Born in Oil City, Pennsylvania in 1960, Sandra Enterline has long been inspired by the mysterious, abandoned factories of her childhood. The industrial structures in her memories rise like hulking cathedrals: immense, gritty, and dark, yet strangely fragile. She is best known for her myriad of hand-drilled holes; a signature of her jewelry. The countless apertures that dot her pieces are reminiscent of insect bites on a leaf or the slow decay of rusted iron. These perforations allow light to pass through, creating a vibrating surface that shifts with the movement of the wearer. Light becomes shadow. Interior and exterior trade places. A balance is struck between austerity and warmth.

Sandra Enterline graduated with an AA in jewelry and metalsmithing from the Rochester Institute of Technology, School for American Crafts in 1980 and went on to earn a BFA in jewelry and metalsmithing from Rhode Island School of Design in 1983. Enterline’s award-winning work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions throughout the world. Her many honors include two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships (1988 & 1992); Best of Show (2016) and Excellence in Jewelry (2005) Awards at the Smithsonian Craft Show, Smithsonian Institution; Grand Prize Winner, “Crocker Kingsley 73rd Exhibition,” Crocker Art Museum; and a nomination for the National Design Awards, Smithsonian, Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum (2003).

Enterline's pieces are in the collections of both national and international museums, most notably the American Craft Museum, New York, NY; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; the Renwick Gallery in the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia; and the Seymour Rabinovich Collection in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom. Enterline’s work has also been covered in publications such as The New York Times (1989), Vogue, Metalsmith Magazine, American Craft Magazine, and Ornament Magazine.

In addition to her artistic work, which she creates from her home studio in San Francisco, Enterline gives lectures and conducts metalsmithing workshops. From 1991-1992, she worked as a visiting professor at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and as a visiting artist at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Currently, she serves as a guest critic at universities in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the Academy of Art University and the California College of the Arts.