Clara Barck Welles

A silversmith, Clara Wells established a craft shop called Kalo, after the Greek work for 'beautiful'. It was located in the Fine Arts Building in Chicago for three decades and then moved to Michigan Avenue. 

Overseeing and controlling design, she employed twenty-five silversmiths, and the "shop became known for some of the most beautiful silver pieces ever made in America."  In 1939, her silver was included in a Museum of Modern Art exhibit in New York.

She retired from silversmithing in 1940 but continued as owner of the shop, and in 1977, the Chicago Historical Society had a comprehensive retrospective of her work and the other artisans of Kalo.


Source:
Jean S. Hunt, Walking With Women Through Hi   ...  Displaying 750 of 759 characters.