Jewelry Artist Jan Yager Dies

By Rob Bates | August 20, 2024

Janice “Jan” Yager, a widely respected jewelry-maker whose sometimes challenging work has been featured in museums all over the world, died on Aug. 14, following a 12-year battle with breast cancer. She was 72.

Born in Detroit, Yager received a BFA in jewelry and metalsmithing from Western Michigan University in 1974 and an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 1981. She moved to Philadelphia in 1983 and set up a studio, where she was based for 35 years. In a 2007 segment of PBS’ Craft in America, she described the city as a “visual buffet for a visual thinker.”

Yager’s work was often inspired by nature, which she called “the best teacher possible.” But one of her most celebrated collections involved large amounts from the nonnatural world: Her “City Flora/City Flotsam” series used discarded objects found within a block of her studio, including crack vials and bullet casings.

“I needed to do work that was authentic, that had to be of its place, and of its time,” Yager said on Craft in America. “I lived in a neighborhood with a lot of issues, a lot of problems, and I had not looked at or addressed any of these issues.” She didn’t intend those pieces to be worn, she said, but hoped they would be seen as “documents, mnemonic devices, memories of issues that our country is dealing with.”

Yager also spent two years researching the history and philosophy of jewelry and jewelry-making.

“I think that making things with your hands is a human core instinct, a really important part of us,” she told PBS, “and I think if we pay attention to the tactile power in craft, we will realize those are the best and the purest values to have.”

Her work is in the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City; Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts; the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum; the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; and the National Museums of Scotland.

Yager is survived by her daughter, Julia; sister, Karen; and brother, Robert. She was predeceased earlier this year by husband Rick Shnitzler.

An online guest book is here. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Yager’s name to support Craft in America.