The space that artists Susan Freda and Arn Krebs share in Warren's Cutler Mills complex is roughly split down the middle (though truth be told, Arn, with his arsenal of equipment, might be creeping over the line). Both work in metals, and jewelry, though Susan's primary focus these days is in fine arts and sculpture. But that's about where the similarities end.

Susan creates forms, mainly dresses, from wire that she has woven together. Her work is airy and ephemeral, and her work space is filled with light, with works in progress handing from the walls and suspended from wires coming out of the ceiling. Completed commissioned works hang in an adjacent space, waiting to be shipped to private collections around the world. Susan also has pieces hanging in the Italian American Museum and the de Young museum, both in San Francisco. Most of her pieces are meant to be hung, not worn — though she has created a wearable dress and would be open to doing more, for the right opportunity.

Arn's specialty is Mokume Gane, a Japanese technique in which he layers different types of noble metals, predominately gold, palladium, and silver, which creates unique patterns that evoke nature and geology — wood graining in some pieces, Western landscapes in others. The end result is one-of-a-kind pieces, primarily rings and bracelets, each individually designed and handcrafted. Much like the natural world from where Arn gets his inspiration, his work is forged with strong forces of heat and pressure; his side of the studio is filled with hammers, presses, torches, and other tools that look capable of doing some serious damage in inexperienced hands.

The couple met at a glass artists' residency in Washington state started by famed glass artist Dale Chihuly. "We were both sort of exploring glass at the same time," said Susan, a Rhode Island native and RISD graduate. Arn was raised in Colorado, and studied and worked from Hawaii to Boston — but eventually they both ended up in the East Bay, where they live, in Barrington, with son Silas.

Susan has had a retail presence in Tiverton for years, though she sells her work from multiple locations. Arn's primary market is online, and through sites like Etsy. "You can get more than cat sweaters on Etsy these days," he laughs. "There's really quality work on Etsy, and the Mokume Gane that I do is perfect for that niche as it's all unique and has to be handmade. There's no way to mass-produce it."

Mokume Gane is also uniquely suited to the wedding market, as in the process of creating rings Arn can actually make a pattern and slice it in half, creating two rings with the same pattern. It's an involved and technical process that begins with making a billet, the stack of metals that will be laminated and pressed together to create the layers. The entire process can take about 3 days from beginning to end, longer if stones or other details are integrated into the design.

For Susan and Arn, their artistic styles are a pretty fair representation of their partnership — and in their case, opposites really do attract.

"Sue's very abstract and intuitive and I'm more utilitarian in my approach to everything. I plan things out, and I know what I'm going to do before I do it," said Arn. "Not that that always works out.

"But the interesting thing is we both have a similar aesthetic, this organic line, but we approach it in completely different ways. Mine is solid, and forged, and requires big tools and fire and heat, and Sue's all technique."

"It's good because we have opposite skills," said Susan. Also a jewelry artist, Susan has been increasingly focusing on sculpture, though the couple did collaborate years ago on a line of rings. While they would like to collaborate again, both agree, the truth is they are each so busy creating their own work, there's just no time.

So, how do they handle the shared space, and all the togetherness?

"It can be a lot, sometimes," admits Susan, who says she occasionally has to run away to take a call if Arn is doing a lot of hammering. "But we're not really in each other's space in the studio. It's the business end of things — talking about it, organizing the accounting — that can get to be a lot. But we are strangely very very compatible, which is good because there's a lot of communicating."

"That's how our relationship works too," said Arn. "There's compromise, and we end up in the middle.

"And that seems to be a pretty good place."

For more information about Susan and Arn's work, visit www.susanfredastudios.com.