In January 2008, AJF member Gail Hufjay traveled from snowy New York to sunny Florida for a big milestone: the first work she’s ever submitted to a juried jewelry show had been accepted at the Armory Art Center’s Close to the Skin exhibit in West Palm Beach.
Gail first started collecting art jewelry in the 1980s. She remembers seeing one traveling jewelry show and being fascinated by the work of Rebekah Laskin. “At another show, I found myself falling in love with some chopstick brooches by Bob Ebendorf,” Gail recalls.

Fast forward to today, and both Rebekah and Bob have been instrumental in the fact that three of Gail’s own jewelry creations will be featured in the Armory Art Center’s Close to the Skin exhibit in West Palm Beach. Here’s how this all came about.

Gail’s enjoyment of art jewelry first led her to begin collecting pieces. “I have a minor collection,” she believes, yet the names in her collection include Pier Volkus, Marjorie Simon, Raissa Bump, Biba Schutz, Mary Donald, Roberta Williamson, Yoshiko Haesegawa, Thomas Mann, and Rolando Negoita.

Gail began making her own jewelry in the 1990s after she learned that Rebekah Laskin was teaching at the Westchester Art Workshop near her home in Westchester County, NY, and she signed up. Gail works for her own pleasure, not for sale, even though one persistent would-be customer once followed her throughout a craft fair begging to buy the work off her back.

In addition to learning from Rebekah, Gail has studied with artists Mary Beth Rozkewicz, David Butler, Robert Dancik, and Rolando Negoita.

Gail entered this particular show for two reasons. First, for some time Rebekah has been encouraging her to enter her work in a juried show. “She basically told me to ‘Grow up and move on,’ ” Gail recalls. “The reason I selected this particular show,” Gail continues, “is that two artists I admire so much, Bob Ebendorf and Linda Darty, were the judges.”

All photos by Ralph Gabriner

An Interview with Pat Rodimer, Past President, AJF

Pat’s career has taken her from suburban Philadelphia to New York City to Chicago to San Francisco, where she’s worked in corporate communications for companies as varied as Avon, Kraft, and Pacific Gas & Electric. Pat currently works as a communication consultant and also serves on the AJF board as the past president. Here, AJF board member Sally von Bargen talks with Pat about her interest in contemporary art jewelry.

Sally: How did you learn about AJF and why did you join?
Pat: Carol Windsor, a local jewelry artist and AJF member, invited me to attend a Metal Arts Guild panel discussion with collectors and AJF members. As the panelists talked, I found myself jotting down tons of notes about “have they done this or thought about that.” Afterwards I went up to them and essentially said, “Where have you been hiding? I’ve been looking for a group like this.” Next thing you know, I was not only a member but also a board member. Classic case of beware of what you ask for!

Sally: Art Jewelry lovers often have personal stories about how they discovered it, where and how did your interest in art jewelry begin?
Pat: I’m not sure there was an “aha” moment. Like many people, my interest with craft began at a fairly young age with street fairs and the like. I gradually began to be exposed to higher levels of work. I still remember my first ACC show in Northampton, MA, and the feeling of having found some sort of Holy Grail so perhaps that was the true beginning of my art jewelry interest. However, none of my friends were into this and thought I was kind of artsy/eccentric.

Sally: Do you have a favorite artist or type of work? Do you have pieces that are not wearable?
Pat: Brooches, earrings and rings, because they are easily wearable, predominate. I have a couple of pieces that are challenging to wear and I’m definitely of the bigger is better school when it comes to scale.

Sally: Do you wear your jewelry? If so, what do you like most about wearing art jewelry?
Pat: I have always worn my jewelry. I’ve worked in large corporations most of my career and decided long ago not to give my personal style over to the little blue suit and a demure strand of pearls. That may not have been the best career decision, but it was so much who I was that I couldn’t deny that aspect of my personality. I love it when people stop and ask about the work, and we can engage in a discussion about the artist, materials, and intent. Each opportunity is a chance to do a tiny bit of education and share my enthusiasm for the art form.

Sally: Do you have a philosophy or strategy that affects the jewelry you acquire? Tell us about your jewelry choices? Do you pick whatever seems important to you, or do things just strike you as interesting?
Pat: I don’t think I have a philosophy or strategy per se, but looking back I can see that, as with other craft forms, I’ve been attracted to texture and materials. So I have pieces in rubber, paper, ceramics and wood—not just metal. Because I’ve always liked to wear my jewelry, I’m sure I’ve been somewhat influenced by wearability.

Sally: Do you collect other things? Do you have an area of specialization in your collection? Do you also collect other art forms – paintings, sculpture, or craft?
Pat: Like many people, I collect in more than one area. Living in a small San Francisco flat, my space is precious so my collection of contemporary American craft work is of fairly small pieces across media. Again, texture is evident in most of these works and, unlike jewelry, many items are figurative.

Sally: How did you and how do you now go about collecting jewelry? Did you contact individual artists, go to galleries and shows? Did you read about them first and see their work in books?
Pat: I am not collecting much at all these days. But when I see a new-to-me artist and love the work, I do my best to make contact to see more of the work and to get to know the artist. This may be directly through email, when an address is provided, or via a gallery if that is where I first encounter the work. I read about the work if there are materials available but all this doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll acquire the work.

Sally: What are your plans for your collection?
Pat: I have already started planning for this as no one in my family will want or know what to do with the jewelry I have. One necklace has already gone to Museum of Arts and Design in New York; another is promised to the Tacoma Art Museum; and several other items have already gone to the Racine Art Museum. I don’t have many pieces that are museum worthy but it is important for me to get those that are placed as appropriate. I am doing this for my craft collection as well.

Sally: What is it about art jewelry that continues to captivate you, what would you like to tell new or other collectors?
Pat: I still enjoy the discovery of new work that speaks to me, and the interaction with artists. Meeting emerging artists has been wonderful and watching them grow in their careers is rewarding as well. I would tell others that they should enjoy seeking out the work, get to know the artists, educate themselves to some degree about the field, and not get distracted over whether or not they should self-identify as a collector.

an Interview With Cindi Strauss, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Decorative Arts and Design, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, (MFAH)

Cindi recently completed the five-year project of creating the Ornament as Art exhibit and catalog, which showcase the avant-garde jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt collection. She holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from Hamilton College and master’s degree in the history of decorative arts from Cooper-Hewitt/Parsons School of Design. Cindi has been with MFAH since 1994. Here, she talks with AJFconnection editor Jane Shannon about her work, her wish list, and her advice for collectors.

Jane: Once MFAH reached a formal agreement with Helen, what process did you go through to curate the exhibit of her collection? What books or catalogs were especially helpful? Who did you interview?
Cindi: First and foremost, Helen was an amazing guide. I spoke with her in depth about the pieces and the artists for a number of years, and she was generous with her time in answering questions.

She helped the Museum build its library, and she made sure we had key research resources including specific exhibition catalogs, such as Ornamenta I and the landmark 1971 Nuremburg exhibition, Schmuck und Gerat. She also helped us build our library of catalogues on individual artists, like Emmy Van Leersum, Peter Chang, Georg Dobler, Stanley Lechtzin, Olaf Skoogfors, David Watkins, Wendy Ramshaw, and many others.

In addition, the artists in Helen’s collection were incredibly helpful and generous in sending copies of articles, gallery guides, and other publications. During that first year after we acquired the collection, I contacted each of living artists in Helen’s collection to start a dialog between the Museum and the artists. Sometimes, it was a simple inquiry to verify pieces; sometimes, it was to ask them to explain the techniques they used to make the work.

I wanted to know if there were related pieces in other collections as well as what exhibitions they had been in. I asked them to talk about their philosophical or intellectual point of view—what they were thinking about as they created certain works, and how these pieces fit into overall scope of their careers.

Both Helen and I conducted oral history and studio visits with artists in the collection. It is my hope that in the future, we can make some of these interviews available online. I also used completed oral histories that are part of the Archives of American Art in my research. Most of the information we collected is incorporated throughout the Ornament as Art catalog.

Because this field is still relatively new, this was an incredible opportunity to do primary research and to get to know the artists. It’s a remarkable luxury, and it’s so important to engage the artists and then step back and analyze what you’re seeing from an art historical and curatorial point of view along with what you learned from the artists.

Jane: Can you share what you think are the most important facts all museum curators of decorative arts should know about contemporary art jewelry?
Cindi: Most important, I would stress the fact that contemporary jewelry shares so much with art in all media in terms of aesthetics, techniques, and intellectual exploration. It is not a field that can be pigeonholed by its function; there’s a very rich dialog between jewelry and other objects. Decorative arts curators should keep their eyes open to that and be willing to explore these relationships.

Jane: As a result of serving as curator for this exhibit, which was a five-year project, how did the experience change you?
Cindi: (Interestingly, Cindi noted she had just written an article about this very subject for Metalsmith, volume 27, number 5. Here is a sampling): “My time with jewelry has literally changed the way I look at decorative arts and design and, in a broader sense, at art itself. My vocabulary has changed, as has the way that I approach objects…My time with contemporary jewelry, while far from over, has altered my personal and professional landscape in ways that I am just beginning to understand. It has, I am proud to say, made me a better curator.” (For the entire article, see www.snagmetalsmith.org.)

Jane: What and who is on the MFAH’s jewelry wish list?
Cindi: The Museum’s jewelry collection will grow in two ways. First, Helen continues to make gifts and help us acquire works that will receive her collection designation. It is really important to the MFAH that her collection continues to be a living, breathing document of her extraordinary eye. In addition, we’re also acquiring jewelry that will be part of the general decorative arts collection. So I know that Helen has a wish list of pieces and artists that she would like to see added to the collection and I also have a wish list. They often overlap as you can imagine.

Right now, for the artists not already in the collection, I am really interested in the work of Friedrich Becker, Iris Eichenberg, Iris Bodemer, Anya Kivarkis, Sondra Sherman, Ted Noten, Katja Prins, Andrea Wagner, Bettina Speckner, Christiane Forster, Annamaria Zanella, Stefano Marchetti, Helen Britton, and Vera Siemund, among many others!

Jane: What recommendations do you have for AJF collectors to help them select the best museum for their collection or for individual pieces in their collection?
Cindi: When you have collection of some size, you really need to understand the institution that you’re considering from a number of different perspectives. Certain questions need to be answered: Who is the curator in charge of that area? What is his or her interest level and/or commitment to the material? (Remembering that just because a curator does not know a lot about the material does not necessarily mean that they will not commit to learning about it – look at me!) How do your pieces fit in with the museum’s larger collection and future plans?

You’ll want to take a full tour, look at storage, meet the staff that would be taking care of your collection—you really want to understand the larger institution. Do a lot of homework on line about the institution. Look at their annual report. Visit their exhibitions and see how they display objects. Make appointments to get to know the curator, and get answers to all the questions you might have. It’s your opportunity and responsibility to do due diligence.

Of course, to do all of that if you’re giving one or two pieces is overkill, but it’s an important path to take if you’re talking about making a sizeable donation. Even if your gift will be one or two pieces, before you give the work, make sure it’s something that’s really wanted and that it will add to that institution’s collection.

As a collector, you can look at placing your collection with one institution, or making a number of gifts to different institutions where the work you own will augment collections. Ultimately, you want to make sure that your collection ends up in a good home and that the work has an impact on that home on some level.