[Jewelry making - Article 01159] - Re: [Orchid] Non-jeweler designers at shows

[Lisa Orlando]

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    Omigoddess, here we go again! Folks, as we used to say in the early
    women's liberation movement, there are no personal solutions to
    political problems. We can rip into each other or we can turn around
    and face the system that is screwing everyone. We can do this in a
    "think globally, act locally" way, by addressing the organizers and
    jurors of specific shows--doing this as a group would be much more
    effective--and we can also put together the collective wisdom of this
    group to create a think tank that could address the larger picture. 

    If the economy was really good, we wouldn't be attacking each
    other--the people who fabricate everything and cut their own stones
    wouldn't have time to attack someone who designs work that someone
    else (yes, possibly someone with no design ability) makes for her.
    And if the public were educated, and everyone were honest, and the
    government supported the arts, and, and, and... 

    Face it, the system sucks and, when the economy sucks, we feel it
    even more. Demonizing resellers and assemblage artists and designers
    and casters and PMC people and everyone who doesn't make every jump
    ring by hand doesn't help. Vent your spleen at the cause of the
    problem. Or relax your spleen, and, as the saying goes, don't
    agonize, organize. Orchid has the potential to do a lot more than
    give us a venue for attacking each other. 

    This whole discourse is so historically and culturally
    specific--William Morris is part of what created it (thanks, Jim) but
    its roots are in the Renaissance and the rise of capitalism. The
    whole idea of an "art jeweler" who is the sole creator of a
    one-of-a-kind piece made entirely by him (and I use the masculine
    pronoun advisedly) couldn't even be imagined in many times and/or
    places. As the Old Man said, "Freedom came into the world dripping
    with blood and sweat." And it's still dripping--on us. Capitalism is
    great until its "invisible hand" smacks you in the head. 

    If you want to know what it was like in the good old days, check out
    Jack Ogden's "Jewellery of the Ancient World," (is that British
    spelling right?). I got it through inter-library loan (all the way
    from Beverly Hills) and just took it back. Half the stuff we see in
    museums was made with mass production methods--dies and molds--and
    the makers were slaves (never mind that a lot of that lovely soft
    high karat gold look is the result of damp-grave-induced depletion
    gilding). Fabulous, mind-blowing book. 

    I don't know why I'm writing this--I have to be out of this
    house-sit on Monday. I'm supposed to be packing! (Hi, my name is
    Lisa, and I'm an Orchid addict...) 

Lisa Orlando
Aphrodite's Ornaments
still in Benicia, CA

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