Wayne’s love for flowers was encouraged from birth by his paternal grandmother Viola Goodwin Keeth. Her yard was always full of flowering succulents and exotic cacti with exquisite blooms. “Every time we visited her from as early as I can remember she would send me home with cuttings from her plants.”
His love for jewelry making and beautiful stones was instilled at an early age and developed with the help of his uncle who had a rock shop and lots of lapidary equipment that he taught him to use. In high school, he was invited to participate in an independent study program that allowed him to spend most of his junior and senior year in the art room. It was there that he was introduced to the lost wax casting method, and the process of casting organic material. In 1994, Wayne attended Northern Arizona University, with a dual emphasis of ceramics and metalsmithing. He graduated Suma Cum Laude in 2000. In 2008, he and his wife moved to Hawaii, fulfilling a lifelong dream.
The process he uses for creating most of his jewelry is called the lost wax process. In this process the piece is created in wax. There are no molds used and each piece is one of a kind. When he is using organic material such as orchids, insects, cactus skeleton, other flowers, or leaves – the process is the same as above except the flower is used instead of the wax shape.
“I grow most of the orchids and other exotic flowers in greenhouse which satisfies my love for growing beautiful plants and flowers as well as allowing me to select the blooms at the peak of their beauty for casting.”
