Russell Stephanchick -- Designer

I was born on a Russian fishing trawler in the Black Sea... Well, actually it was in Lorain, Ohio. I am actually a descendant of Russian / Slovak immigrants who came to this country to participate in the industrial revolution. After I graduated from high school I gravitated to Cleveland and enrolled in Cooper School of Art as a fine art major. After art school I was fortunate enough to land a silversmithing apprenticeship in Bristol, England (long story) and spent the next two years literally sweeping up after master goldsmiths in order to glean some of the secrets of the craft. After returning to the states, I opened the first of two jewelry gallery/workshops in Cleveland, Ohio. I then began participating in the America Craft Council wholesale shows, and began to reinvent my own very personal industrial revolution. After 6 years of being an "entrepreneur", lots of travel, long hours, and the birth of my son, I began to think about finally getting back into the mainstream for my livelihood. I went back to art school for the second time in my life (glutton for punishment?) and went through the Industrial Design program at The Cleveland Institute of Art. After serving two internships in the following years, one at Rubbermaid, and one at Thomson Consumer Electronics, I was recruited out of CIA to join a company in Michigan that designs and manufactures automotive interior components. In the next 12 years as an automotive product designer I had the opportunity to develop many different facets of my artistic skill sets. I'm currently a contract designer, working independently for several different companies across the country. Like the song says "What a long strange trip it's been..." It's my hope that this site will give you a glimpse into the artistic side of that trip...