Dwight Bennett
Dwight Bennett is a native Californian, who earned his B.S. in Geography and his M.F.A. in Silversmithing/Metalsmithing at Indiana State University.
Dwight has been a self-employed metalsmith based out of Long Beach, CA for most of the last 45 years. As such, he has deftly taken the challenge of creating, customizing, restoring, altering, reproducing and replacing bronze, gold, silver, copper & brass decorative metal objects generally thought to be impossible to conserve or impractical to make.
After college, he designed a successful line of high-end sterling silver key rings for men. Dwight has also applied his metal making abilities to making prototypes of a revolutionary new type of crutch that he is in the process of patenting.
He worked independently for Road & Track Magazine where, for 33 years, he made photo-ready metal “props” for special edition articles, and designed and built all the hand-made trophies given by R&T.
Dwight is also a professional preparator where for twelve years he exclusively hung all the artworks for the Second City Council Art Gallery + Performance Space, and occasionally for the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena. After inventing a tool used exclusively for the hanging process, all art was hung professionally with the centers of each piece at eye level (considered to be) 57” to 60” from the floor.
He has made unique high-end antique automobile parts and has made whistling speaking tubes contemporaneous to the 1890’s Victorian era. He’s made public art and done high-end conservation for non-profit organizations. He has made photo-props for Toyota Racing Development, General Motors Corp, Honda Research America, and rear deck emblems and hubcaps for Ruf Automobiles. Dwight’s forays into automobilia came to the attention of Jay Leno, who subsequently interviewed Dwight regarding his metalwork. Check out the video below!
In 2017, Dwight was invited to set up and teach the new metalsmithing program at Washington College Academy. In time, Dwight will be adding more equipment for more varied classes as demand increases.
Dwight’s website is: MasterMetalMan.com
