Artist

Frances Felten

born Alsen, NY 1905-died Winsted, CT 1976
Media - portrait_image_113530.jpg - 90292
Born
Alsen, New York,
Died
Winsted, Connecticut,
Nationalities
  • American
Biography

Frances Felten discovered art at a very young age while growing up in the Hudson-Catskill area in upstate New York. She moved to New York City to study art at the Pratt Institute, where the Swiss craftsman Mauritz Loeffler sparked her interest in metalwork. After graduating, she remained at her alma mater as an instructor. She eventually stopped teaching and went into business full-time as a pewtersmith. She sold her pieces to many fashionable shops in New York, but during World War II, when pewter was a restricted metal, Felten became a toolmaker. In her later years she continued to teach and used her entire house as a studio, which she called “The Shambles.”