July 8th, 2010 06:07
Should you find yourself in Santa Fe, New Mexico, during the next four days we suggest you make a visit to SOFA West and check out the high-end craft and contemporary jewelry on display from 8-11 July 2010. If the only sofa you have ever heard of is a kind of couch, let AJF be your guide to one of the major institutions of the American craft scene. According to the SOFA website:
SOFA Chicago has been running annually since 1994, and was joined by SOFA New York in 1998. SOFA West: Santa Fe is the new kid on the block, now in its second year. (You can find out more about SOFA by clicking here.)
Contemporary jewelry lovers attending the fair should look out for ‘My hands are my favorite tools: conversations with four jewelers – Robin Waynee, Kenneth Johnson, Pat Pruitt and Cody Sanderson’, taking place on Friday 9 July 2010. The organizers are branding this event as ‘A panel discussion on Southwest jewelry today featuring four artists whose work is contemporary and individualistic, but at the same time a continuum of the art inspired by the vast cultural and natural landscapes of the American Southwest.’
We asked AJF gallery member Charon Kransen if he could tell us a little bit about why he attends SOFA West, and what he was intending to show this time around. Here’s what he told us:
AJF will be publishing a review of SOFA West: Santa Fe on our website in the next month, so if you want to know more (including the color of the Charon Kransen booth), keep watching this space.
June 22nd, 2010 10:06
Turquoise: True, blue or both?
If you really want the scoop on your favorite gemstone, start by asking a miner! Dayton Simmons, a miner and dealer from Santa Fe, who has been in the business since he was 12, set the record straight recently when he talked about turquoise to the San Francisco Metal Arts Guild (23 May, 2010).
It was news to me that only 5% of all mined turquoise is gem quality, meaning it is relatively hard, with a Moh rating of 5.5-6.5. As for everything else, well it’s softer and more fragile, often to the point of being chalky.
Native craftspeople have always had their own favorite ways of improving the color and relative porosity of this lovely stone – remedies including soaking in water or rubbing on body oils. Commercial stabilization – impregnation with plastic – began in 1950, followed by reconstitution, enhancement, and a brand new (secret) process called Eljen that substantially hardens the material.
There’s still turquoise mining in the southwest, but you’d better check the credentials of any dealer you patronise. ‘Tibetan’ turquoise? Forget it – most of the lower cost turquoise comes from China, of course. ‘White Buffalo’? A nice material, but it shouldn’t be called turquoise.
How about the pieces you inherited from your family? If they’re older than 1950, the stones are almost certainly gem quality. Modern look-alikes? The pieces Simmons showed us looked old but weren’t. He’d had local craftspeople create new ‘old style’ pieces with gem quality stones. Full marks for disclosure!
If a piece in your collection needs repair, talk to Simmons. (Silver Day Trading Co., PO Box 22716, Santa Fe, NM. 87502, 505 982-3310.)
June 16th, 2010 10:06
A late night last October doesn’t feel so long ago. In the studio, burning the midnight oil, polishing off my online submission for Talente. At the time it felt like one of those lotteries – ‘gotta be in to win’. I had only recently realized I was actually eligible (you have to be 30 and under). Little did I imagine that five months later I’d be walking the snowy streets of Munich.
As an emerging jeweler, being selected for Talente is a tremendous encouragement and endorsement. It suggests someone somewhere thinks you might have an inkling of promise. So I was incredibly grateful for the opportunity, from Creative New Zealand, the national arts funding body, to attend the show in person and experience this jewelry pilgrimage. The week of events was one of exhilarating (and slightly dizzying) full jewelry immersion. Aside from Schmuck and Talente there was a multitude of satelite exhibitions, showcasing a work from many countries. As a result people had journeyed from all over Europe, the UK, USA, Australia and our six-strong contingent all the way from New Zealand.
Talente was naturally our first stop in the week of events. To provide a bit of background, Talente is organised annually alongside Schmuck by the Handwerkskammer für München und Oberbayern. Both are part of Munich’s International Trade Fair. Located at the outskirts of Munich, the trade fair occupies a sprawling former airport and includes everything from plumbingware to specialty sausage. Needless to say most of us never left Trade Hall A (the handcrafts hall).
Unlike Schmuck, Talente focuses on young and emerging talent from a range of craft and design fields. This includes jewelry (which always has a strong presence), ceramics, glass, furniture, lighting design, textiles, fashion, product design and technology. This year 99 entries were selected from the 400 submissions, representing 24 countries. The diversity of work in itself is impressive – from vessels, lamps and furniture, to a boat, a burial urn and almost everything in between. I would estimate close to half was jewelry.
Memorable examples included the hyper-realistic fake flower corsages of Jihye Lee (South Korea), the tack-a-rama fake nail and LED flower ensembles of Lisa Juen (Germany/China), the subtler stone and photograph assemblages of Berta Riera (Spain), and the lightweight realistic boulder brooches of Barbara Schrobenhauser (Germany). In truth, there was so much to see in Talente alone (not to mention the neighboring Schmuck, Exemplar and gallery shows) that it was a little overwhelming. Despite visiting three times, I was relieved to have the color catalogue to go back to at a later date.
With the week’s packed lineup, I was keen to see different approaches to exhibiting jewelry. In Talente and Schmuck, the challenge of displaying such variety understandably meant the exhibition design was fairly innocuous. The works were laid out in well-lit glass and steel cabinets, or hung from the steel partition system – tidy industrial design but more in the spirit of the trade show it was part of.
Many of the satellite exhibitions, however, were sited in more unusual locations or featured inventive displays. One of the most experimental shows was Eternal Shine – it’s not a Pony, by four current and former students at the Academy. This was a kaleidoscopic treat with mirror plexiglass display boxes hung on the grungy walls of a painting studio. These boxes were arranged at various heights that forced you on your our tippy-toes or demanded you squat down for a good look. Their entertaining optical effects certainly held people’s attention but, surprisingly, without detriment to the jewelry. Melanie Isverding’s enameled structures and Nicole Beck’s stitched body-part assemblages were particularly memorable. The mirrors were quite pragmatic, offering 360-degree view of the pieces, and, if anything, the ambient visual noise moved you in to focus on the pieces.
The overall jewelry highlight was Karl Fritsch’s revival of the Pinakothek der Moderne’s contemporary jewelry collection. (To read more about this exhibition, click here.) The collection itself was awe-inspiring – certainly a contemporary jewelry hall of fame – and I admired the fact that Fritsch curated this volume of work without resorting to museum conventions of logical groupings and labels. Arranging works into meandering lines in a seemingly random order, Fritsch successfully put the works into dialogue with one another (reflecting, I like to think, the vibrant diversity of the contemporary jewelry field). Rather than focusing on individual works, their close proximity drew attention to the connections between them. The lack of labels deemphasized who-made-what, though it was still fun to play a guessing game wrestling with the oversized list of works.
Other memorable shows included the Dialogue 8 show (UK) in an old foundry, spatialPalace (Estontia) in a cemetery, and the walls of shirts in Nicht dass du mir von der bluse fällst. Interestingly, the work I enjoyed most the often was part of more conventional displays.
Glancing back through my journal, I see I went to twenty-two exhibitions that week, and many of them twice. This meant I was shifted from my usual role of maker/wearer to the full-time role of jewelry viewer. On one level, seeing the jewelry in person (without the texts to dictate our response) permitted appreciation of craft for craft’s sake – enjoyment of the material and formal possibilities of jewelry. On another level, it made aware of the particular kinds of interaction a viewer has with jewelry. Within the tight schedule, many works were consumed at a glance while others stood out because they demanded prolonged attention. Pieces that commanded a second look, included Fabrizio Tridenti’s complex structures (in the Pinakothek der Moderne), Bettina Dittlmann’s intricate wire works (at Galerie Isabelle Hund and Danner-Rotunde) and Mirjam Hiller’s intriguing folded constructions (at Galerie Stühler). For me, these tended to be complex forms that resisted a quick glance. They somehow confused my eye, forcing me spend time, running over their surfaces and structures with a visual sense of touch. It made me wonder how jewelry (or an exhibition such as Eternal Shine) might intentionally prompt this haptic way of looking to slow a viewer down, and hopefully compelling them to wear it.
Exhibitions were not the only places to see jewelry. Teeming as Munich was with jewelry devotees, the week was equally a spectacle of jewelry wearing. Each morning in the hotel we would anticipate what the collectors and critics might be wearing while doing our own jewelry swaps for the day. Over the week, Fran Allison (New Zealand jeweler and Talente mentor) and I documented some of this jewelry-in-action which you can see on our photo blog Moveable Feasts. (To visit this blog, click here, and feel free to contribute more photographs.) Being surrounded for a week by other jewelers, students, gallerists, critics and collectors made you really feel part of a larger international community.
So, how does one cope with seeing so much great jewelry in one week? For a start, it prompted a bit of soul searching. Mike Crawford, a fellow New Zealand Talente participant and glass artist, raised this issue. At the Pinakothek der Moderne he poignantly asked, ‘How does it make you feel, seeing so much amazing work? Is it totally discouraging – does it make you want to give up?’ He had an important point. At the beginning of our careers, how do we position ourselves in relation to these pinnacles of the field? Do we aim to attract the attention of European institutions and collectors, striving to have work shown alongside the grand masters? Do we succumb to Munich’s magnetic pull and try for the Academy? What are the alternatives?
A heartening answer seemed to lie in the radical exhibition of students from Maastricht. Their portable ‘jewelry in a bag’ format enabled the group to piggyback on the opening at the Pinakothek, usurping an audience in the process. This was echoed by Willy Van De Velde, a jeweler who drove his van over from Belgium and parked outside another show as a mobile gallery. These actions seemed an inspiring message for emerging jewelers: You don’t need to rely on institutions for public exposure. Do it your own way! It really drove home that our practices must extend beyond the production of jewelry to the production of wearer/audiences.
Otherwise, there comes a point when seeing so much jewelry simply makes you SICK OF SCHMUCK. The remedy, care of the students of the Munich Fine Arts Academy? A night of drunken jewelers dancing to German techno.
Surprisingly, after this marathon week, I wasn’t completely sick of schmuck. I still had stamina to visit the Amsterdam galleries and Galerie Marzee and was itching to get back to the bench.
May 3rd, 2010 10:05
I have often wondered if jewelry is not best observed (rather than handled) through the haze of a hangover. It’s that state of fragility that requires you to muster your strength and focus all your attention to the task at hand. I unfortunately arrived in Munich on the tail end of Schmuck so I spent my first night in town meeting up with the New Zealand contingent as well as a fellow Australian. They very kindly filled me in on all that I had very jealously missed out on (I did manage to catch about fifteen exhibitions out of the possible 28 or so on the program). That night included a brief meeting with Otto Kunzli and some well-placed beverages, so it was in this precious condition that I was to observe my very first Schmuck.
I worked my way slowly to the back of the Exhibition Hall, past some interesting and some not so interesting displays of craft and design. Trying to savior the moment before I would actually witness the often-thought-of-but-far-off-reality-of-attending Schmuck. Of the 59 artists in this annual award showcase, there were some who I recognized instantly, others unfamiliar but excited me all the same. Just to see the scope of work and artists on display was, well, pretty bloody awesome. Highlights: Felieke van der Leest, Sergey Jivetin and Gesine Hackenberg.
Schmuck shared the back of the convention centre with Talente, which was abuzz with freshness, excitement and new approaches to making. Talente clearly succeeded in presenting the youthful exuberance of the best in their fields under the age of 30. The overall highlight of Talente for me was the work of two South Korean jewelers, Semi Kim and Ji Hye Lee. There is just something about the immaculate technique and interesting subject matter in the work of the current generation of Korean jewelers that gets me every time. ‘Frame’ was also placed in the back corner of the hall and showcased three of the more influential galleries in European jewelry: Galerie Marzee (Netherlands), Galerie Platina (Sweden) and Galerie Ra (Netherlands).
One of the first exhibitions I visited outside of Schmuck was Galerie Für Angewandte Kunst, showing Nicht Dass Du Mir Von Der Blause Fällst (don’t you dare fall off my blouse), a group show of people I might consider as the ‘parents’ of contemporary jewelry in Munich. Back in 1999 these jewelers, including Otto Kunzli, Bettina Speckner and Therese Hilbert, got together on the last Wednesday of every month for some beer, food and jewelry chats. It appears that while the members of this group seemed to ebb and flow, what was to be ‘constant was only the young talent still in training and all jewelry gallery owners, collectors and customers were categorically denied attendance’. (Quoted from Klimt02. To view this text, click here.)
I was rather excited by the exhibition design. It had been a while since I had seen such a considered effort in the display of jewelry and it was a great solution for such a large space, but I honestly can’t remember a single piece from the show. I have often wondered if is it better to have an exhibition stick in your mind because of the wow factor of display and not remember the work, as opposed to seeing good work displayed poorly and forgetting the show entirely. Because let’s face it, there is a very fine line between these two things. Even if the work is great, if the display doesn’t do it justice it’s just another forgotten show.
I would say that out of all the exhibitions that I managed to visit, three stood out as having a really nice balance of exhibition display and quality of work. mine x mine (Mikiko Minewaki and Yutaka Minegishi) at WITTENBRINKFuenfhoefe presented great work that was supported beautifully by its slightly unconventional display. Mikiko Minewaki’s work was displayed in what looked like a sandbox (minus the sand) on the floor so that you had squat to look closely at the work. Given Minewaki’s favoured materials (plastic toys), this was an appropriate and thoughtful choice of presentation that enhanced rather than detracted from the work. Yutaka Minegishi, whose work I was not as familiar with, had pieces arranged in a line along a tall, fine, open structured frame, mirroring the rectangular box on the floor and placing it against the wall. This seemed to again reflect the nature of the work and allowed the viewer to quietly contemplate the materials and techniques used to create such simple seductive forms eye level.
Other highlights: Giampaolo Babetto’s exhibition L’Italianità dei Gioielli at the Pinakothek der Moderne. Babetto is a genius. A great play was made in the installation on the structure of the display cabinets with large rocks and the scope and aesthetic of his work making the exhibition all the more memorable. The Glass in Czech Jewellery exhibition at Tschechisches Zentrum was also fantastic, mainly for the fact that it was unlike anything else I had seen in Munich so far, it really was extremely refreshing, and the work was simply yet effectively displayed in white open frames.
The Danner-Rotunde at Pinakothek der Moderne, curated by Karl Fritsch was pretty overwhelming. I felt like an old man in a porn shop. I saw works that until now I had only dreamed about seeing in the flesh. I had drooled over so many images of these pieces on the screen and in books, but now I was only a pane of glass away from being able to turn them over in my hand and examine the back of the piece (the sign of a true jeweler). It was rather difficult to keep from bursting with excitement! In some ways the experience of this exhibition was like visiting a peep show, so many exotic, desirable objects behind a tantalizingly clear barrier and yet there is no way in hell the bouncer – sorry, gallery guard – was going let me get my filthy paws anywhere near them. Having said that, I spent most of my time in the room alone, after having been followed around continually in every room of the Pinakothek der Moderne, and now in what I thought of as being the most valuable room, there was no interest in protection from the gallery guards. Perhaps we are living in such a small reality that only a few would appreciate the value of a piece of rope through an old laptop computer. (Thank you, Lisa Walker).
I spent three days straight looking, thinking and dreaming jewelry but the strange and interesting fact of the matter is even though I had traveled all that way, I didn’t even once notice that I hadn’t so much as fondled a single piece of jewelry during the whole time. Hopefully 2011 will see me make it back to Munich, and next time I will make sure that I am armed with more than just a hangover.
April 8th, 2010 05:04
On my second day in Munich I was greeted by several inches of freshly fallen snow. I made my way to meet with friends and tackle the exhibitions as they opened in the city’s posh Schwabing neighborhood. Moving from show to show we were able to take in some impressive work ranging from mid-career exhibitions like AAVISTU, nestled in an all white (floor to ceiling) basement of a design firm, to the recent graduate work of Eternal shine – it´s not a pony, at the Projektraum J. Baumeister, and finally to the work in the exhibition Dialogue 8.
We were directed to an old foundry in the heart of city, a welcome destination and escape from the snow. The old foundry was gritty and seemed to be slightly ‘cleaned up’ to accommodate the Dialogue 8 exhibition. The work was casually laid out on strips of brown paper on top of worktables. Each artist was identified by brightly colored neon colored paper signs bearing their names. The exhibition was a response to a project that was seeded by Helen Carnac (Britain) three months prior to the opening. Carnac provided the participants with a series of gifts and asked them to create work inspired by the gifts.
Back at the Schmuck exhibition, the Herbert Hofmann Prize was awarded at the Trade Fair Hall. Since 1973 the award has been presented to up to three distinguished participants per year, commemorating the shows founder Dr. Herbert Hofmann. Prize recipients include John Iversen (US), Mia Maljojoki (DL) and David Bielander (DL). This event was one of the culminating events of the Schmuck week, and highly attended.
Before leaving the Trade Fair for the last time I visited a couple special projects, including Liesbeth den Besten’s ThinkTank: A European Initiative for the Applied Arts. ThinkTank was presenting of their current publication and accompanying exhibition Speed, featuring a selection of sixteen designers (including Ted Noten and Marcel Wanders).
That evening the attendees made their way to the goldsmiths’s beer hall get-together at the famous Marinaplatz. The event was so large that it was held in three banquet rooms.
On the final day of programming, I decided to spend much of the day exploring. I went to the Pinakothek der Moderne and focused on the Danner-Rotunde, an outstanding collection of contemporary studio jewelry curated by Karl Fritsch. It is probably one of the most (or only) outstanding permanent collections of international work that I had ever witnessed. The jewelry was displayed in a large, arching subterranean gallery, and in peculiar clusters as if to create a forced association between each piece of jewelry.
The annual Schmuck and all the parallel exhibitions are a worthwhile pilgrimage. Throughout my trip I kept thinking how I had traveled 4,000 miles to really appreciate what we have stateside, but I questioned most the disconnect between the US and European Union (EU) when it comes to jewelry. In the age of digital technologies the dialogue should be further connected. Where is the disconnect, and why? In the US we are excited about, and even long for, the works being made in the EU. Do they feel the same way?
Schmuck is a much different event than what is experienced stateside at the Society of North American Goldsmith’s annual conference. Unlike SNAG, the majority of programming that surrounds Schmuck are independent events in response to this exhibition at the Trades Fair. In addition, Schmuck does not present any formal lectures, outside of the Herbert Hofmann Award presentations. Both events are a mechanism to generate discourse.
We must continue to share the works and the makers on a global level. In the age we live in, it is nearly impossible to not see work that is happening around the world.
April 7th, 2010 01:04
Schmuck 2010 was the center of five fever-pitched days of jewelry and adornment held in Munich, Germany, from the 3rd to the 9th March 2010. Over 30 exhibitions were presented citywide, representing a variety of countries, academic programs and individual studio artists.
From a pool of 600 applicants reigning from 36 countries, Monica Gaspar (Spain) had the insurmountable task of selecting 60 jewelry artists from 28 countries for Schmuck 2010. The exhibition opened on the first day as part of the Internationalen Handwerksmesse München, the Messe München International (Munich International Trade Fairs) on the former site of Munich’s airport. As I understand it, historically there are few Americans that have been curated into the exhibition, and I was honored to be selected.
I arrived in town on Friday 5th March. The installation of the show was amazing: a massive glass and aluminum temporary structure that gave each piece the lighting and attention that the work deserved. The gallery was laid out in a manner that moved the spectators around the large oval track with cases lining every inch of the walls. Upon my arrival the exhibition held about a dozen attendees making their way around the displays, purchasing catalogs and snapping photos. This is where I met the director of Schmuck, Eva Sarnowski, who graciously welcomed me to the exhibition and supplied me with all the necessary print materials for the next three days. It was a good choice to have attended the exhibition early, because the following day was the polar opposite, with massive crowds.
I spent time carefully inspecting the cases, seeking out the work of fellow American makers while being introduced to the international jewelry in the exhibition. The United States was represented by Mielle Harvey, John Iversen, Seth Papac, Natalya Pinchuck, Sergey Jivetin and myself. Another important American connection was Cranbrook’s Iris Ichenberg, who represented the Netherlands.
Schmuck was held at the Trade Fair, which also featured an enormous amount of manufactured and handmade goods. ‘Handwerk & Design’, housed in one hall, showed an amazing assortment of craft, design and fine arts. Also in conjunction with Schmuck were four special exhibitions: Exempla 2010, Keramik (Ceramic), Talente 2010, Meister der Moderne 2010 and Frame, also held at the Trades Fair. Exempla was dedicated to the theme of ‘ceramic shapes the earth’, to show how widespread the use of this material is in our daily lives. Works ranged from studio ceramics to architectural master works, and active studios were put on display. It was as if I was looking at a diorama of the contemporary ceramist’s studio.
Talente was a showcase and competition for newcomers (under thirty) representing the next generation of makers. Among the bright young upstarts was Adam Grinovich (US/Sweden). In a departure from his earlier Computer Aided Design (CAD)/Additive Manufactured (AM) work, Grinovich has submerged himself into the currents of contemporary European jewelry. His current pieces combine the structure found in his early work with postindustrial materials.
Frame was another grouping of three galleries presenting alongside the Schmuck 2010 exhibition. The international galleries consisted of Galerie Marzee (Netherlands), Galerie Platina (Sweden) and Galerie Ra (Netherlands). Gallery Ra featured the work of Melanie Bilenker (US).
Meister der Moderne, the ‘Masters of modern times’, presented the best works of internationally renowned contemporary artisans in glass, ceramic, wood, metal, textile and jewelry. Included at Meister der Moderne was the work of the late Aud Charlotte Ho Sook Sinding (Sweden). The whimsical animal head brooches had a visual weight that communicated a series of visually heavy pieces. However, examination of the work (which I was later able to do at the studio/gallery of Mia Maljojoki) revealed how lightweight and wearable the objects were, as they were made from vinyl. I would describe the series as vinyl toy jewelry. (I in no way intend to diminish the work by describing it as toy like, since I thoroughly enjoyed it.) I ran into Helen W. English Drutt, Liesbeth den Besten and Leo Caballero at the studio of Maljojoki, and we viewed many of the pieces together. Departing the studio I sat down for a hurried dinner with jewelers Maljojoki (Germany) and Donna Verveka (US), before we made our way to Munich’s renowned Pinakothek der Moderne.
At the Pinakothek, several hundred people filled the first floor of the museum standing shoulder to shoulder. Despite the crowd, you could not help but notice the students of the Jewelry and Product Design Department, Academy Fine Arts Maastricht (NL), presenting a wonderfully orchestrated display of their work in LED lit clear vinyl handbags, and titled BAGEXPO (the students carried their work venue to venue throughout the city). The work had a casual appearance, although it had a very formal jewelry structure of connections, findings and finish.
While at the Pinakothek I had the pleasure of seeing Giampaolo Babetto’s L’Italianità dei Gioielli, a fabulous installation of endless vitrines of gold jewelry, with the reds and blues of the enameling techniques lining the massive rotunda’s third floor balcony. The volume of jewelry seemed to self-illuminate among the crowds of viewers.
Departing the museum, a crowd hurried across the street to see Cranbrook Academy Artist in residence Iris Eichenberg’s Birds and flowers of Michigan at Galerie Spektrum. Yonic petals of nylon-folded pieces are contrasted with cocoon-like mummified birds. The work was displayed without the traditional cases, which allowed the viewer to get up close and thoroughly inspect it.
Upon our departure, we couldn’t imagine looking at another piece of jewelry – but there it was, another gallery of fabulous pieces and another group of Schmuck goers who joined our ever-growing ‘Schmuck Posse’. With the idea of winding down the evening we made our way to a drinking engagement. The evening (or should I say, the morning) came to a close at the ‘Sick of Schmuck’ party (aka Schluck 6!) for an evening of drinks, music and dancing. It was good to reconnect with people like Susan Cohn (Australia) and I was amazed by the distances people traveled be at Schmuck.
February 26th, 2010 07:02
Setting ambitious goals at the start of a new year is quite common. Having your new year’s resolution become a booming Internet phenomenon with more than 200 jewelers participating in the first month is an extraordinary event.
New York jeweler Nina Dinoff first heard about making a ring a day for an entire year while attending a workshop at the Haystack Mountain School in Deer Isle, Maine. Though the idea wasn’t new, it nevertheless stuck with her. As someone who felt ‘relentlessly challenged by any sort of day-to-day routine’, Dinoff was inspired to take up the challenge herself. She posted images of her daily creations on Flickr, a photo-sharing website, and encouraged other artists to take part. Just one month into the New Year, there were more than 3000 images at the Ring A Day Project. By December 2010, that number could easily grow to 36,000! (To visit the Ring A Day website, click here.)
Dinoff’s challenge, to ‘make a ring a day no matter where you are, what materials are at your disposal, or how much time you have available’, is yielding some spectacular results. Of equal importance, the Ring A Day Project is building a community of makers that are communicating about and through jewelry every single day. In this virtual workshop setting, all are welcome to explore ideas and techniques and give and receive immediate feedback.
The Ring A Day project is an example of the internet at its best. Bookmark the site, check back often, and prepare to be inspired day after day after day after day.
January 21st, 2010 10:01
30 international jewelry designers.
1 weekend only.
February 5 • 6 • 7 • 2010
February 5, 6 – 9 pm | Preview Launch Party
February 6 & 7, 11 am – 5 pm | Marketplace
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, BAM is launching INDULGE, a niche jewelry marketplace. Thirty jewelers from BC to NYC are gathering for one weekend only to unveil hot, new designer collections. From contemporary stylized rings to timeless sculptural ornaments, INDULGE is your chance to acquire stunning jewels you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else. Click here, to find out more and purchase tickets.
October 13th, 2009 01:10
This is the fifth year that AJF gallery member Karen Lorene has published Signs of Life, a literary journal that uses jewelry art to inspire writers. Karen and her team – Nancy Megan Corwin, Trudee Hill, Dana Shaw, Lorraine Vagner and Susan Welch – staged a wonderful event last week. To a packed house of over 150 people the artists provided insights into their work and writers read the pieces they had written. Following the presentations and readings an opening reception was held in the gallery. The jewelry artists and writer pairings featured in this year’s publication include: Diane Falkenhagen and Stephanie Kallos, Trudee Hill and Sam Green, Aliyah Gold and Waverly Fitzgerald, Laurie Hall and Sarah Fenske, Thomas Hill and John Olsen, Julia Harrison and Erica Baurmeister, Sarah Willbanks and Paul Dorpat, Gail Rappa and Jean Sherrard, and Rika Mouw and Janet Yoder. Take a look at the photos and you can see just how joyous the event was and how Seattle jewelry art lovers flocked to this year’s Signs of Life. One of the nicest surprises of the evening was seeing that AJF founding member Mia McEldowney made the journey from her home on Vashon Island for the event, Mia is pictured below (orange jacket and great neckpiece). See if you can find Ron Ho, Laurie Hall and Karen Lorene in the photo above!
September 10th, 2009 01:09
One of the most spectacular events of the year is the annual Indian Market in Santa Fe (August 22-23), organized by SWAIA (Association of Indian Artists).
An estimated 100,000 people attend this shindig, a swirling mix of locals, Native American families eating ice cream, roasted corn and fry bread, artists, craftspeople, and of course collectors from all over, decked out in trophy concha belts, squash blossom or turquoise beaded necklaces, bracelets and bolo ties.
Collectors who come early that week can have their pick of gallery openings, auctions, breakfasts and other special events. The area is also museum heaven, not forgetting the (newish) Georgia O’Keeffe Gallery, and a new museum devoted to the colorful and turbulent history of New Mexico, which opened in May. Close by there is the Santa Fe opera, the Tesque Flea Market, and the Poh Center in Poaque.
My interest is Native jewelry that has grown away from local traditions into the field of fine modern art. Many newer artists – like Cody Sanderson and Pat Pruitt – are classically school-trained metalsmiths. Others may also have metalworking degrees but in addition continue a family art and craft tradition. Examples are the Wallaces (Dawn and David) Isaiah and Charles Ortiz, the Gaussoins (the matriarch Cornelia, and sons David and Wayne). These new wave artists are particularly skilled in fabrication, casting and stamping, and often prefer unusual stones and materials, e.g. steel.
For design excellence and versatility, the stars of the event were probably Tammy Garcia, who enjoyed a triple-header of simultaneous shows in jewelry, ceramics and bronze, and Maria Samora, whose elegantly hammered gold and silver bracelets were not only sold at the Market but provided the images became the official poster, T-shirt and other merchandise. For once the promo literature did not lie when it declared, "A new generation of SWAIA artists continues to define what it means to be Native". For information about the Indian Market, contact www.swaia.org. (Photos: work by the Gaussoin family)