has worked in whatever medium was available since childhood. Her recent endeavors include completing her Masters of Fine Arts in Metal Design at East Carolina University, studying under Robert Ebendorf, one of the godfathers of found object jewelry in the United States. Melissa specializes in jewelry and small vessels often incorporating natural objects gleaned from her kayak adventures in the waters around her home in Wilmington, North Carolina. Melissa has taught collage, watercolor, book altering and jewelry classes for the past ten years. Her work has appeared in Somerset Studio magazine, Crafting Personal Shrines by Carol Owen and The Fine Art of Enamelling by Linda Darty.