Melissa Manley lives and works in southeastern North Carolina a few miles from Wrightsville beach. She received her BA in studio arts from University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Years later she went back to gradate school in Metals at East Carolina University. While there Melissa was fortunate to study with enameling master Linda Darty and the godfather of found object Robert Ebendorf. She earned her MFA in Metal Design at East Carolina University in 2006. Melissa now teaches metals and jewelry at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington in addition to teaching workshops around the country in collage, book altering, watercolor and jewelry making for the past 7 years. Her work has appeared in Somerset Studio magazine, Belle Armoire magazine, Crafting Personal Shrines by Carol Owen, The Fine Art of Enameling by Linda Darty, Making Connections by Susan Lenart Kazmer, 500 Enameled Objects by Lark books, and Collage Lab by Bee Shay. Melissa winds down from the dizzy pace of making a living with her art by kayaking and beachcombing with her partner, kayak instructor Robert Smith, and her teenage daughter Meredith.