its infancy compared to established schools like the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. Harling is one of the first instructors hired at the school, and he points out that “What we are doing here in Kentucky is really community development. It’s a 20-year plan. Hopefully then we’ll see a flourishing crafts community."

Harling's own professional background serves him well in his teaching position as Master Artisan in Jewelry/Metalsmithing, for it is a pragmatic blend of business management, teaching, and his creative work as an artist. As regards his teaching, Harling notes "I think it’s important for those who have the skills to pass that on. In a sense keeping the culture means to mentor, teach and pass on what you know…"

Creating within strong European and Asian traditions of using gold for jewelry and objects of reverence, Harling’s gold adornments stem from his love of history. He is keenly aware of the relationship, historically and functionally, between his work and the human body. Yet, while utility and function play a necessary part in Harling’s attention to detail, he wants usefulness only to serve as a starting place.

Harling’s current work continues an interest in creating pieces that celebrate life’s bounty; perhaps an attempt to count one’s own blessings. “I have often felt very fortunate in spite of myself. Over the last year and a half I’ve made several gold cups. Throughout history a gold cup, even a small one, is an object of great extravagance. No one is so deserving they are entitled to drink from gold. It is something beyond any expectation. Even Philip II of Macedon, Alexander the Great’s father, slept with his gold cup under his pillow for fear of its theft. In Chinese mythology one of the nine dragon sons is named Taotie; a symbol for fear and might. Taotie masks were a frequent decorative motif on ancient Chinese bronzes. By referencing this in ‘Taotie Cup’ I’m making a direct statement on fear: fear of being undeserving, fear of loss. In the end I was left with Franklin Roosevelt’s quote ‘the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.’ I have in my personal collection an Islamic ‘fear cup’, a brass bowl with a cone rising from the center. Its surface is inscribed with Quranic verses and supplications. ‘Fear cups’ were filled with water and left out under the night heavens. The contents were then given as medicine. With the ‘Full Measure Cup’ I copied the form in miniature; seeking my own cure from fear and freedom to enjoy life’s blessings.”