Hammering out fine art in Winsted

WINSTED — When artisan Jim Gagnon opened up his workshop and studio space in Whiting Mills two years ago, it was a homecoming of sorts.

Gagnon, an award-winning and nationally renowned pewtersmith, first began working with the malleable metal in the Winsted workshop of artist Frances Felton in the mid-1970s.

After initially focusing on handcrafting gold and silver jewelry as a young artist, the Simsbury native — who is one of the founding members of the Farmington Valley Arts Center — decided to head in a more challenging artistic direction.

“I wanted to stay in a more traditional form of making things,†Gagnon said.

And so, after visiting Felton in her Strong Terrace home here at the time, Gagnon applied for and received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts that allowed him to apprentice under the watchful eye of the master pewtersmith.

“We hit it right off,†Gagnon said of Felton. “And I really got interested in pewter.â€

He spent the next three years working with Felton, eventually moving his family from Simsbury to Colebrook in 1975. There, he set up his own shop.

During his time with Felton, Gagnon said he eventually began to break away from her designs and approach to working with pewter, and develop his own, something she encouraged.

“I began to take a more non-traditional approach,†he explained. “I was working with the metal as if I was using silver or gold ... what I did was more of a silversmithing format.â€

After Felton passed away in the late 1970s, Gagnon continued to work with his metal of choice, winning awards at juried shows and exhibiting and selling his pewter pieces at events throughout the region and nationally.

Building on that success, the artist opened up an expanded studio in the early 1980s in the Sterling Name Tape building in Winsted, as well as a gallery in Riverton.

“People think of pewter as antique pieces ... but then they would come in and I would have all these contemporary designs,†Gagnon said of his gallery.

In addition to his contemporary designs, Gagnon works only with high-grade, lead-free pewter, which is 97-percent tin, with small amounts of copper and antimony.

This only serves to highlight the quality of his design work, he said.

Throughout the remainder of the decade, Gagnon — who was named one of Connecticut’s first Honored Master Craftspeople in 1985 — continued to hone his craft, creating high-quality pewter pieces,including commissioned sculptures for IBM and the state of Connecticut, as well as jewelry for Cartier’s Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan.

“And I never sold them any of my designs,†Gagnon said of the work he did for Cartier. “I signed all my pieces.â€

But in the early 1990s, Gagnon went through what he calls his “transitional phase.†Divorced and now a single father with three young children to help raise, he decided to switch career gears and take a steady salaried position.

“I took it as a sabbatical. I was really burnt out from designing things,†he said.

Luckily, Gagnon — who graduated from Central Connecticut State College with a degree in industrial technology and education — was able to shift into a corporate post at Skip Barber Racing, serving as the Salisbury-based company’s operations manager.

“A lot of my technical background helped me ease into the position,†he said, adding that he stayed with Skip Barber for more than 13 years.

“I really enjoyed it,†he said of working with the company and spending countless hours out at the Lime Rock Park racetrack.

But now, with all his children grown and off pursuing their own professional passions, Gagnon has returned his focus to art and pewter.

“I said, ‘Hey, let’s get all that stuff out of storage and get it going again,’†he said.

Remarried and now living in a home out on Highland Lake, the artisan has begun and completed work on numerous projects and pieces since returning to the workshop.

“And I still have all the designs from before,†he said, adding that he also intends to craft some new concepts for his jewelry, sculptures and other handcrafted work.

“I’m back where I started ... and let’s just see how it goes,†he said with a smile.

For more information, visit jrgdesignstudio.com.