[6] Her father was a construction engineer for DuPont Co,[7] and she recalls growing up watching her mother doing craft work and wearing jewelry.

[11] She was encouraged to be a carver and work substractively as a student of Albert Paley during her first year at graduate school.

“To make something with your hands, to know that you exist, to see that that existence has value – even for someone who just likes doing it, it has enormous value.” Sharon Church[15]Sharon Church is known for carving materials like wood, horn, and bone and sometimes incorporating them into works with precious metals and stones.

[11] Following the death of her first husband in 1993, Church began to make carved wood a key element of her jewelry and sculptures.

Her first piece in this style, It was the Most Beautiful Day of the Summer (1995), resembles both a fox's head and a cloven heart, in gold and ebony.

[32] Her work, Oh No!, was acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of the Renwick Gallery's 50th Anniversary Campaign.