Virginia McKinney’s clay-and-steel sculptures recall everything from Native American dwellings to Asian passageways. Small notches indicate doors and windows; steel ladders lead to unexplored rooms. “I’m intrigued by the idea of the dwelling, of a sense of place,” she says.

“I have made jewelry for as long as I can remember,” says Molly Dingledine. And she’s not kidding. She started threading necklaces as a child, and by high school had a bona fide business, “Molly Made,” replete with custom jewelry boxes and labels.

“The more I work in glass, the simpler the forms become,” John Geci says. The piece that best defines his current aesthetic is a double-walled “Eclipse” bowl. Practically transparent, it’s defined by smooth contours. “In every piece I create, I try to show how the glass behaves when it’s molten,” Geci explains. “I want every piece to have static mobility.”

Jen Swearington took a winding road to her career as a full-time clothing designer. “Growing up in an unremarkable place made me want to get out, to travel,” she says. And she did.

The Indiana native hopped from the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis to a short-lived apprenticeship at a tattoo shop in Gary, all the way to the Pratt Institute in New York City to study sculpture. And she still wasn’t sated. So she applied to the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she earned her master’s degree in fibers in 2000.