Thomas Mann

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Thomas Mann was born in Northampton, Pennsylvania and raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania. At sixteen he went to work with a silversmith and also started selling his own bangles in high school to make extra cash. This is where his fascination with jewelry began. Unlike most other leading jewelry artists, Thomas Mann is the product of neither a conventional university nor an art school education. He started out as a physical education major but after forging his advisors signature to take art classes he ended up graduating with a degree in Performing Arts. He developed his use of industrial materials by using various metals in each of his designs. Silver, brass, steel, and copper are all used in his Techno-Romantic style.

Thomas Mann soon moved to New Orleans and became an active participant in the contemporary American Craft movement for over forty years as an artist, gallery owner and educator. He describes himself as an artist working in the medium of jewelry and sculpture. The primary design vocabulary which he employs in the making of jewelry objects combines industrial aesthetics and materials with evocative themes and romantic imagery. He calls this design system Techno-Romantic. Though it’s not the only design mode in which he works, it is the one for which he and his work is best known.

Thomas Mann lives and works in New Orleans where he oversees a jewelry design and production studio, sculpture studio, art gallery and educational workshop.