meet beau donnan

Beau Wolfe Donnan, a self-taught artisan, has been making jewelry for over a decade. He spends most of his time gold and silver smithing, carving and shaping wax to then cast, cabbing and free forming stones and setting faceted stones to include in his work.

From a young age, Donnan began crafting and constructing art, mostly working with natural materials like stone to replicate native artifacts. He has always found himself drawn to the natural material form of art, collecting skills in basket weaving, tulle boat building, hide tanning, and primitive tool making. In his spare time, Donnan enjoys foraging for wild foods and herbs, reading nonfiction, design, and historical texts, studying languages and primitive/nomadic cultures, and sea kayaking in the Pacific Ocean.

He attended the Arques School in Sausalito, California where he studied boat building, the art of wood carving, and the precision required by woodwork that would later influence his craftsmanship with metals and minerals. Soon after, he studied blacksmithing in Chichester, England at the West Dean School of Edward James. Donnan is also a skilled chef having attended Le Cordon Bleu in San Francisco, graduating in 2008. He is a self-taught stone sculptor and practiced graffiti art in San Francisco for many years. He displayed his collection of drawings and paintings in a solo exhibition, Entropy, at the Beulah Gallery in Olema, CA. In 2019 several pieces of his jewelry were exhbited at Cal State Fullertons Atrium Gallery. Since 2018 Beau has been showcasing his work at The Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach for their Summer and Winter Festivals.