meet Chad Lieske

Chad Lieske is an artist and maker driven by an enduring curiosity for style, form, and three-dimensional design. A fearless optimist by nature, he approaches his work through exploration—guided by instinct, a hunger to learn, and a belief that the best way to understand something is to make it with his own hands.

In a world full of sayers, he is a doer.

Lieske received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Minnesota in 2011, where he focused on ceramics and three-dimensional sculptural design. Years later, an insatiable desire to learn led him to teach himself silversmithing, transforming his foundation in sculpture into a new language of precious metals, natural stones, texture, and wearable form.

His work is inspired by the enduring beauty and character of old jewelry and handmade objects—particularly the remarkable individuality achieved by generations of makers with limited tools and technology. With reverence for those who came before him, Lieske employs traditional techniques, including the ancient process of lost-wax casting, to create pieces that feel at once familiar, timeless, and entirely their own.

Born and raised on a farm three miles west of Henderson, Minnesota, Lieske grew up alongside his three brothers in an environment where creativity and resourcefulness were a way of life. Strong family ties also connected him to the American Southwest, where his grandfather—a cowboy and art collector at heart—helped ignite an early fascination with Southwestern and Native American art, craftsmanship, and culture.

Lieske knew early that he wanted to be an artist. After announcing that intention to his family in the sixth grade, he began visiting the Celebration of Fine Art in Arizona each season with his grandparents, imagining the day he might return not as a visitor, but as an exhibiting artist.

Years later, that vision became reality.

Passing Days is the continuation of that journey—an ever-evolving exploration of material, craftsmanship, history, and three-dimensional design. Each piece is another chapter: made by hand, informed by what came before, and created to live a life far beyond the hands that made it.