At what point does an ongoing attempt to justify paying attention to online jewelry games by calling it research stretch credibility? Frankly, that and other questions are ones that we here at AJF simply can’t answer. But in the interests of being thorough, here is a recent game we stumbled across. You’re trapped in a jewelry store and have to use objects and clues to escape. (Given jewelry this bad, every contemporary jewelry supporter would gnaw off their own limb to get out.) Play or don’t play – the choice is yours. Just don’t say you weren’t warned.

To play The Jewelry Escape, click here.

‘For the Love of God is an amazing piece by Damien Hirst that consists of a platinum cast of a human skull encrusted with 8.601 diamonds including a massive pear- shaped one on the forehead. It cost 14 million pounds to produce. This is the ultimate contemporary piece of art that everyone wants to display in their home.

Now, with iHIRST you will be able to create your very own replica. We have included a real size plastic skull and and all the crystals you need to create your copy (Yes! Each one of the 8.601 crystals at an incredible price!). Even the glue and the tweezers are included; patience is the only thing you need. It´s a challenge!! You can even customize your design by adding crystals with different colours if you prefer. Choose your tools. With iHIRST you can create an entirely new design or stick to the original one. Enjoy a piece of art that´s as entirely individual as you are yourself.’

To visit the iArtist website, click here.

AJF’s season of Blame It On The Bling continues in its quest to find diamonds that do not make a lover of contemporary jewelry blush with shame. Hadas Levin, a reader of our blog and an Israeli jeweler, has submitted an entire exhibition for consideration. She and her fellow jewelers from Israel have tackled the challenge of designing with diamonds to make jewelry that doesn’t just settle for the banality of beauty and the facile facet.

Daria Guranda, My precious, beaded necklace, diamonds, gold, wood, Perspex and Styrofoam

The exhibition On the Point of a Diamond is a collaboration between the Jewelry Designers Group of the Israel Community of Designers and the Israel Diamond Institute. The exhibition opened in January 2010 at the Harry Oppenheimer Diamond Museum, situated in the Israel Diamond Exchange Building at the heart of the diamond industry district in Ramat-Gan, Israel.

Galit Meushar, So I have a diamond, necklace and ring, diamonds, 925 silver, Perspex

Diamonds – courtesy of the dealers – were distributed between the designers in an anonymous process. Each designer received diamonds totaling three carats which varied in number of stones, size, shape and color. Some were roughly cut, others finely polished. Confronted with the challenge the designers designed their pieces using the stones they received, according to their own unique way of work in terms of materials and technique.

Dalya Israeli, Jellyfish ring, diamonds, 18K gold, blackened silver

Levin also provided this statement from the exhibition catalogue, written by Batia Wang:

A lot of money, tremendous knowledge, and lengthy period of work are invested in each diamond, large or small, and it is only natural for the diamond dealer who sees the diamond as the center of interest and importance to expect to see a piece of jewelry that accentuates the stone’s beauty. On the other hand, the jewelry designer treats the diamond as both a material and a concept, and expresses this in the design. Jewelry set with diamonds is very familiar to us, but diamond jewelry, as a work of art, is far less known. . . .

Eyal Schoenbaum, Goblet ring, rough diamond, 24K gold, silver

A group of diamond dealers, who live the field of diamonds and are well aware of the prestige of the stones they polish and trade, have thrown down the gauntlet for this fascinating meeting with a group of artist-designers, who have met the challenge laid at their feet – an examination of the meaning, the message, and the substance that the diamond symbolizes for them.

Hadas Levin, Lula D necklace, diamonds, 925 sterling silver, aviation stainless steel (7X7 nylon coated cable), magnet

In relating to the exhibition’s title, ‘on the point of a diamond’, the designers have created a jewelry-object, when they examine the diamond as a material, the diamond as concept, the diamond as a shape and as an image etched into our collective associations. All the jewelry was designed especially for this exhibition.

You can see work from all the jewelers featured in this exhibition by clicking here.

Blame It On The Bling, our season of asking hard and searching questions about the value of diamonds in contemporary jewellery, continues with this submission from Pene Walsh, a New Zealand reader of the AJF blog. While it is the Australians who are descended from convicts and thus are a country of prisons, the honest citizens of Godzone (God’s own country, as New Zealanders sometimes call their homeland) are unfortunately not strangers to crime. Here we encounter some New Zealand jewelry by Ilse Marie Erl with more than a passing interest in (the institutions of) justice. You might call this Doing Time with Diamonds.

Ilse Marie Erl, Brooch, 2009, concrete, diamond, sterling silver, 240 mm diameter

Pene Walsh writes:

I had never spoken to Ilse Marie Erl or read anything about the brooch before, but I sort of knew that the concrete came from Mt Eden prison in Auckland. Straight away I liked the contrast of all that a prison conjures up and the respectable front diamonds have but often a criminal life lies behind their provenance. Like the ‘blood diamond’ – good to be reminded of where ordinary or intimate items in our daily lives come from. Every time I pin on the brooch, even though the diamond is a mere dot, Sierra Leone always flashes through my mind for a brief nanosecond, reminding me that I lead a privileged life. Since I’m not at all fond of the ‘Michael Hill’ school of jewelry but somehow cannot resist the traditional elements of jewels, like pearls, emeralds, rubies and diamonds, the brooch was a legitimate way of having it all. The photograph does not do justice to the diamond. It is very tiny and quietly twinkles away like no other stone can.

And here’s what Ilse Marie Erl has to say about her brooch:

All my concrete work with aggregate is from the new Mt. Eden prison in Auckland. I glue the diamonds in to enhance the quotidian/precious, traditional/contemporary contrasts or binaries. It is a discussion of preciousness, in the literal and in the lateral sense: there is a very limited amount of this particular concrete available, there is a history attached, where lies the preciousness in the ordinary? Why does something become precious? How? Further, there are associations along the line of prison, precious, criminal, blood diamonds, etc. And last but not least: with my entire concrete jewelry investigation I tried – unsuccessfully – to seduce Kiwi men into wearing more jewelry.

Our season of Blame It On The Bling continues here at AJF with a new show at AJF member Gallery Lulo in Healdsburg, California. (To visit the gallery website, click here.) Jeweler Elisa Bongfelt tells us why size matters in her work, and why the small and perfect brings a sparkle to her eye.

Elisa Bongfelt, Petals necklace, 2010, oxidised sterling silver, white diamonds, 17 inches long

I recently began using diamonds as a way to add the undeniable sparkle they possess to my work. Because diamonds are so eye catching, I think one of the biggest challenges in contemporary jewelry is to allow the work to be the focus, not the stone in it.

Elisa Bongfelt, Petals choker, 2010, oxidised sterling silver, white diamonds, 17 inches long

The contrast between oxidized silver and the diamonds is quite dramatic, and yet the forms of the pieces are not overshadowed by the stones. In this particular body of work, I have chosen to use diamonds that are quite small, so they are a subtle addition to the pieces;  they draw you in to look closer.

Elisa Bongfelt, Stacked bracelet, 2010, oxidized sterling silver, white diamonds, 8 inches long

So far in our season of Blame It On the Bling, in which we here at AJF indulge our (shameful) love of diamonds, we have focused on reception – why contemporary jewelry-loving and -wearing people might be attracted to diamonds. But what about the point of view of the maker? Here American jeweler Don Friedlich submits his excuse for hitting the rocks as an habitual user of the hard and sparkly stones.

Don Friedlich, Translucence Series pendant, 2003, synthetic ruby, diamonds, 18 k gold, 1 ¾ x 1/2 x 3/16 inches

I use diamonds for a variety of reasons. First, as a point of focus and light within a design that helps define and highlight the form. I almost always small two millimeter stones. They are modest in price compared to larger stones. The price goes up geometrically as the carat weight increases.

Don Friedlich, Translucence Series pendant, 2002, black onyx, diamonds, 18 k gold, 1 ¾ x 1 7/8 x 3/16 inches

Second, I use diamonds to bring an element of preciousness to glass, a material that is not inherently precious on its own. I like the contrast of precious and non-precious. It seems to elevate both materials in both my view and that of the public.

Don Friedlich, Translucence Series pendant, 2006, blown glass, diamonds, 18k gold, 2006, 3 x 2 x ¾ inches

The same can be said about my use of gold, but in addition, I use gold for its physical properties. I primarily use 22 karat gold because it is extremely stable in terms of tarnish and it is also quite soft and pliable. I often have to set a large but delicate piece of glass in a gold frame or bezel. This is usually very challenging technically but the softness of the high carat gold makes it easier. Also, if the underside of the setting tarnishes, I have no way to get in there and clean it. The gold won’t tarnish. Finally, you can’t beat the color and richness of high karat gold.

Don Friedlich, Translucence Series pendant, blown glass, diamonds set in 18 k gold, 2006, 2 ¾ x 1 ¾ x 7/8 inches

On the downside, I know the baggage that comes with many of the materials I work with. There is serious environmental impact from mining gold. While the environmental impact of diamond mining isn’t as horrible, the political impact can be very substantial. I work with metal suppliers who use 100% recycled gold and diamond suppliers who claim to work with conflict free diamonds. That said, as a small business that uses diamonds only occasionally, it is a difficult if not impossible area to police.

Here’s another submission to AJF’s season of Blame It On the Bling, our search for good diamonds, in which AJF member Valeria Vallarta Siemelink proves once again that it’s what’s on the inside that really counts.

Philippa Green, Engagement ring

My engagement ring. Eight rough diamonds (one green, one brown, one green . . .), representing the eight months of written exchange that I had with my (now) husband before we met face to face, are embedded in clear resin. The diamonds are, naturally, fair trade. The ring was designed by South African jeweler Philippa Green.

The ring is one of my dearest friends. I wouldn’t blush to wear it at an AJF event or anywhere else. I wouldn’t worry either about wearing it on the Mexico City metro system. For potential thieves, it only looks like a plastic ring with little ‘ugly’ rocks inside.

Here at AJF we are very keen on the trend towards sustainability that seems to be sweeping the jewelry world. So we greeted this report from The Onion with a great deal of enthusiasm – and hope that in 2011 we might be able to attend Schmuck, SNAG, SOFA and Collect without encountering a single necklace of unsustainably harvested baby skulls.

Report: Baby Skull Jewelry May Be Linked To Violence

Here at AJF we marvel at the various jewelry resources you can find on the internet. During one of our periodic searches of the outer reaches of cyberspace, we came across this list, compiled by Lou, of songs related to jewelry and precious materials. (Click on the title to hear a version of the song.)

Diamonds Are Forever – Shirley Bassey

Diamond Rings – Chipmunk

Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend – Marilyn Monroe

Wearing My Rolex – Wiley

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds – The Beatles

Ruby – Kaiser Chiefs

Gold – Spandeau Ballet

Diamond Dogs- David Bowie

Band Of Gold – Freda Payne

Black Pearl – Sonny Charles and The Checkmates

Diamonds Aren’t Forever – Bring Me The Horizon

Diamonds From Sierra Leone – Kanye West

Fields Of Gold – Sting and The Police

We Are Golden – Mika

Single Ladies/ Put A Ring On It – Beyonce

Okay, the jewelry might be conventional but we suspect the obsession that leads people to make lists like this is not that far from the passion that drives AJF and its members. So we suggest you make a new playlist on your ipod, and follow Beyonce’s advice.

AJF board member and Californian citizen Susan Cummins recently sent us a page from Wallpaper* magazine, which celebrated a new collection of Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry. Each to their own, you might say, and here at AJF we would normally have no problem with such a thing, except that California Reverie, as the collection is called, won Best Jewelry category in the magazine’s annual design awards. Here’s what Wallpaper* had to say about the jewelry and their decision:

It’s not the first time Van Cleef & Arpels have based a collection on an actual place (in 2006, Une Journee a Paris celebrated the house’s birthplace), but it is the first time it has so successfully captured in metal and gems both an era and a sense of place. Based on the premise that Californian imagery from the 1950s to the 1970s resonates strongly in our subconscious, California Reverie draws inspiration from such cultural big hitters as the Beach Boys, Ansel Adams and Henry Miller. The collection includes a pair of diamond palm trees, a necklace depicting a Pacific sunset, and cacti clips. The extensive use of coloured stones, such as turquoise, opal, chalcedony and coral, and the inclusion of larger cocktail pieces, ensures the collection is evocative of the given era – and our favourite of the year. As CEO Stanislas de Quercize poetically puts it, “It is like a half-real, half-imaginary trip down the West Coast, where memories give birth to unique, colourful jewels”.

(You can see the entire California Reverie collection at the Van Cleef & Arpels website by clicking here.) There’s a certain faux naive, self-conscious exploration of kitsch that is charming and amusing in this collection, but certainly from our perspective, this jewelry is not equivalent to the winners of other categories like fashion, interior design or furniture. It would seem, given Wallpaper* magazine’s continued favoring of conventional bling year after year, that they haven’t yet discovered contemporary jewelry. That is a worry – and not just because it makes Wallpaper* look a little silly, as if they were judging furniture and hadn’t realized that Italian design existed. It demonstrates one of the unhealthy outcomes of contemporary jewelry’s decision to align itself with fine art rather than design or fashion – and why organizations like AJF are so important in publicizing contemporary jewelry’s achievements.

Of course, this is also sad because thinking about place is one of the things that contemporary jewelry from different parts of the world has done very well. You don’t have to look past what might be called the West Coast school of American jewelry (Margaret de Patta, Peter Macchiarini, Romona Solberg, Keith Lewis, etc) to find adornment that thinks about locality with wit and sophistication. It’s not just the diamonds that make California Reverie a bit of a dog – ultimately it is the reliance on cliches like palm trees and sunsets that ensures this jewelry raises a smile but not much else.