Coolness could be a draw. Custom-designed jewelry, sculpture and more will be the reasons attendees stick around.

Central Oregon Metal Arts Guild has been holding an annual show and sale since its start 17 years ago, according to jewelry artist John Paul, a founding member.

But when the guild, better known by the acronym COMAG, moved its Jewelry + Metal Arts Show to the Oxford Hotel in downtown Bend last year, “Everybody thought, ‘Being in the basement, how are you going to get people down there?’”

In the end, they didn’t have much trouble drawing art seekers to the hotel where the show returns this weekend (see “if you go”).

Last year, “The whole show grossed, like, $15,000,” said jewelry artist and COMAG member John Paul. “People were blown away.”

The guild began with just a handful of goldsmiths, but over time, it’s grown to more than 70 members, among them jewelers, sculptors, blacksmiths, fabricators and lapidary (stone) artists.

“It’s grown exponentially over the years,” according to Kellen Bateham, a blacksmith and president of COMAG.

“It started as just a handful of jewelers meeting once a month over beer, exchanging ideas and showing off things they made and asking each other questions,” he said.

COMAG’s early members were primarily goldsmiths who got together to discuss setting gems, problems with casting and other issues that came up in their work, according to Paul.

“(It was) more like a support group,” he said, laughing. “We all seemed to like beer, so we started meeting at pubs originally.”

Things got “pretty social for a while,” he said.

“As it grew over the years, we had to have a little talk about what our main goal was: Do we want to just be social or are we really about education and stuff?”

The group tilted more toward learning. COMAG convenes monthly at a member’s shop or studio, which along with guild business will include a demonstration by one of the members.

“There’s a lot of crossover … the jewelers benefit by coming to blacksmith shops, and then the blacksmiths learn by going to the jewelers because they’re doing things on these scales we don’t always think about. So, you can scale it up into something cool that makes sense for us,” Bateham said.

The jewelry Paul plans to bring to the show illustrate the crossover appeal of those meetings.

“I will mostly have my own signature series line, which is a lot of forged precious metals and diamonds. I do a lot of blacksmithing techniques to precious metals and then use my goldsmithing and stone-setting skills to add gems,” he said.

Paul confesses he gets plenty of face time with the public at his downtown Bend retail shop, John Paul Designs.

“I usually have a tiny little presence (at the show) because I want to support the show,” he said. “But this year I stepped it up a little bit and have a booth.”

Paul notes that the Oxford’s basement, also home to 10 Below Restaurant & Lounge, will be among the literally cooler places to be this weekend, given the forecast of hot days ahead.

“It’s … our ace in the hole that it’s going to be 95 this weekend. It’s underground, and it’s air-conditioned,” he said. “Come down for a cool drink at the bar, and you can bring your drink into the show with us. It’s just a good time, a lot of Central Oregonians, a lot of oldies and newbies.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0349,

djasper@bendbulletin.com