Member Spotlight: Margaret Lumia
Margaret Lumia
NWTO member Margaret Lumia is an artist. Her art talent spans several disciplines from sculpting original dolls to creating enameled jewelry. In fact, she created both the NWTO logo necklace as well as its predecessor the NSWTA logo necklace and key ring.
Margaret got started in art because her grandmother was a crafter and taught her many skills using her hands. Her hands were surgeon steady. Those steady hands combined with a good eye for spatial relationships made many things come naturally to her. Intense training and repetition in several art disciplines helped her to reach the highest levels in her fields achieving top awards.
Margaret is also an avid tennis player. Her parents started to play tennis in a public park in their 30’s. When she was around 11 years old, one of the older players at the park gave her a racquet and a ball. Tennis was an addiction from the start; her tennis began against a wall until a pro told her parents that she should be in one of his clinics. A dedication to training and repetition also led to success in tennis.
Her original artistic specialty was as a doll sculptor. She created a line of dolls called Strong Women in History. This line captured international attention with figures of such strong women as Queen Elizabeth I, Eugenie of France and Catherine the Great. This led to the idea that it might be cool to reproduce jewelry worn by some of the women who were represented in this collection.
Some of this jewelry was enameled and the process intrigued her. She adopted the use of the Lost Wax Method of Casting Metal for all her pieces. She used this method in creating the NWTO logo necklace: “The NWTO has a beautiful logo which lends itself to jewelry—creative with beautiful colors perfect for enamel work.
She does custom work to a limited extent but runs out of hours in the day for everything she would love to accomplish. Her artistic range spans sculpting and modeling clay, ceramics, fused glass, shell mosaics, antique and reproduction porcelain figurines, and china painting in addition to her jewelry and dolls.
Lost Wax Method: The necklace for the NWTO started with a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) which created a 3-D piece specifically made for enameling. Then the piece is printed and cast. This casting is used to create a master mold. From the mold, wax forms are made using a wax injector. These are sprued on a tree. A plaster mold is made around this tree which is then baked in a kiln for about 15 hours to vaporize all the wax leaving only the negative spaces of the form. While the mold is still hot, molten silver (.990) is poured in to replace the negative spaces. Each piece is still attached to the tree and sawed off by hand. After cleaning, the silver pieces are enameled. Each color is prepped, washed, and applied with a paint brush in layers and kiln-fired to 1430-degrees F. This step is repeated until the enamel reaches the top of the metal. Each piece is hand-sanded with 6-10 specialized glass sanders until smooth. After polishing, the completed piece is placed on a rhodium-plated 1.5 mm 17” cable chain.
Margaret says: “Thank goodness for tennis and other outdoor activities in the current environment. Lately, along with a group of my tennis friends, pickleball has become a popular alternative. As we get closer to herd immunity, travel between states and other countries will resume making tennis activities viable. I hope to begin competing again in USTA, ITF, or IC events. In terms of art, my focus will remain with enameling and expanding my knowledge thereof. Both tennis and art have hugely impacted the quality of my life and have been stress-reducing outlets-- art for the creative side of expression and tennis for the physical. Although everyone in my immediate family have played, tennis did not become a passion for them. My family gave me full support in the tennis adventures that I have had the privilege to play. Tennis is the gift that keeps giving, truly a life sport that offers a healthy lifestyle, quality of life, and a bridge to friendships. In short, it became a very impactful part of my life. Because it is so important, I believe in giving back when it is possible.”
Margaret thinks that the NWTO has made monumental positive changes. Changing the name and eliminating the word senior was big. She believes that alone will help promote the organization to younger players. “‘At least I know I wouldn’t have wanted to be termed senior at the age of 30. Changing the structure of the organization and foundation should make it much easier to secure charitable contributions in the future.”
Although there are accomplishments throughout her tennis and life as an artist, she is proudest to have had the ability to adapt, the discipline to work hard, the mind to set goals and the opportunity to achieve them. She feels blessed to be able to do the things she loves, build friendships all over the world, and share these passions with others.
Author’s note: Margaret donated one of the NWTO logo necklaces to our recent online auction. You can visit her website at www.studiomargaret.com.
