Born 1948 in Richland, Washington, Sharon Church is a studio jeweler and professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Using her extensive technical vocabulary, Church carves materials like wood, horn, and bone into distinct elements, which are later combined with precious metals and stones into evocative and wearable jewelry designs that explore the paradoxical relationships between beauty, nature, life, and death. Church earned a BS from Skidmore College in 1970, and a MFA at the School for American Craftsmen, Rochester Institute of Technology in 1973. Church has been recognized with fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, the James Renwick Alliance Distinguished Educator Award, and the Philadelphia Art Alliance Medal of Distinction in 2010. Her work can be found in the collections of the the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, and the the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.