We recently connected with Tony Baxter and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Tony, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
Truly, my resilience comes from failure and pushing limits. Through learning from those failures and continuing to get back up, dust myself off, and push onward even when things were painful or bleak. Life’s thrown a lot of curve balls, and so I have had to learn the nature of change in our world.
Last summer, I had an SUV run through a stop light and almost kill me. Broke my foot. No weight-bearing orders for ~4 months, I still deal with pain and numbness regularly. But I am proud to say that I can get 10-milers in again since. Don’t let anything set you back. Come back better, train harder, learn new skills.
As an artist, there’s so much of this imbued within…it’s the act of building, destroying, refining, and rebuilding, again and again and again. It’s deeply alchemical and spiritual. It’s patience and a careful hand that is learned by trial.
To me: I see the alchemical processes. In alchemy, these stages are symbolic of inner transformation and material mastery. Alchemy not in the sense of turning lead to gold, but as the transmutation of the self – and that’s exactly what the artistic process echoes.
It’s not a linear process. You pass through these stages over and over-sometimes within the same piece, sometimes over a career, or even a single morning at the bench.
To me, this is real spirituality. Not chanting mantras, but transmuting your own being through the devotion required to achieve mastery.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I’m trying to get my own business going, my love and passion is creating, manufacturing. I’m a project manager, engineer, metalsmith, designer, and maker of heirloom objects — but what I do goes deeper than that. My work bridges the ancient and the contemporary: weaving traditions like chain weaving, granulation, precious metal refining, setting hand-cut stones, and combining it all into pieces that blur the line between adornment and artifact.
Each piece I create is entirely hand-fabricated. I start with raw materials — bullion, uncut stones and cut, wire — and from there, every hammer strike, laser weld, and granule is placed with intention. I work in precious metals like fine and sterling silver, copper, and gold, and often incorporate my own stone cuts, from nephrite to sapphires, into the designs. I’ve also begun experimenting with wearable art objects in leather, like my most recent project: a deer suede bandana inlaid with over 200 hand-struck silver motifs, each one welded and whip-stitched into place. That piece alone has over 60 hours of labor and more than 1,060 individual laser welds.
What makes my practice special is the intersection of discipline and soul. I’m not chasing trends — I’m trying to create work that feels alive, that carries weight. I believe in honoring material, in taking the time to do things the hard way if that’s what the piece demands. That’s why I don’t consider this “craft” — it’s closer to ceremonial work, grounded in reverence.
I don’t run a big studio (yet), but I treat each piece as if it’s meant for a museum or a time capsule. The dream isn’t just to sell jewelry — it’s to create relics of the present moment.
Coming up, I’m expanding into more wearable art objects — fusing metal with textiles, building sculptural pieces that can be worn, touched, and lived with. I’m also working on a limited series of pieces using tourmaline I’ve cut from a recent prospecting trip to Maine.
If there’s one thing I want people to know, it’s this: there’s still room in the world for the slow, the hand-built, the meaningful. And that’s what I’m here to make.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back, the three most impactful qualities in my journey have been curiosity, work ethic, and a studious nature.
Curiosity is what first led me to the bench. I wasn’t taught this work in a formal setting — I found it through obsession. I wanted to know how ancient artisans made chains that lasted centuries, how granulation was done before modern torches, how stones were set with nothing but wire and instinct. That hunger to understand — to take things apart, research obsessively, test ideas by hand — has never left me. If you’re early in your journey, protect your curiosity. Follow it relentlessly. Let it lead you into deep rabbit holes.
Work ethic has been non-negotiable. Most of what I’ve learned was through repetition and failure. There’s no shortcut when you’re trying to master technical processes — you have to put in the hours. But it’s not just about grinding; it’s about working with intention. My advice: make time to work every day, even if it’s just 15 minutes. Show up for the process. Momentum compounds.
Finally, my studious nature helped me synthesize everything I was learning. I treat this work like an academic discipline — not just as a trade, but as a living tradition. I read historical texts, study archaeological findings, take notes, sketch ideas, and constantly look at how past and present artisans problem-solved. For beginners: document your process. Learn from every mistake. Your studio is a classroom, and you’re both the student and the teacher.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
Absolutely — I’m always open to meaningful collaboration, especially with those who share a deep respect for craftsmanship, intention, and pushing boundaries in art and adornment.
I’m particularly interested in working with:
• Designers who see jewelry not just as accessory, but as narrative and symbolism — fashion as storytelling.
• Photographers, stylists, and visual artists who want to build emotionally charged editorials or installations where texture, ritual, and heritage play a key role.
• Cultural historians, metalsmiths, lapidaries, and others who explore ancient techniques with modern tools — whether laser welding or hand-riveting — I believe innovation and tradition can coexist.
• Sustainability-driven brands or galleries that prioritize material consciousness, artisan labor, and long-form creation over mass production.
If what I make speaks to you — whether visually, philosophically, or materially — I’d love to connect. I value dialogue, experimentation, and cross-disciplinary fusion.
To get in touch, please reach out via Instagram @thegoldsmitha6b or direct email @ [email protected]
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegoldsmitha6b
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/a-stephen-b-6a2681240?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@-a6b_metalandstone?si=30tMD4qmbzsHFUyk
