Dan Balk is an artist, who lives and works from his studio at The Greenhaus. He is committed to living as green as he can, and incorporating his lifestyle into his work. By creating his own metal alloys, out of recycled precious metals, and taking care to purchase his gemstones from ethical sources, he strives to respect and protect the resources provided by our earth.
Dan is a designer and goldsmith in the Tampa Bay area. Dan hand fabricates his unique jewelry from his studio in Lutz, Florida. Dan has participated and won awards at juried art festivals. He has donated many pieces for charity organizations and offers private silversmithing classes daily. Dan creates custom orders in silver and gold jewelry for clients all over the world.
Dan Balk has been featured throughout the Tampa Bay community. He has recently been interviewed on television Fox 13 News Good Day Tampa Bay with Charley Belcher 2014 & 2015, as well as TV ABC 28 The List with Jake Peterson, and on TV Bay News 9 On the Town, and Tampa Bay Metro Magazine’s Artist Profile. The Tampa Tribune and TBO.com have also featured Dan in the Tampa Bay area community news sections. Other local publications that have featured Dan’s jewelry are Accent Tampa Bay, 813area.com, Voxxi.com, Visit Tampa, CBS 10 Best, and more.
Dan’s jewelry designs are one-of-a-kind. Each piece is lovingly handmade by Dan, who creates his own sterling silver, 18K, and 14K gold alloys that he fashions, mills, forges, fuses and brazes into miniature sculptures for personal adornment. Dan selects and sets each stone, often performing his own lapidary work on select stones. This allows Dan to complete contact and artistic connection with each piece of fine art jewelry from concept to collection. Influenced by natural, organic forms that are more consistent with human anatomy than traditional jewelry, each piece of modern contemporary fine art jewelry is created with an emphasis on comfort, function, and durability.
“America has a rich heritage of fine craft that is in jeopardy of being lost.” Dan offers his classes, “In an effort to preserve the traditional cultural arts of American craftspeople. In an age where people are increasingly dependent upon computers, machines, and mass-produced goods, I believe it is extremely important to retain the time-honored skills of hand craftsmanship that have been passed down through hundreds of years from teacher to student.” -Dan Balk
Dan is enrolling beginner students, hobbyists, and the artistically adventurous to hand make jewelry in sterling silver or gold in his 1-Day classes. Students discover new abilities to design and create their own piece of jewelry under the guidance of a professional jeweler. No experience is needed. Reservations are required. Each class is approximately 4 hours long. Students learn about jewelry in Dan Balk’s fully equipped jewelry studio. Classes are one-on-one. Call to reserve your class date, 813-728-4325.
