"You know me, I think there ought to be a big old tree right there. And let's give him a friend. Everybody needs a friend."― Bob Ross

Suzanne Pugh is a metalsmith and educator whose practice hovers between the ornamental and the utilitarian, the intimate and the architectural. Her work often blurs the boundary between jewelry and object, quietly pushing against expectations of adornment and function. With a background in traditional metalsmithing and decades of teaching, she brings precision, restraint, and material intelligence to everything she makes.⁠

Her piece in GARDEN is a hand-fabricated silver cup, textured to resemble the surface of a tree stump. The form is minimal, even modest, the execution is anything but. Each mark on the silver mimics the grain, rings, and scars of bark and age, drawing the eye to details that feel both ancient and immediate. This isn’t just a cup; it’s a meditation on presence and impermanence, on what it means to be shaped over time.⁠

Pugh’s work resists excess. It’s not about embellishment, but about attention—how form, surface, and gesture can carry meaning. In this piece, the natural world is not simply referenced, but embodied: you can almost feel the weight of the forest, the silence between trees, the slow accumulation of years.⁠

Now based in Massachusetts and teaching at RISD, Pugh continues to explore how structure becomes metaphor, and how a vessel—a cup, a brooch, a line—can hold something more than its shape. Her work is deeply felt, rigorously made, and grounded in the belief that nature is not only inspiration, but material.⁠