William Harper is an American jewelry artist who was born in Bucyrus, Ohio, in 1944. He received a BS in 1966 and an MS in education in 1967, both from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He also studied advanced enameling techniques at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Harper began his career as an abstract painter but in the early 1960s switched to enameling. Many of his creations relate to mythology and ritual objects.
William Harper currently resides in New York City. His work was included in the exhibition One of a Kind: The Studio Craft Movement at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, December 22, 2006-September 3, 2007.
This artist should not be confused with the Afro-American sculptor and painter William A. Harper (1873–1910) or the American painter William St. John Harper (1851–1910).