Collector Profiles

AJF was started by a group of collectors who wanted to join with others in learning more about contemporary art jewelry and to show their support for jewelers and the wider field through various grants, purchases and programs. We remain committed to collectors as an important sector of the contemporary art jewelry scene. In this section of the website, you will find articles about jewelry collectors from around the world.

14 October 2011

The Daphne Farago Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Kelly L'Ecuyer

Daphne Farago began to collect studio jewelry in the late 1980s, captivated by the physical beauty of the objects and convinced of their artistic importance. She has said that she always sought excellence and works that give her ‘joy.’ This sense of pleasure and personal connection to the work were her foremost criteria because she wore the jewelry as part of her daily life, sharing the work of these artists with others. Because she believed that wearing jewelry made it a kind of public art, she tended to acquire works that were comfortable on the body, at least for short periods. more...

06 August 2009

Elizabeth Shypertt

Sally von Bargen

I wear a Peter Macchiarini wedding ring and every time I notice it on my hand I think of Peter. He is now dead, so in a very real way his art is keeping him alive. From an artist's standpoint it must be a remarkable thing, knowing that people are carrying around a little piece of you. more...

31 July 2009

Rika Mouw

Sally von Bargen

I am a hopeless art addict. What I love about art jewelry is that its scale allows me to wear it as well as display more of it than most other art forms. I love that I can wear art and make a statement. I often wear particular pieces for specific occasions in order to create dialogue. I particularly enjoy that art jewelry has a ‘voice’ and I love using it in that sense. more...

14 July 2009

Helen Williams Drutt English

Susan Cummins

Although I kept abundant records, they were not always precise or available. Records were destroyed in a flood in the basement in 1985 and a brief partnership, from 1987 to 1990, created a situation in which files that I had stored were not released. As a closet historian, ephemeral materials – that is, photographs, letters, lists, etc. – are essential documents. My unfulfilled desire would be to document those records as support for the actual works. I have decades of faxes and letters in storage cases waiting to be read. more...

21 June 2009

Trish Rodimer

Sally von Bargen

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, Massachusetts 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. more...

21 June 2009

Susan Kempin

Jane Shannon

I do consider my purchases more carefully now than I did when I first began collecting because I’m more knowledgeable. There are artists whose work I know I want to have in my collection so I try to limit spur of the moment purchases. However, when I see fascinating work by an artist I hadn’t previously known of I want to add that too. It’s difficult to balance between the two. more...

21 June 2009

Donna Schneier and Jane Adlin

Susan Cummins

I do not have personal taste in jewelry. My goal was to document as best I could the significant artists and movements in the field of contemporary jewelry, irrespective of my likes and dislikes. When considering a work I asked myself what contribution the artist had made to the movement and whether that work was of importance to the artist’s contribution. more...

21 June 2009

Possessed: The Boardman Family Collection of Contemporary Jewelry

Jo Lauria

Helen Drutt was, at all times, wearing an intriguing piece of jewelry; a clever way to initiate conversation. Her avant-garde taste in jewelry and commitment to wearing it, her vast knowledge of the field and her close relationships with jewelers from every continent piqued my interest and eventually led me down the ruinous path of collecting. more...