Meet the artist

Joy Stember

Joy Stember scores and folds sheets of pewter into contemporary Judaica, from mezuzahs and menorahs to Shabbat candle holders.

Based: Abington, Pennsylvania
Since: 2010
Craft: Folded pewter Judaica

Joy Stember is a metalsmith who builds modern Judaica by scoring and folding sheets of pewter into three-dimensional forms, then embossing texture into the metal. She earned her BFA in Metals from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and took summer workshops at Penland, Haystack and Arrowmont. Her father, a fine jewelry designer, mentored her in design, craftsmanship and business.

The turning point came in the winter of 2010. Home from a Taglit Birthright trip to Israel, she felt a stronger connection to her culture and her identity as an artist, and she opened the Joy Stember Metal Arts Studio to make contemporary Judaica full-time. The studio is in Abington, Pennsylvania.

Her clean lines draw on mid-century design and the repetition of urban landscapes. At ModernTribe that includes Gila mezuzahs in patterns like Alef Bet and Stone, the modular Leah menorah, a Negev menorah that interprets the hills over the desert, and wedding shards mezuzahs and candle holders that keep the glass broken under the chuppah. She won the 2012 NICHE Award in the Judaica division.