John Paul Miller

Who was John Paul Miller?

John Paul Miller was a noted American jewellery designer and goldsmith, who also produced films, photographs and paintings. Stephen Harrison, decorative arts curator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, compares Miller's work with that of René Lalique and Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Miller's mother died when he was two, after which his family moved to Cleveland, where he attended Hough Elementary School and later Shaker Heights High School. He then enrolled in classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art following this with courses at the Cleveland School of Art where he studied enameling with Kenneth F. Bates. In 1936 he enrolled in the Cleveland School of Art's industrial design program.

Inspired by the silver jewellery of another student, Frederick A. Miller, John Paul set out to learn the techniques demanded by working with silver. He soon started creating rings and brooches using classical music and the natural world as inspiration. Some of his teachers greatly influenced his work: Kay Dorn Cass, Paul Travis, Walter Sinz, Carl Gaertner and Viktor Schreckengost. John Paul later shared a studio and home with Fred Miller, his wife Mary and two children.