Take an in-depth look at jewelry making styles across the globe, artist profiles, and other articles on the world of jewelry in our Features section.
What started ten years ago as youthful pin jewelry is now becoming a valuable line. After all, Ehinger-Schwarz, the firm of inventors and manufacturers, works year for year on making its flexible jewelry system Charlotte more valuable. Named after Charlotte,…
Sculptural Jewelry ‘82 Contemporary Artisans Gallery, San Francisco October 27-November 20, 1982 Under the theme “Sculptural Jewelry ’82” Contemporary Artisans showed the diverse work of eight nationally known jewelers. Most outstanding as the jewelry by Rachelle Thiewes. The smooth, mostly…
About 30 miles north of Buffalo, New York, less than 10 miles downstream from Niagara Falls, is a unique facility called Artpark. It is not so much a place as a program; in fact more than that, it is a…
This year Johnson Matthey Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of platinum group metals, in cooperation with the Society of North American Goldsmiths inaugurated the annual “SNAG Platinum Jewelry Design Competition” Open to members of the society, the competition professed the…
With the exception of “New Departures in Jewellery,” held at the American Craft Museum last summer as part of the “Britain Salutes New York” festival, it has been well over 10 years since the ACM offered a full-scale show of…
First impressions being what they are, sometimes on target, and at other times missing the bull’s eye by a wide margin, I couldn’t overcome for some time my initial reaction to the “Jewelry USA” and “Jewelry International” exhibitions shown at…
This article features the Metals Invitational Exhibition held at the Southwest Texas State University on February 15-March 8, 1984 by various artists. The Southwest Texas State University Metals Invitational was conceived about a year ago by Munya Avigail Upin, metals instructor in…
For a jewelry design editor such as myself judging a competition such as the second annual “SNAG Platinum Jewelry Design Competition” sponsored by Johnson Matthey was, in many ways, an extension of the daily quest for good design. It differed…
The Johnson Matthey/Society of North American Goldsmiths Platinum Jewelry Design Competition celebrates its third anniversary this year. The competition represents a coordinated effort on the part of SNAG and Johnson Matthey to promote the use of platinum in the design…
What if They Gave a Conference and Nobody Came? In this article, Donald Friedlich offers his insight and review the 1987 SNAG Conference. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Despite an exciting program, this year’s annual conference of the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG)…
What is the purpose of a SNAG conference? Why do people come? What are their expectations? Why do some cease to come? Were their expectations not met? Each conference chairman imprints his/her vision onto the conference. He sets the tone,…
AJM Magazine has announced the winners of the second annual AJM Innovation Awards. These awards recognize technologies that are making a difference in the jewelry manufacturing industry today, and will continue to do so in the future.
Last April 2008, at Galeria Medellin 174,in Mexico City, under the name of “Esmaltes Sobre Metales,” two artists exhibited their enamels: Alejandro Flores Horta, *EN RE 2,” and Maitza Morillas, “Incandescencias.” All the pieces from these two artists were made using…
Jewelry artist Leila Tai was honored by the American Jewelry Design Council as the Grand Prize winner of its 2009 New Talent Award at a ceremony on Monday, July 27 at the JA New York Summer Show in the Javits…
Gallery 21, an all-white exhibition space in Spanish Village, San Diego, California, became home to the enamel exhibition, RADIANCE from October 3-25,2009. This square room, with a bank of windows on one wall, was transformed by Studio 5’s in-house designer,…
Some designers find inspiration in the night sky, others in the natural world, and some in flowing architectural lines. This year’s winners of the MJSA Vision Award competition reflected all of that and more. On the following pages you’ll find…
In the 1971 Film Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, the title character invites Charlie (and us viewers) to “come with me, and you’ll be, in a world of pure imagination.” While you won’t find any golden tickets or chocolate…
Discover the 2017 Top Jewelry Trends in gold, silver, and platinum—and an update on the metals markets as compiled by Shawna Kulpa. Gold Trends Flowers, Well-done Buddha Mama With darker colors and heavier fabrics gracing the fall runways, Amanda Gizzi,…
A representative cross-section of jewelry design in Switzerland in the last century, entitled “The Art of Jewelry in Switzerland in the 20th Century,” was shown from June through August 2003 at the Museo Vela in Ligornetto. Thereafter, the exhibition was shown in other large European cities. This survey of the last century conveys an interesting and often also surprising impression of the techniques, preferences, and developments in the art of jewelry in a Switzerland caught on the cusp between yesterday and tomorrow.
Although the entry period was the busy Christmas season, The 21st International Cloisonne Jewelry Contest received about 100 entries from 13 nations, such as from the United States, South America, Europe and Asia, and about 100 works from Japan. The…
This article features the 25th Sterling Design Competition held at Lever House, New York City on May 30-June 19, 1984. First Prize Winner, Mark E. Fortune, Teapot The 25th Sterling Design Competition, sponsored by the Sterling Silversmiths Guild of America, for the…
Electrum Gallery was founded by Barbara Carlidge in June of 1971. She was prompted by the significant changes in the understanding of jewelry in these years, for which there were barely any opportunities for public exhibition. This is why Electrum…
Five German jewelers who chose not to follow the traditional vocational training of “master goldsmith,” but rather opted to study as artists in an academic context, having completed their education, are now confronted with the reality of earning a living…
This article features the 57th Annual National High School Art Exhibition held at the Corcoran Gallery and School of Art, Washington, D. C. on June 2-17, 1984 For 57 years Scholastic, Inc., with the cooperation of civic-minded sponsors, has conducted an…
Björn Weckström, a Finnish designer who has enjoyed a virtually unparalleled opportunity in his native country, was the keynote speaker at the recent Society of North American Goldsmith’s conference held in New York City. In an interview conducted before his…
Michael Rowe uses functional containers as a base from which to explore formal studies of space, form and balance, which are enhanced by his expressive use of patination. His holloware gains strength from the fact that he is not distracted…
Born in Bredsjo, Sweden, June 27, 1930, Olaf Skoogfors initially came to the United States when he was four years old; his family permanently settled in Philadelphia before the Second World War. I knew Olaf all of his adult life….
Early in 1984 Jack called to see if I’d be interested in creating an anniversary gift to celebrate twenty-five years of marriage with Ryoko. The question was posed “What can be created that Parallels the unique and creative skills that…
A taboo was broken when the word ”feminist” was used in the review of “Form Beyond Function” in Metalsmith (Spring 1987). In the context of craft, the word “feminist” has been avoided more than any other “f” word in the…
My trips to Germany in 1980 and 1982 were the most satisfying experiences in relation to my metalwork. They were the most rewarding in my growth as an artist/designer and the expansion of my business. Therefore I would like to…
To begin with, it might be important to present some background material on Kyoto itself. The Emperor Kammu founded Kyoto in 794 as the second permanent capital of Japan in order to escape the constraining influence of the Buddhist clergy…
Rome. Truly the eternal city, where every monument reflects simultaneously the past and the present. As Goethe so aptly states in his Italian Journey, “The very site of the city takes one back to the time of its foundation.” As…
Nothing is simple in Tokyo—not the language, not the culture, not the geography. Even getting information is a major task and everything takes longer than you think it will. So the essential point to remember when you come to Tokyo…
In the Ojibway language, Toronto means “meeting place.” At this site on the northern shore of Lake Ontario 18th-century French and English traders met native Indians to barter for fur pelts. Today Toronto is a city of over two million…
This is a continuing series of metalsmith’s guides to cities, regions and museums throughout the world. The purpose of these guides is to give those interested in viewing metalwork during their travels an introduction to the treasures and resources, both…
Tony Papp – A Tribute Tony Papp and I met during our sophomore year at Parsons School of Design in September of 1982, which was the year that we began to work primarily in the discipline of our chosen major….
Sam Tho Duong always springs to mind whenever I think of ginger. The spicy and stubbornly shaped condiments is inextricably linked with the work of this jewelry designer. And it’s all thanks to coincidence that he has been experimenting with…
Adam Neeley Adam Neeley Fine Art Jewelry Laguna Beach, California First Place, Laser Distinction Look back over the list of past Vision Award Laser Distinction winners and you’ll see that Adam Neeley’s name appears quite often. The Laguna Beach, California–based designer…
We’re all nostalgic for something. Usually, it’s reminiscence from our childhood, as in Adel Chefridi’s case. Chefridi, owner of Adel Chefridi Studio in Kingston, New York, fondly recalls his boyhood wanderings through the ruins of Carthage. If his Nostalgia pendant…
One fundamental quality for a successful designer is the ability to manage a solo career, battling to establish ideas in the jungle of competitors without anyone else to fall back on. There can be exceptions to this rule, however, and…
A petrified miracle of creation – most deserving of this kind of finely sensual description is agate. Agate is found all over the world. And wherever it is found, nature has left very special and unique traces in it. Old…
Agate cameos are made from dyed multiple layered agates, which are a regional specialty of the cutters around Idar-Oberstein in Germany. Agate was first used for carvings during the Greek and Roman Empire and ever since, people have admired the…
Together they’re a collective of elitists: The most creative and best watchmakers have joined forces in the Academie Horlogére des Créateurs Indépendants, AHCI for short. Svend Andersen, founding member of AHCI, is building the smallest calendar watch and the flattest…
Al Pine has been a fixture at Cal State Long Beach for over 25 years, where he teaches with Dieter Muller-Stach. Such a long tenure has hardly dampened his enthusiasm for learning and experiencing his field, as well as teaching…
“What’s so good about enameling is that you can learn a new technique and then approach your work with a new bag of tricks.” Alana Clearlake Alana Clearlake is a California enamelist active in establishing new paths in the field….
An exhibit of this new work was mounted last spring at the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery at the University of the Arts, comprising 20 sculptures executed from 1989 through 1991, along with sketchbooks, maquettes and installation photographs. Together with a concurrent exhibit…
When the Tea and Coffee Piazza was introduced to the US by the Max Protetch Gallery in the early 1980s, followed quickly by the appearance of the Michael Graves Whistling Teakettle in the Speigel catalogue, it was clear that a…
A recent graduate who is selected straight out of school for a book portrait, international awards and distinctions, students invited individually to a special exhibition and the school itself, which was invited to represent its country at an international symphosium:…
Axel Fritsch from Bastian sees his products as an alternative for design-focused goldsmiths and jewelers. Unlike the jewelry form major international fashion labels, the Bremen-based producer draws on alternatives in the design and materials in order to provide an inexpensive…
Alraune Lifestyle does not simply follow fashion trends. The brand name is always slightly ahead of time and is numbered among the trendsetters in the jewelry sector. At the moment, Alraune is one of the fastest-growing, international jewelry labels. Marilyn…
There is something of the alchemist’s magic in Pat Flynn. Like those artful wizards of long ago, he changes common materials into objects of value and delight. Rusty nails, chips of slate, slivers of ivory snatched from discarded piano keys*all…
A swirl of myths and sagas surround this clear stone, which burns, releasing a beguiling, aromatic scent. The interior of the stones often encloses wonderful inclusions, telling the tale of evolution, of the flora and fauna of eras long passed….
It’s hard to think of a comparison. While I can haphazardly categorize today’s non jewelry metalsmithing as either traditional holloware or sculpture, Louise Norrell’s work doesn’t really fit in either one. While I can divide approaches to surface into the…
Recently, collectors have discovered a body of silver jewelry, eclectic in scope—by turns serious and whimsical—creative, original and quintessentially modern. It has been termed “50s jewelry,” as if it embodied—in miniature—the aesthetics of that period. Yet, this casual association is misleading….
In this article, renowned enamelist Leila Tai discusses her many motivations and inspirations as well as her creative process in making her award-winning works. When and how did you become involved in enameling? I took classes at the Kulicke-Stark Academy…
People have gazed at adorned ears for many millennia. Discoveries in tombs and old legends tel of how ears were decorated in previous cultures. The rings or pegs worn in the ears were not simply intended as ornaments. They were…
Andrzej Bielak emerged as a gallery owner from his production and design of jewelry. Together with his wife Barbara Kanska Bielak, he manages the Krakow-based Gallery Bielak. The couple is well known as active organizers of exhibitions, even beyond the…
Andrzej Boss (47) is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, Polamd, where he runs the Goldsmithing Form Design Studio, holding a professor’s degree. As he admits himself, contacts with students have an inspiring effect on him,…
Getting the best and not the most out of every stone – this is the motto employed by the gemstone trader Andy Berck. Success proves him right – Berckwerk, the gemstone trader Andy Berck. Success proves him right – Berckwerk,…
Large and comfortable – this is the style of the rings created by the Munich-based jewelry designer Angela Hübel. The fact that she succeeds in uniting these apparently barely conformant properties in a high-quality item of jewelry is entirely due…
In her 20th year of creating jewelry, Aninka Harms has returned to the place where her training as a designer began: Stellen-bosch in South Africa. Anina Harms in front of her new gallery Ornament in Stellenbosch Inspiration snails: jewelry made…
This work is an attempt to make visible and wearable a meeting point between the two worlds of Art and Music. This tension is a result of the constant movement between those two disciplines, as Aninka Harms is working both…
Antonia Schwed, who died peacefully in September 2006, was one of the great enamelists of our time, and a pioneer of the enameling renaissance in America. However, she was not a self-promoter, but worked quietly and tirelessly both to promote…
From autodidact to prize-winning designer: 30 years ago, the Brazilian national Antonio Bernardo founded his jewelry production firm in Rio de Janeiro. This year, he won two of the most coveted international design prizes for the first time, and the…
Some 20 years ago, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London sponsored “Towards a New Iron Age, “aninternational exhibition of contemporary wrought ironwork. The thesis of the exhibit was that while ornamental ironwork “had remained in the grip of the historical pastiche” for much of the twentieth century, it nonetheless was a discipline that offered enormous potential for modern design. The pieces shown – lighting, tools, and both interior and exterior architectural ornamentation – illustrated how this antique discipline could offer forms “appropriate to the tastes and attitudes of our own time.”
Several Italian locations are bound to the typical manufacturing that has made them famous: Murano has its glass, Torre del Greco has coral. Arezzo has deep-rooted ties to jewelry. Arezzo, Piazza Vasari Piero della Francesca, Battaglia di Eraclio e Cosroe…
The most intriguing characteristic of Arline Fisch’s work, particularly the textile constructions, is their utter transformation when worn. What may appear as simple, even simplistic, knitted or woven metal undergoes a transubstantiation as it is put on the body, it…
Often the paramount achievement of technical mastery is the ability to “remain invisible.” The virtuoso violinist is heralded less for his pyrotechnic fingering than his subtle grace in purifying each note within a seamless composition. It is the music we…
This article is one of a series of articles from Metalsmith Magazine “Art and Technics” talking about techniques in craftsmanship and design. For this 1991 Spring issue, Curtis K. LaFollette talks about Wenzel Jamnizer. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On October 12, 1984, I…
For over 25 years now, the jewelry class at the Art College “AR.CO” in Lisbon, Portugal, has analyzed to what extent jewelry can make a confident and authentic statement in the artistic sector. Students and lectures from all over the…
In a promotional flyer from the early 1950s. Art Smith offered a “fanciful ring of space, silver and gold.” The main ingredients in his work, from about 1946 until his death in 1982 at the age of 65, were sheet,…
One can get tired of it all and want to be entertained, but the media outlets for distraction can look old hat and boring. So why not turn to art for a bit of uplift and fun? Why not abandon the daily grind, in which one has made all that life – draining progress in one’s career, and get a little innocent excitement back, regress for the pleasure of regressing, renewing one’s feeling for life in the process? The programmed leisure that passes for playfulness these days all those sports, with their rules and regulations, which make them seem like another dreary job (so much conformity, obedience, self suppression) is hardly as playful as art can be.
Many galleries have tried to exhibit artistic jewelry in the past, but only few remained. They have gained international reputation and have already all celebrated their tenth anniversary, thus becoming an “institution”. View of the gallery Slavik with its permanently…
Inspiration The leisurely lifestyle that artists such as Picasso or Matisse convey in their sun-drenched, love-filled paintings. The atmosphere created by the mild climate, the summery colors and the warm light of the Provence in the South of France is…
Not until the last century did the malicious and false concept arise that artists—painters, sculptors, printmakers—were anti-intellectuals. During the Renaissance Age artists who write poetry, composed treatises on esthetic problems or manuals on technique, who discoursed with sophisticated scholars and…
For 25 years now, the married couple and British goldsmiths Gill and Alan Saunders have run their own studio under the name Gilmar. The two creative jewelry lovers have remained faithful to their dreams since founding the atelier in 1983:…
He just couldn’t help himself. When Ryan Roberts sat down to create a piece to showcase a 3.46 spessartite garnet cut by Stephen Avery, he started with the idea of making something a bit more understated and less expensive than his…
Karen Jablonski is an award-winning artist from Monticello, Georgia, who works in the medium of painting enamel, among other media. Her richly detailed semi-abstract enamels often contain hidden images, symbols and patterns, inviting the viewer to study her works intently….
What were you doing in June 1971? Are you still doing it today, 25 years later, and in the same place? Barbara Cartlidge is. And if that name does not immediately strike a chord in your memory then surely the…
Editor’s Note: If we are what we eat, then are we whom we wear? While wearing your own jewelry designs is a great (and free!)way to market your work, it may not always make sense or be practical. In this…
The textured surfaces of Barbara Heinrich’s gold jewelry deceive with their simplicity. At first glance, they clearly appear to be reticulated, but even the most casual second look reveals a complexitiy that is the happy marriage of two opposing forces….
Barbara Nakae 1922 – 2006 Barbara Nakae of Newcastle, CA, born April 24, 1922, passed away peacefully in her sleep at home on February 6, 2006. She will be deeply missed by her family and friends. Barbara is survived by…
The name Barbara Schulte-Hengesbach stands for a concise concept that conveys a message without intricacy or ornament. The goldsmith, jewelry designer and gallery owner is well known for her consistent and intelligent jewelry. Barbara Schulte-Hengesbach Ring 18 karat yellow gold,…
What you should be is excited to read this article and see what others just like you have to say about their favorite bench tools. So you have a passion for hardware – loving tools is not a crime!
Reduced lines, minimalist forms and clear colors characterize primarily the jewelry collection by the Freiburg-based jewelry designer Bernd Wolf. However, there is much more behind it than a superficial glance could ever realize. Bernd Wolf: Designer with visions The collection…
At Rhode Island School of Design’s recent exhibitions of work by graduates of the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, objects by Bettina Dittlmann were noteworthy. While the jewelry of the other artists primarily commented sarcastically or ironically on jewelry, Dittlmann’s…
So much of contemporary culture is filled with apropriations, reconstructions, and fragmented borrowings from our past that that past seems a fiction, collapsed, confused, fragmented, ersatz, little more than a Disneyland filled with costumes and painted flats. Such arch mining…
Andy Cooperman’s Sargasso Server, a contemporary sterling silver fish slice, evokes life in the sea. The blade resembles a squid’s tapering, almost conical head, trailed by silver and gold ‘tentacles’ that form the handle. These long, interwoven strands of metal also suggest tangles of kelp, or sargassum weed. The transitional piece between handle and blade imitates the flared movement of a jellyfish and the nodular texture of a sea urchin. A Seattle metalsmith who works primarily as a jeweler.
On British Jewellery and German Jewellery, contrary to what one might infer about this exhibition, mounted at the Crafts Council Gallery in London last summer, from the poster, the two catalogs and the separate installations, there is little evidence of…
She is just as passionate about abstruse stories as she is about droll jewelry. Bruna Hauert and “Friends of Carlotta”, her gallery in Zurich, have gained an international reputation with a combination of these two aspects. Bruna Hauert – vivacious…
Author Richard W. Hughes discusses Gem and drug smuggling in Burma, along with the CIA and British involvement in the Burmese drug trade. The Author follows the smugglers routes and politics involved from the 17th century opium trade until present days.
Sculptor, jeweler, teacher, pioneer in large-scale studio metal casting, Byron Wilson has just turned 73 years-of-age. He is a fascinating man, recalling his own past, as well as that of the studio-jewelry movement in northern California in the early 1950s….
“How to Wrap Five Eggs” was a dilemma posed by a cult book of Japanese packaging design in the mid-1960s. The answer…dutifully, appropriately, because they demand it. Carol Kumata’s Wrappings, her early postgraduate pieces of 1979-80, seemed to be answers to…
Deborah Norton interviewed Caroline Broadhead regarding her recent retrospective at the Crafts Council in London and her recent change from jewelry to clothing. Deborah Norton (D): Your recent retrospective at the Crafts Council in London was intriguing, since it seems…
Cécile Chancerel, jeweler and enameler in La Baule, France, received “Le Grand Prix des Métiers d’Art” (the Grand Prize of the Trades of Art of SEMA 2006) in November 2006, with her modular necklace in enamels on precious metals entitled…
I attended a school for goldsmiths in Norway and worked as an apprentice for a total of 3 years before going for my exams in filigree work in 1983. The one year at the goldsmith school in Oslo, (the capital…
Sometimes when you are looking for one thing, you discover something else. The unexpected can change your course and you find yourself embarking on a new journey. One such turn of events introduced me to a unique metal finish and…
Master jeweler Charles Loloma was a Hopi spiritual leader — a member of the Badger Clan and a Hopi snake priest. His powers of charm extended through his ritual life and into his compelling jewelry. In daily life, Loloma never talked about Hopi religion. But his jewelry limns the Hopi landscape and expresses a world of spirit. Shaped by gems and woods cut into miniature topographies, the jewelry contours geology and time. It proposes intervals in which what is just now visible might shift with a slant of light or a flick of the wrist into the ineffable. Lustrous, flat surfaces abut plugs of jagged stone. Iconography rooted in Hopi imagery intersects with motifs from ancient Egypt. Color and decoration revel on the body like brilliant plumage.
On January 7, 1921, a son was born to Rex of the Sand and Tobacco Clan and Rachael Loloma of the Badger Clan, Hotevilla, Arizona. Rex was an accomplished weaver and respected moccasin maker; Rachael, an excellent basket maker. The…
Charlotte Meyer’s main body of work resulted from her study of the red light district of Amsterdam. Her night-time forays to photograph this borderline society were risky, depressing, and enlightening. The subsequent pieces – strapped, bound, enhanced, and ornamented bodices…
Charon Kransen, a New Yorker by choice, has dedicated himself with passion to innovative jewelry design – he has been traveling the globe tirelessly for 36 years and sees new surprise and inspiration on a daily basis. Charon Kransen The…
Cheuk Ying Kwan Hong Kong Design Institute Hong Kong First Place, Future of the Industry Cheuk Ying Kwan, a student at the Hong Kong Design Institute, is on a roll. The year’s not over yet, and she’s already won two…
The New York-based designer Chhaya Kapadia has now produced a new line featuring motifs taken from the exotic flora and fauna of the jungle, following on from the phenomenal success of her filigree jewelry collection. The pieces in 18 karat…
Golden, white, and rose-colored pearls of dubious quality dangle from her outstretched arms. At least 20 more strands are draped around her neck. They can be purchased for about $3 a strand. At the other end of the pearl spectrum…
As the global economy expands and the Internet gives us access to faraway destinations in a matter of minutes, there is a growing interest in places that once seemed remote, barren, and forbidden. Mongolia certainly fits those requirements. A few…
Christian Bauer is one of the major global players in the wedding ring business. The hightech smith from Welzheim near Schwäbisch Gmünd, which has been in business for precisely 125 years in 2005, is a multiply talented, top expert for…
Christian Schmidt is infamous for his contribution to the 1964 “Fiber, Clay, Metal” exhibition at the St. Paul Art Center, where he entered a so-called Medal of Honor by the fictitious Abraham Isitshit as a protest against the lack of…
Chunghi Choo captures her joyful creativity in sensuous forms and beguiling surfaces, but, despite this sumptuousness, simplicity harmony and tranquility are always integral to her work. Born in Korea, she took a B.F.A. at Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, majoring…
Claus Bury’s rejection of his immediate past, a long standing European tradition in goldsmithing, and his defection to the fine arts by the end of the 70’s, points out a major weakness in the crafts: its inability to accommodate radical…
Within the framework of the competition “Jewelry plus silicon carbide”, participants were asked to use the aesthetic properties of a to date exclusively technical material in their creations. The aim was to achieve concepts that allow the unusual, polycrystalline and…
Professions and professional skills change over the years. In this context, it is an undeniable fact that computers have revolutionized the world of communication. So people still unfamiliar with basic handling of a mouse and software programs have a rocky…
The history of contemporary English jewelry started in October 1952, when the young painter Gerda Flöckinger registered at the Central School “in order to learn how modern jewelry is made”. Right from the start, the young artist revealed an extremely…
In cast iron we recognize only the machine-made copy of a copy; in wrought-iron we feel the presence of the thought which the craftsman has stamped upon his work. One brings us face to face with matter; the other with mind… Purveyors of cast iron countered that there was greater scope for individual craftsmanship at the design stage, fashioning molds and models in wood and clay. The debate was about process more than product.
This is an excerpt from an interview with Stanley Lechtzin about the life of Olaf Skoogfors. Olaf Skoogfors and Stanley Lechtzin were good friends during Olaf’s teaching years. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Q. Can you elaborate on Olaf’s experience at RIT and particularly his…
One of my roles for the last few years has been that of an innovation awards judge for MJSA. This means I cruise the aisles of trade shows in New York, Tucson and Las Vegas, trying to spot new shifts and upcoming changes. This allows me a small identification as a cool hunter. This short article is about some of my finds.
The jewelry industry has seen a veritable flood of new technologies in recent years—from CAD/CAM and laser welders to new alloys and Precious Metal Clay (PMC). And after a tentative start, jewelry designers have begun to embrace them. The result has been designs both simple and sophisticated, clumsy attempts and elegant results. Critics have derided the new technologies for producing jewelry that’s sterile or amateur, while proponents argue that various technologies will forever change the way we make jewelry.
In 1959, Victor Papanek gave the third-year students in his creative engineering seminar at Ontario College of Art this problem: “Reexamine keyboard controls on a typewriter in relation to the human hand and fatigue factors. Design a new control board…
Creative Jewelry in Florence It’s hard to believe, but true: in Italy, where more than in almost any other country it is taken for granted that luxury will be put on display, opportunities to learn the noble craft of the…
Design is becoming more important in Poland. Jewelry isn’t yet playing a starring role, but it is also one of the ways to highlight one’s own individuality. Poles’ attitude to jewelry can be explained both by the economic situation in…
An Assessment of a Lecture Series and Panel Discussion at the Program in Artisanry of the Swain School of Design. Creativity is almost universally regarded as a good thing to have. From corporate business to cooking on a campstove, creativity…
Eating and drinking have been part of life forever. And people have always striven to make something special out of this necessity. This included how and with whom one ate. The development of the tools of eating followed along with…
The development of Czech jewelry design is contectualised within a wide spectrum of artworks, objects, sculptures and jewelry in its basic meaning. It is a meeting point of different kinds of arts. Decorations of head and arms by Blanka Sperkova…
Daniela: The thing about the jewelry is that it’s not just a little picture. It’s everything that surrounds it and makes it into this thing to wear. Dan: What I like about it being jewelry as opposed to something on…
Dan Feldman uses the utensil as both object and idea. Consequently, his work reveals both personal history and associations with the utensil as a useful object. An apprenticeship with Towle Silversmiths instigated Feldman’s fascination with the knife, fork and spoon…
Flamboyant colors and forms ranging from the simple to the expansive characterize the sculptural jewelry of the American metalsmith and jewelry artist Dan Jocz. Any attempt to categorize this unusual designer is swiftly doomed to failure, because Dan Jocz adheres…
David Paul Bacharach is a part of the growing contingent of American metalsmiths who are challenging the Modernist tradition of vesselmaking (see “American Holloware, Changing Criteria” by Jamie Bennett, Metalsmith, Summer 1984). He has managed to avoid the principles of…
On a desk in David Secrest’s living room sits an antique ophthalmology machine. Meant for the examination of the inner structure of the eye, it now holds a small irregular chunk of metal, which to the unaided eye appears as…
Stone, metal and space compose the careful balance in Deborah Aguado’s work. Her first geometric formalisms constructed in metal were developed in 1973 when she participated in a goldsmithing seminar at the Akademie für Bildende Kunst in Salzburg, Austria. They…
No single item is more used yet more neglected than flatware. It is used in one form or another by the average person many times a day, not only for eating but also for preparing and serving food. But few…
Diana Porter: “I love all of it – my beautiful spacious shop in the center of Bristol with our workshop behind it; working with the team of 5 jewellers producing my collections and making commissions; choosing and showing in the…
Didi Suydam The grave of the German poet and polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is marked by a simple sphere. It may seem curious that a man who has been called one of the most brilliant people to have ever…
Due to a recent comprehensive exhibition at the San Francisco Craft & Folk Art Museum, we reintroduce to our readers the handwrought copper work of Dirk Van Erp, a leading handcraftsman in the American Arts and Crafts Movement, who opened…
Traveling down Stony Acre Drive in Cranston, Rhode Island, one cannot help but wonder at the use of this particular name for a road which repeatedly assails one with the monotonous banality of just another street in suburban America. Yet,…
At a time when the country is still reeling from the vogue for Indian jewelry displayed around the necks of rock stars, like the chains of the Lord Mayor, and on the blue jean shirts of admirers of “the Santa…
Breslau-born Dorothea Pruhl (in 1937) has been dealing with jewelry as a statement and the design of jewelry for four decades. This teacher and professor at the Giebichenstein castle University for Art and Design in Halle has a deep-reaching influence…
Dorothee Striffler has made her choice: the square is far and away her favorite form. And, there are good reasons for that because the square is the strongest and more succinct of all geometric forms. Dorothee Striffler Diamond-shaped chain, 18…
I have long suspected that I have a great deal of “dyslexic” company in the arts. As more and more networks, such as the Foundation for Children with Learning Disabilities emerge, which focus on an increased awareness of learning differences,…
East meets west – the cultural mixture of eastern and western influences on jewelry, fashion, furnishings and architecture is no longer entirely new. The German/Japanese jewelry designer Erico Nagai is, however, truly a member of the avant-garde in this area….
Ed Wiener exemplifies the studio jewelry artist of the late 1940s and 50s. The first time we met, this fascinating 70-year-old man reminisced at length about the New York art/craft scene of 40 years ago. With a wry wit and…
This specialist company has brought out a catalogue, tailor made for the jewelry and tool industry. It includes one of the most nicely balanced ranges of highest quality rotary instruments, like traditional silicon rubber polishers as well as state-of-the-art diamond…
A changed world and new perceptions of life determined the development of jewelry art in the period before the Second World War and the modern age. In addition to Eva Maschea-Elsasser and Hildegard Risch, the most important female goldsmiths that…
For someone who began making jewelry in high school and who usually makes work no larger than two feet, working on an scale of six feet is quite an education. My first such work, Along The Way, is a 6…
Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington, is ninety miles east of Seattle across the high Cascade Mountains range and a world away from the comparatively sophisticated cultural institutions of Puget Sound. At least two local variations of art movements, Funk…
Dutch jewelry designer Emmy van Leersum, who died November 2, 1984, had been internationally recognized for over 20 years. Her work was most recently seen in New York at the “Jewelry International: Contemporary Trends” exhibition, organized in 1984 by the…
The modern designer-jeweler must contend with a great range of alternative ornaments: with antique pieces and diamond studded ornaments, with their high intrinsic investment value; with less costly day wear jewelry from many freelance makers; and with a huge range…
The interplay between the erotic and art has featured in all periods of history, on occasion crossing the line into pornography. Jewelry and strangely enough watches too have reflected this theme, secretly indicating that it’s always the right time for…
The married goldsmith and designer couple Sabine Brandenburg-Frank and Egon Frank have, after 23 years, released themselves from the obligations of having their own business with production, distribution and sales and are now focusing exclusively on the design of jewelry….
Watch enthusiasts have long since succumbed to the elaborate and additional mechanical functions, the so-called complications. Classics among them include display of the date or the moon phase, while the eternal calendar represents the superlative. A masterpiece of mechanics: “Jules…
We invited Ettagale Blauer, formerly New York Editor for Jewelers’ Circular-Keystone, to attend the 1986 Society of North American Goldsmith’s (SNAG) conference at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and to provide an outsider’s point of view. Here is her opinion…
In 2004, when I was preparing the 8th International Enamel Symposium in Erfurt, Germany (title : “SPIEGELUNGEN – REFLECTIONS”) – it was the first time that I had the chance to invite an artist from the Czech Republic to participate…
I have been an artist in enamelling for nine years. In 1999, I took a specialist jewellery course with completely different techniques. The goldsmith conducting the course showed me a beautiful Russian powder compact with a blue champlevé enamel. I…
With his international exhibition concept, which supports and promotes dialogue between foreign jewelry artists and those from Germany, Udo Adam-Pasquale has given his relatively new gallery “Orfeo,” in Cologne, an unmistakable character in no time at all. Udo Adam-Pasquale View…
Quoting the scholar, Nyozekan Hasegawa, Masataka Ogawa Calls Japan the country of “the culture of hands.” Over the centuries, no hands have been stronger or more skillful in carrying on the traditions of distinguished craftsmanship than those of the Japanese…
Fabergé – the name carries special significance even today. It is inextricably linked with the glamour of pre-revolution Russia. Fabergé’s expensive Easter eggs, produced for the Tsar’s family and other high society figures of the 19th century, represent a magical…
This article is one of a series of articles from Metalsmith Magazine “Fads and Fallacies”. For this 1987 Spring issue, A. Stiletto how Art is Life. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In “The Colony of Money” the figure of Fast Eddie Felson is resurrected thrice-fold:…
This article is one of a series of articles from Metalsmith Magazine “Fads and Fallacies”. For this 1987 Winter, A. Stiletto talks about fashion fads. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Annually for many, not so frequently for most, the elite of what is loosely called…
As trite as it might sound, we still form our opinions about people as a result of “first impressions.” In fact, our fast-paced culture demands that personal images be codified within the limits of an ever-decreasing attention span. For all…
This article is one of a series of articles from Metalsmith Magazine “Fads and Fallacies”. For this 1987 Fall, A. Stiletto talks melancholic designs. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In a recent interview, reported in The New York Times, the usually diffident Geoffrey Beene gently criticized…
Over the last several years, a growing number of North Americans have been obtaining nontraditional pierces. Pierced penises, nipples, navels, clitorides and noses have been proliferating. Sometimes this is the result of individuals reclaiming a signifier of their cultural heritage;…
Gold, silver, platinum and gem stones are increasingly getting a bad name. Environmental catastrophes, financing of criminal syndicates or warlords and also inhumane working conditions are making the jewelry industry and customers insecure. An interesting approach for a credible alternative…
Karl Lagerfeld is the person to thank for elevating tie pins to haute couture. “I love neckties, but I only wear black ties. I never leave the house without a tie pin, ” says the fashion designer, who has brought…
While living in Little Neck, NY, during the mid-sixties, I took an enameling class at the local YWHA. It took a while for me to overcome my fear of the open kiln, but in time it was alright, so much…
The idea that she should become a goldsmith actually came from her biology teacher. Could this be the reason why in the jewelry created by the Dutch designer Felieke van der Leest little monkeys wear red dungarees and carry golden…
For Felix Lindner, a goldsmith who was born in Erfurt in 1973 and has lived there for some time now, symbols and idols of our times are pawns with which he plays his creative game of distortion. Metaphors in artistic…
Information and limitless communication calls for an exchange of ideas and opinions above and beyond political borders and cultural spheres of influence. This also applies to the jewelry-related activities at schools of design all over the world. The work of…
Marcia Budet didn’t set out to be a jewelry designer. Although she grew up collecting rocks, crystals, and hematites, she wound up pursuing degrees in architecture as an adult. Upon graduating with her master’s degree, Budet celebrated the occasion by…
Florence Resnikoff delights in the use of color. Vibrant and glowing, muted and moody, color for her involves extending beyond traditional metal and stone in washes of purple, rose, peacock blue gray—the expanded palette she achieves with anodized titanium, tantalum…
Fourth Annual Selected University Metalsmiths Norman R. Eppink Art Gallery, Emporia State University, Emporia, KS October 24- November 11, 1983 For a number of years two universities have been selected to send work for an exhibit at Emporia State. This…
Fred Fenster is a compact man whose quiet friendliness and diffidence belies the intensity that lies just beneath the surface of his personality. The face is friendly in a strong sort of way and there is genuine force in the…
Frederic Braham selects the technique and material for a piece of work depending on what the idea demands. He is a jewelry maker who expresses himself by moving in different ares of contemporary art. The sensitive and careful implementation leads…
Over the last several years museums from around the country have been quietly purchasing sterling hollow ware made by Cleveland silversmith Frederick Miller. One of the most recent acquisitions was a silver and ebony pitcher collected by the National Museum…
From the ancient Greeks to contemporary art – this Vienna-based enamel workshop excites its clients throughout the world with artistic authenticity and perfect quality. Dr. Friedrich Wille Art and design – hardly any brand of jewelry demonstrates this relationship as…
Having turned 80 with the spring this year, Fridl Blumenthal qualifies as a grand old lady of metalwork. Like grande dames from time immemorial, she has a powerful predilection for gold. For her, however, gold is not something with which…
The gold and silversmith Friedrich Becker has succeeded in uniting technology and art in a fascinating manner. Through his work and teaching at the Polytechnic College in Düsseldorf, he has had a weighty influence on the international jewelry scene. Bracelet….
Vienna-based jewelry designer Fritz Maierhofer is an important pioneer of modern individualized jewelry. As a protagonist of a new style which uses unusual materials, the artist has found a new language along with Claus Bury. Thanks to Maierhofer’s teaching work,…
How did you become involved in enameling? Observing the World. 21×21 cm. Wall panel, sgrafitto technique. 1991. This happened accidentally. Having seen some enamel pictures in an exhibition, the quality and intensity of colors highly impressed me and I decided…
The most copied and still a hit: the pearl necklace “Galaxie” by pars pro toto puts its tenth birthday behind it and seems more than ever to have the makings of a classic. Designer Birgitta Schulz bears sole responsibility for…
Galerie Jocelyne Gobeil, which opened in early 1987, is the only gallery in Canada devoted exclusively to the exhibition and sale of contemporary art jewelry. Located near the Musée des Beaux Arts on a block of art galleries in downtown…
This is the third of a series on galleries that specialize in jewelry and metalwork. The Quadrum Gallery is owned and operated by Cynthia Kagan. See below for related articles. Situated among exclusive clothing stores and interior design boutiques and lulled…
This is the first in a series on galleries that specialize in jewelry and metalwork. The Vo Galerie is a European Jewelry Showcase in the American Capitol. See below for related articles. The new wave of European jewelry that has been…
This is a continuing series on galleries that specialize in jewelry and metalwork. The Yaw Gallery is owned and operated by Nancy Yaw. See below for related articles. The town of Birmingham, Michigan is an affluent suburb of Detroit. Aside…
The gallery-owner Marie-José van den Hout has focused on contemporary jewelry art in her gallery in Nijmegen in Holland for the last 25 years. Conveying it as an independent form of art is still the task for a pioneer. Marie-José…
Berlin Mitte is one of the most popular addresses for creative people and their agents. The new and traditional heart of the city is not only a magnet for visitors from all over the world, it is also a fruitful…
When Gary Griffith wrote this poetic meditation (see below) on the status of his work for an exhibition at the Helen Drutt Gallery in Philadelphia in 1981, he was at a turning point in his development. His hesitancy to designate…
Imagine a small boy in a Kansas field in the 1950s. The boy, aged five, has constructed a wooden airplane with two seats, one for himself and one for a friend. He has tilted the plane toward the sky. Attached…
Light and filigree, yet robust and elastic: feathers are one of nature’s true works of art. This magnificently colored dress not only attracts fellow creatures, but also human beings. Indeed, humans have worn decorations made of bird feathers since the…
Barring punctuality, Germany and Japan don’t seem to have a lot of things in common culturally. Still, the ties that bind the two nations are a good relationship of many years. And they will be strengthened this year with the…
It is named after a great architect, located in the southern part of one of Europe’s most interesting cities and educates its students to take an individual risk: the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam In May 2007, the Gerrit Rietveld…
This article is an interview with jewelry designer Gregore Morin. Read on to get his insights and genius behind his jewelry and designs! “I strive to pay attention to everything around me and bring it into my work.” – Gregore Morin How…
This article is an interview with jewelry designer Mark Loren. Read on to get his insights and genius behind his jewelry and designs! ****************** When did you know you wanted to be a jewelry designer? I was good at science,…
This article is an interview with jewelry designer Mark Schneider. Read on to get his insights and genius behind his jewelry and designs! ****************** How did you decide to enter the jewelry industry? My first choice of career was veterinarian….
For Giampaolo Babetto, the student occupation of the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice in 1968 was a harsh blow. The Academy was in fact closed for two years and the talented pupil of Alberto Viani was forced to abandon…
“I don’t wear jewels, I drive them!” This statement by the Dutch jewelry and product designer Gijs Bakker wrote history just like his series of car brooches, which he released in 2001, in which he poked fun at the almost…
Gilbert Poillerat French ironwork of the 1920s, as exemplified in the work of Edgar Brandt, represented a pinnacle of technical achievement and aesthetic expression. Brandt exhibited a natural sense of composition and form which was abetted by his ability to…
“It is not good for people to be alone, particularly not to work alone. Rather, they need participation and stimulation if anything is to succeed.” Those wise words come from no less a personage than Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. And…
Whether in ancient Greece or in China, in Peru or India, gold has not only been appreciated due to its beauty and value, but also because of its warmth, sensuality and its spiritual wealth. In addition to its fascinating color…
Everybody knows Pat Flynn. Pat Flynn, the jewelerly jeweler. Pat Flynn the goldsmith’s goldsmith. The bear of a man from whose impossibly long fingers come those impossibly tiny hinges. The New Paltz student whose folded copper sacks amused us, whose…
Gorham Company was 45 years old when its 2,000-ounce “Century Vase” celebrating the nation’s centennial won great acclaim at the Philadelphia Exposition Over the next hundred years Gorham maintained its prominent position through both its design innovation and industrial development….
Not everyone who enjoys a cup of coffee in the afternoon pays attention to the little sachets of sugar on the saucer. However, for the Bochum-based goldsmith Gudrun Meyer, the pieces of paper printed with inspired motifs are charming raw…
The Secret of Hammering Gold Traditional crafts can disappear more quickly than one might think. To keep traditional gold hammering from sliding into obscurity; that is the aim of the Leipzig-based goldsmith Thomas Garcia. For over 10 years now, he…
German art awarded Dutch prize The SilverArt Foundation was established in 2001 with a view to bringing modern silverwork to the attention of a wide, art-loving public through exhibitions. Accordingly, the SilverArt Foundation organized the international competition “Schoonhoven Silver Award…
I.H.M. 2004 with Shining Jewels The International Crafts Fair in Munich (March, 4 to 10, 2004) will focus this year on jewelry in particular. As the organizer of the Herbert Hoffmann Prize for exemplary work in contemporary jewelry production, the…
Swiss quality in the tool sector Edenta, the specialist company guarantees absolute quality consistency. Its range of top grade abrasive and polishing rotary instruments includes all features of the highest quality products. Their programme is made up of traditional silicon…
Magic and the mystery of preciousness It was designed as the project of the century, just as expensive as it should be visionary: The “Schmuckwelten (Jewelry Worlds) Pforzheim”. The new exhibition was intended to allow end customers, designers, jewelry manufacturers…
Trade fair in Vicenza: Shapes of Jewelry According to the fashion gurus, jewelry manufacturers should focus on the immaterial value of their products – especially the design – in order to restore their customer’s interest; after all, this is what…
Collect 2006 – discover the art of collecting The third Collect will take place at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London from 9 until 13 February 2006. Organised by the British Crafts Council, Collect is the only art fair…
Haute Couture Deluxe Any woman wearing this magnificent cocktail dress doesn’t need any other jewelry. After the luxury pearl brand Schoeffel and the Berlin-based fashion label Unrath & Strano launched initial business relations, they decided to extend their collaboration to…
Fall Trade Shows – Ordering for the Christmas Period Jewelers, goldsmiths and specialist retailers are ordering on increasingly short notice. In times of economic uncertainty, consumer demand for new goods is significantly more spontaneous than in other times. This is…
The Brat Pack at the Inhorgenta Every industry benefits from the energy and innovative ideas of its young talent. The international watch and jewelry business is no different. The jewelry show Inhorgenta Europe very consciously places its trust in talented…
Fly now! International jewelry makers should note this date. From August 6-12, 2007 Ruudt Peters helds this years’ jewelry course in Ravenstetn (NL) under the title “fly now”. Peters who teaches as a professor also at Adellab, Konstfack University College…
Concrete – It Depends what You Make of It For years in Germany, this was the advertising slogan used by the concrete industry. Concrete is a synthetic construction material, which even ancient Romans used to build their aqueducts or the…
Sign of Belief The competition New Traditional Jewellery is being held for the second time and is focusing this year on the topic of ‘belief’. Whether this means belief in the sense of an established religious community or of a…
Happy Birthday: 25 Years of the Goldsmiths’ Fair Ben Day Katharina Vones Malcolm Betts David Goodwin Regina Aradesian For over 700 years, the Goldsmiths’ Company has actively supported gold and silversmiths, along with jewelry designers, in Great Britain. Until…
Practical Experience Counts What seems practically impossible in Germany is no problem at all in England. Here, applicants can apply for a postgraduate course based on their previous practical knowledge and experience and end up with a Master’s…
Success in Silver Even as a child, he wanted to be an artist – today he is an internationally renowned jewelry designer and will be celebrating his 20 year anniversary: Belgian born Nico Taeymans has designed an anniversary silver collection…
C2 – when the name of a fair hall is automatically associated with electrifying innovation and ground-breaking design, it can only be Europe’s largest jewelry show: inhorgenta europe. Precious stones always have a special place in Michael Zobel’s collection in…
In April of 1983, a simple and relatively unpretentious store joined the ranks of the illustrious “boutiques” and other high-priced establishments lining the sidewalks of Madison Avenue on New York’s fashionable upper east side. The store’s interior is characterized by…
“Colors are vitamins for the human soul”, claimed the German painter Professor Hans Jaenisch. In saying this, he emphasized the influence of the multifaceted vivacity of the world on our inner feelings. Favorite colors are not comprised simply of the…
Strictly speaking, the metalworker’s contribution to the Japanese tea ceremony is confined primarily to the teakettle. This accoutrement traditionally has been overshadowed in the ceremony, as well as in the history of art, by the ceramic tea bowl, the emblem…
From March 21 through March 24, 2007, The W.W. Carpenter Enamel Foundation held a Large Scale Enamel Workshop featuring Harold Balazs of Mead, Washington. Participants enjoyed learning Harold’s inspired and creative working methods, and each eagerly put his suggestions to…
Progress, in its 19th-century understanding as industrial innovation, has rarely been a friend of women. Some may even say it’s been a foe. Women’s labors, the cottage industries of spinning and weaving which mothers could pursue at home white tending…
Haute Horlogerie is familiar with a magic word: it is called manufactory and stands for the highest art of watch making. More and more brands face up to this coming of age and present themselves as young manufactories despite their…
Upon entering his studio, anyone familiar with Heinz Brummel’s work will recognize the playful geometry of the vignette making up the far wall. Three tall windows covered in bright canvas shades of red, yellow, and blue form primary rectangles; hung…
Everyone knows the famous picture from the film The Seven Year Itch, of Marilyn Monroe standing on a New York sidewalk, her skirt blown up by on updraft from the subway grate below. However, not everyone knows that at that…
From 1988 to 1989, German goldsmith Hermann Jünger was celebrated in his native country with a major retrospective of his work since 1945. More recently, in the spring of 1990, a new series of necklaces by Jünger was the subject…
Professor Hermann Jünger, one of the most defining personalities in goldsmith art over the second half of the last century, passed away on February 6, 2005, aged 76 following a long illness. Jünger was among the key figures who influenced…
The imposing seven-story Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry, often photographer for architecture magazines because of its unique design, juts up into the sky directly where the three most important fashion districts in Tokyo converge. Just the right surroundings for the…
Where else, if not in Hamburg, this unique riverside city, has jewelry earned a platform that exceeds the bounds of a normal gallery in terms of size and content? The Jewelry Gallery is located just off the hustle and bustle…
The history of contemporary Canadian jewellery, like that of Canada itself, has struggled with the assimilation of foreign influences, economies and cultures as well as the insecurities of the Canadian temperament in its search for a national definition and identity….
On September 13, 1990, Adda Husted-Andersen, familiarly known as Andy, died in Copenhagen, Denmark, her native land. She was a very special lady with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. After training in Denmark as a metalsmith, and studying at…
Olaf Skooglors died at the age of 45 on December 20, 1975. In memory of Olaf Skoogfors these excerpts were taken from the 1979 retrospective exhibit, held at the Philadelphia College of Art and the Renwick Gallery and curated by…
Saara Hopea-Untracht died on Monday, the 25th of June this year. She lived and worked in Porvoo, Finland where she was a part of the life of the artistic community. Throughout her career Saara was a quiet but powerful force…
New design trends are by no means a product of coincidence. They develop hand in hand with contemporary events and societal changes in a dialog between art and commerce. New trends always start with young, creative designers who courageously absorb…
Inhorgenta europe is presenting the special show “brand new – new brand” for the third time. Like in the previous years, 20 young designers and newcomers to the trade fair have the opportunity to present their work to a specialist…
The corporate philosophy was already clearly defined when the firm was founded back in 1998: Customer centricity is the focal point of all decisions. This is the only way to find out about customer needs and to put them into…
Hosting over 130 exhibitors and welcoming roughly 3,000 show guests from all over the world, the Intergem is the leading international, specialist show for gemstones. This is where jewelry manufacturers, goldsmiths and designers stock up with new materials for sparkling…
The fields of art, craft and design are becoming increasingly intertwined and the boundaries between them ever more fluid. The ‘Internationale Handwerksmesse’ (IHM) trade fair for craft-based enterprises, held in Munich, reflects this coming together of the various disciplines through…
Isabella Corwin resides in Maine, only 65 feet from the ocean. Her setting influences her with it’s flotsam and jetsam. “I have a lot of imagery around me. Once in a while an image and a technique that exactly fit…
Where did you learn to enamel? Daniel: I had completed my high school diploma 2001 at the Walter Gropius compartment-Highschool for formation (design) in Erfurt. The education is modeled after the former Bauhaus school in Weimar, comprised of theoretical as…
Craft and commerce came together with spirit and style at the 1983 Society of North American Goldsmiths’ conference held at Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, California, from June 8-12. The conference, headed by Doug Steakley, with that special combination of…
Ivory and bone have been used by humans for sculptures and jewelry purposes from very early times. The Upper Paleolithic age already boasted curious etchings of reindeer, scratched onto mammoth tusks. The figures of the Vogelherd Caves near Ulm are…
Jade Snow Wong 1922 – 2006 Jade Snow Wong, an extraordinarily accomplished enamelist, ceramist, and author, died on Thursday, March 16, 2006. She was 84 years old. Her family and friends as well as all those whose lives she touched…
The mythical properties and symbolic potency attributed to jade (celestial stone) are stronger than those linked to almost any other stone. Whether it comes in deep green, shimmering white or enchanting violet, jade has for millennia been the focus of…
Editor’s Note: This is the full text of a speech, submitted by Florentina Nichols, given by Christine Hew at the Guild of Enamellers 2003 Conference in Great Britain. We thank Florentina for arranging the permission to reprint this article and…
This article is a review on the Jewelry & Small Objects Exhibition by James Evans held at the Prime Canadian Crafts, Toronto, Canada on May 28-June 9, 1984. A search for “linearality” is James Evans’s definition of his show at Prime Canadian…
“Just what did I find in Santa Clara? Why did I feel this mountain village surrounded by pine forests was the culmination of ten thousand things, and I no longer needed to move on?” James Metcalf Smith forging the large…
This article features an Exhibition by 10 Japanese Designers in New York held at Gallery 91, New York City on March 8-31, 1984 Noteworthy in Gallery 91’s exhibition of 10 Japanese designers from various design fields, ranging from wood furniture and…
Jenny Pohlman and Sabrina Knowles Heroic in scale, the prayer beads of Jenny Pohlman and Sabrina Knowles could be envisaged draping the bosom of an Olympian goddess or the wall of a downtown gallery with equal aplomb. Drawing from a…
Jessica Calderwood’s work consists of enamels that walk a fine line between the beautiful and the bizarre. The process of enameling is an ancient art, historically used as a way to create archival images and color on functional objects. Much…
Rarely do we think of jewelry as a matter of life and death. On the contrary, ornament is typically perceived as superfluous or even trivial. In spite of this view, jewelry and other bodily adornment can indeed facilitate our survival in various ways. Among the many roles that ornament performs, perhaps its most compelling is its ability to protect us from harm.
Green. What was once seen as a fringe-element rallying cry has grown into a planet-changing initiative that touches countless aspects of our daily lives. Jewelry Companies Help Save the Planet One Step at a Time From the simple act of recycling…
A pretty red brick building from the 19th century is located not far from the city center of Geneva, a few hundred meters form the main railway station Cornavin on the right-hand side. This venerable old building has housed the…
Fall, the season for international jewelry and watch trade fairs, is here once more. The International Jewelry Shows in New York and Mumbai, along with the restructured Frankfurt lifestyle trade fair Tendence and the small but interesting events in Hamburg,…
If you follow the constantly ascending curving road in the picturesque Taunus mountain range from Kelkheim near Frankfurt am Main in the direction of the Magic Mountain, you encounter a historical and captivating little house that seems to sit in…
Joe Wood says he was first attracted to jewelry for its economy – the opportunity to focus a great deal of intensity in a small object. That is, he likes to make big statements in small forms. Wood’s artistic impulse…
John Cage was a pioneer of modern sound art with his idea of incorporating complete silence and accidental everyday noise into his compositional concepts. He helped to shape a completely new direction in art, along with various other artists. Jaap…
John Marshalls position in American art is an awkward one. His sculptures of fine silver with acrylic, Corian, wood, and basalt are larger than the ornamental metal objects usually associated with silver. At the same time, they are smaller than the over-scaled, not to say monumental, size the rest of contemporary sculpture has occupied over the past few decades. (True, Marshall executed a series of site-related liturgical commissions, but they should be the subject of another essay.).
This past year, we were treated to a major retrospective of the work of John Prip in an exhibition that originated at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum in Providence, RI and traveled to the American Craft Museum in…
Jonathan Bonner is a pleasant young man with a quick smile and an easygoing manner. If you saw him in the grocery store you might think he was a teacher or a doctor. If you walked by his house in…
“The creative process is basically a process of focus. …If I look at things that I think are related, other work, other things in nature, things in industry, things that I think will trigger me off, feed those in, and…
In my capacity as Liturgical artist I recently received a commission from St. Columban’s Catholic Parish to create a work of art depicting the Way of the Cross for their new church. Part 1 – The Concept The medium was…
“It’s one of those childhood memories that doesn’t escape you, but I remember being a kid, and I don’t remember what it was about, but having my mom say, ‘Oh, it’s just glass and thinking, ‘What do you mean, it’s…
Coming to terms with the work of Kai Chan is not so much a matter of definition as of communication. As Chan explains, “When I work on my pieces, I put things, anything—materials thoughts, accidents—together to become an object that…
Enamelist Karl Drerup’s (b.1904) successful career in the United States illuminates the mid-century craft revival in this country. Arriving on the scene at a time when crafts were at a low ebb in popularity Karl Drerup was an influential example…
Since her first year of studies at the Edinburgh College of Art, Katharina Bianca Vones has been deluged with awards and prizes. She received seven in 2006, including honors for the innovative use of gemstones, distinguished final year work and…
Santa Fe jewelry designer Kathleen O’Rourke is describing a move whose opening shot shows a Celtic queen riding horseback, her fur robes flying, metal jewelry clanking. “I’m attracted to women like that,” O’Rourke says, laughing. “Like Wonder Woman or Virginia…
The Turkish designer Kemal Simsek chose an acacia as his corporate logo. And this jewelry company, not yet 10 years old, has put on roots in the international world of designer jewelry that are just as strong as those of…
Ken Vickerson’s jewellery is a study in balance. While respected as a consummate craftsman, a deep philosophical streak compels this artist to move beyond decoration into the realm of ideas. Like many jewelers, Vickerson was introduced to metalsmithing by chance….
If you wish to create filigree jewelry using porcelain, up to now you had been forced to make a mass based on complicated mixing ratios and the had to roll it out finely. Jewelry artists could not know whether the…
Kiff Slemmons: Uncommon Means of Measure Kiff Slemmons’s jewelry is created as much for the mind as for the body. Drawing on the intellectual and literary traditions of surrealists such as Marcel Duchamp, Rene Magritte and Man Ray, Kiff creates…
In a poem of the T’ang dynasty, the cultivated man who eats his meal from a polished bowl gazes into the delights that his wealth has bought, and knows his temporality in the majestic universe. In my gold cup clear…
The artist Klaus Dupont transforms old finds into new objects – seldom have these old pieces been more cheerfully staged than at his workshop in Berlin Maobit. The favorite place of passionate collector Klaus Dupont: at his Berlin workshop, everything…
Stones have a soul. For Klaus Fessmann, they are not inanimate material, but individuals that under a skilled hand can be coaxed into making enchanting sounds. We are not talking here about an estoric view of the world, but an…
The hammer falls powerfully on to the red, glowing iron. Sparks fly. Sunny the mare nervously whips its tail. The hot horseshoe is pressed on to the hood using pliers, biting smoke bellows up from the burnt horn, cloaking the…
February 11, 1954: “Traces of work appear to be something akin to ornaments of contemporary society. If you, Klaus Ullrich, who until the present day have worked so intensely and creatively along this path, seek new routes for your future…
This article is a review on the Knifemaker’s Art Exhibition held at the Edward H. Merrin Gallery of Antiquities, New York City on June 20-July 6, 1984. This exhibition of contemporary work was displayed at the Edward H. Merrin Gallery…
When and how did you become involved in enameling? I saw great work of enamel in an art museum eight years ago, and I was very impressed. That’s how and when I became involved in enameling. Front, “Toward the sky,…
Translated into English, Korea means “chosen.” Komelia Hongja Okim, a native of Korea, has faced a great many consequential choices both in her personal and professional lives. Of these, one of the most important has been her choice of United…
The Kremlin Armory houses unique collections of precious items that mirror the artistic wealth of the country and the relations with other people and regions. They include the fantastic testimonies to Russian goldsmith art from the 12th to the 20th…
Votives are objects offered to a deity in exchange for favor and in the cultures of southern Italy and Sicily, anything can be ex voto. Not subject to liturgical rules, these offerings are made “according to the inspiration and the…
Decorate-package-furnish is the motto of the company Lange, a supplier specialized in the jewelry and watch industry. The full Lange product range is now also available in the new web shop. Since 1952, the traditional trademark Lange has been a…
Björn Weckström had a decisive influence on the idea of Finnish style. Over four decades of cooperation with Lapponia Jewellery has created jewelry in gold and silver that reflects Weckström’s belief that jewelry is a “miniature sculpture with a human…
The unique style of the designers Björn Weckström, Zoltan Popovits, Christophe Burger, and Pekka Hirvonen has been the creative imprint for the new collections of the Finnish jewelry manufacture Lapponia. They all share a mutual love for nature and its…
After a long break we have restarted the JSW Enamel Studio, Vashind, Mumbai. A major effort was made in October 2004 to set up this facility for large scale enamel on steel with the combined efforts of Ms. Sangita Jindal…
I was introduced to enameling during a required Enamels course at the Bezalel Academy Jewelry Department. We were given an exercise in each of the techniques and simultaneously were taught a method of systematic experimentation, i.e. learn how to learn….
It takes a powerful psyche to cope with and build on the kind of support and inspiration that has surrounded Laurie Hall all of her life. The inspiration coming from all sides has been nurtured in the fertile soil of…
I stood on Kawaramachi Street in downtown Kyoto. Kyoto, capital of Japan, home of the emperor from 794 to 1868, center for the three great schools of the tea ceremony, city of Noh drama, Ikenobo flower arranging and enigmatic Zen…
There are few disciplines that depend primarily upon visual observation for an understanding of human creativity and meaning behind objects. An art historian examines a composition to determine a work’s authenticity and attribution; an appraiser closely examines a piece of jewelry to confirm its value; an archeologist learns to read an object as evidence of the physical process which produced it. But as viewers of art, we tend to suppress reading an object in favor of an appreciation of its aesthetic value.
Leo Fried and Nanz Aalund Blue Heron Jewelry Co. Poulsbo, Washington Responsible Practices Distinction Nanz Aalund was looking for a way to thank Leo Fried, owner of Blue Heron Jewelry Co. in Poulsbo, Washington, for offering her a shot….
A year before the first appearance of the Memphis collection at the Milan Furniture Fair in 1981, Leslie Leupp was collecting materials from hardware stores and welding shops for a series of bracelets. Of this period he says, “I wanted…
Linda MacNeil “How do I get inspired? That’s one of the hardest questions”, muses Linda MacNeil. “I look through art books. I look at everything, try to absorb everything. Details of industrial things – bridges, street lamps, mixing bowls. I…
Threadgills keen interest in ornament undoubtedly arises from her longstanding practice of etching motifs into the surfaces of her works, a process that she began perfecting as early as her graduate student days. In 1984, after studying the manner in which printed circuit boards were mass-manufactured, she developed a smaller and more portable version of industrys spray-etching machines. Armed with this technology, easily applicable to a photo-resist technique, she deftly created bas-relief patterns on thin metal plates that could be incorporated into larger and more complex works.
While Lisa Norton’s works give evidence to her interest in the concepts of value, utility, function, form and the cultural conditions in which they were constructed, her points of departure remain rooted in process. Through various techniques she examines both…
Lisel Salzer, 99, Seattle Artist Who Fled Nazis by Sheila Farr, Seattle Times art critic from The Seattle Times, Tuesday, December 13, 2005 For some artists, acclaim only arrives after their lives have ended. But Lisel Salzer – a native…
The Antwerp Diamond Council (HRD) organized from 10th October to 10th November 2002 the exhibition “Living diamonds, fauna and flora in diamond jewelry until 1960” in the new Diamond Museum of Antwerp. The exhibition was the first spectacular display in…
While managing the renovation of the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building, Lloyd Herman had a vision. In an independent proposal he created the idea that would become the Renwick Gallery. Over the 15 years that he served as its founding…
Lois Etherington Betteridge Museum of Natural Sciences, Ottawa June-September, 1983 Yaneff Gallery, Toronto November, 1983 The silver objects of Lois Etherington Betteridge shone in an elegant solo exhibition of both holloware and jewelry, with the accent on the former, which…
Barry Sack is a London-based artist who also works and lives in his native South Africa. Barry is a painter, sculptor and enameler, and has been working in artistic pursuits full-time for over 15 years, after leaving a career in…
… And so it came to pass that of the mostly sons and occasional daughters of the Heroes, there was one of great cleverness and determination, who goes by many names but will be known for our purposes as the…
What do space travel, airplane construction and the car industry have in common? They all influence watch-making. Luxury brands like to draw their inspiration from other sectors working with new materials both inside and out. Chronograph ‘Royal Oak Offshore Alinghi…
Luxury is a true growth industry in all categories, right through to “inexpsensive luxury”! The successful report by Cartier, Richemont, Gucci and co. Clearly show that the rich desire to purchase status symbols more than ever. Are goldsmiths with their…
Some people keep written diaries, others carry a camera, while others use the latest in video technology to record their memories. Then there’s Lynda Watson-Abbott. She does keep photographs, postcards, rocks, bits and pieces of metal and glass, papers, small…
Mac McCall is a Western shaman, or, as Elizabeth Sasser claims, a wizard of ambiguity. In this focus, she offers an inside look at the workings of his current jewelry, which, in many ways, forms a mythic narrative drawn from…
MADE IN THE USA: Where We Stand is an update on the jewelry industry’s efforts to promote homegrown products. It happens every day: U.S. jewelry manufacturers and designers take precious metals and gemstones and, with their own hands, turn those raw materials into…
What would be your reaction to an invitation to come and teach an enamel workshop in the middle of February “outside in a garden”? I was standing, at the time, in my house near Boston, Massachusetts, looking out to a…
A dark room paired with elements of light makes contemporary jewelry glow in Andronikos Sagiannos’ Gallery in Athens. He opened his fascinating gallery “Makriyanni” in the Old Town of Athens opposite the Pantheon Temple of the Acropolis in 2004. The…
Part I “I’ll become a miner.” Manfred Kuettner made this decision when he learned, while he was looking for an apprentice position, that every miner was entitled to 10,000 kilograms of lignite-coal briquettes every year. He wouldn’t have to risk…
Marcia Bruno has had to work long and hard to reach the level of simplicity for which she is becoming known in her plastic jewelry. After all, she has only a few minor considerations: line, form, shape, color, and balance….
One of the debatable inclusions in the recent Metalsmith Exhibition in Print was a pair of computer renderings by Margaret Yaukey. Of all the images in the Exhibition in Print, hers were the only ones that were not of objects;…
For Marie van den Hout, renowned owner of the Gallery Marzee, there is quite simply no doubt: Jewelry satisfies all criteria that also apply to other areas of art, provided that it’s aim is not only to suit the needs…
An artist’s studio can tell a story about the life and attitudes of the creative soul who inhabits the space. Marilyn Druin’s studio was a reflection of a life well lived. When the Druin’s built their new home in Avon-by-…
Firtz Falk, the curator of the Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim, was the first to call it the Padua School, back in 1983. He was preparing the Dieci Orafi Padovani (Ten goldsmiths from Padua) exhibition and he realized that not only had these…
Every pair of Marion Knorr’s ‘Wilde Ehe Ringe’ (or wild wedding rings) tells a story. This terms is a play on words in German meaning ‘unmarried couple who live together’ and was chosen by the designer to refer to both…
For four decades, Marjorie Schick has been one of the pioneers of original avant-garde jewelry. Her works are based on both the American pioneering spirit as well as the European jewelry concepts of the sixties and as such they cross…
The Transparency Theory has long maintained an indomitable position at the core of any philosophy of art. Simply expressed, the theory claims that the work of art is only a means of facilitating a knowledge of mankind. It is a…
In many cultures, exchanging rings as a symbol of eternal togetherness is an integral element of the wedding rituals. Other marriage rites are more distinct from each other, depending on the religion, sense of tradition or regional origins of the…
Martha Glowacki’s works are sculptural abstractions on the theme of landscape. They demonstrate her interest in the imposition of order on the randomness of nature and her discovery of pattern, both natural and manmade, in the landscape. The pattern may…
Machines have always fascinated Mary Ann Scherr – first the drill press, bandsaw and oxyacetylene torch, and now the computer; Autocad, Deluxe Paint and PageMaker. For her, the computer represents one more opportunity to incorporate the latest technical advances into…
A mesmerizing flame melting spectacularly colored glass into a perfect bead. The possibilities of infinite shapes and sizes. The beautiful jewelry those beads can become. All of these factors pulled Mary V. Smith of St. Peters, Missouri, into lampwork — the art of using a torch to melt glass rods into beads. A corporate graphic designer for 20 years, she saw her industry changing in the ’90s and felt her creativity being stiffled by new technology, so she began exploring her options. She had dabbled in making jewelry and loved going to the St. Louis Art Fair. ‘quot;I went to school for fine art and graphic design,’quot; she says. ‘quot;I had to do something with my hands. I tried to transfer some of my knowledge and color theory into jewelry.’quot;
I first discovered Allan Adler’s Silversmithing Shop about 23 years ago when I arrived in Southern California to begin my metalsmithing teaching career at California State University, Long Beach. His shop was located on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood; and I…
Entering the enameling studio, one is struck by its openness. Light fills the space. Shelves are lined with organic vessel forms and dense architectural silhouettes. Glass and pools of color illuminate the density of these shapes, creating a light of…
Growing up in the house of a silversmith is an unusual experience, the more so if the place where one spends one childhood is a typical North American suburb, vintage early 50s, where one’s friends’ fathers drive to normal nine-to-five…
The following text is edited from two interviews taped in 1982 with Irena Brynner, one by Dorothy Van Arsdale in Florida and one with Julie Schneider, a graduate student from Tyler, in New York City. I was born in Russia…
A provocative dilemma evolves when one attempts to use the written word to describe things which are in essence ineffable. This challenge presents itself when trying to describe the artist/teacher John Paul Miller. He rarely makes direct statements for publications…
One observation on the career of John Prip (more often called Jack) is the way in which the man and his times have grown together. In some people this might be a coincidence; in others it would indicate an ability…
Robert Montgomery surrounds himself in a silent optimism that does not simply ignore adversity, but rises above it. His generous spirit has turned blight to bounty and earned him untold respect and admiration. He is an accomplished artist, a renowned…
This article was completed just weeks before Robert von Neumann’s accidental fall and subsequent death on April 23, 1984. Books and artifacts – from Eskimo masks to Picasso prints, from anthropology to art history – as well as wildlife –…
At the age of three, Ruth Penington created an apron for her doll, undaunted by the complexities of a pocket, hem, belt, lace edging and insertion of a blue ribbon. Today, seventy-five years later, an artist, designer/craftsman and teacher, she…
This appreciation by Robert McDonald, former chief curator of the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art in California, was written in 1980 to introduce Toza (Svetozar Radakovich) to the museum’s patrons, who had never before seen an exhibition of contemporary…
Among the most distinguished known surviving pieces of New Orleans-made silver is this tureen made by Adolphe Himmel. With its swelling rococo-revival body decorated with grapevines, grape clusters and leaves—both cast and repoussé—it compares favorably with any tureen made in…
Two gold brooches arrive in the post – each bear an applied spiral on the surface not unlike Brancusi’s symbol in his portrait of James Joyce. One begins to make connections – Joyce frequented and died in Zurich, Frölich lived…
Megan Thorne, owner of Megan Thorne Fine Jewels in Fort Worth, Texas, loves antique jewelry. In fact, she shares that some of her pieces are based on her grandmother’s rings. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that one of…
Recent cultural developments in America can be characterized by a conspicuous blending of manner and subsequently, class distinctions. The image projected by a wealthy celebrity or powerful executive clad in faded jeans and a plain white T-shirt is not atypical…
As many and varied as the reasons may be to publicize a message or to make a very personal statement, the manners in which one can go about accomplishing it are equally manifold. Some people sit down and write a book — others design jewelry.
Linda Weiss-Edwards provides a list of Onsite Consultation for Artists and Schools from each state in the United States in this segment of “Safety Hazards” from Metalsmith 1984 Fall. Every state has a free onsite consultation plan for employers who…
This article showcases the various exhibitions in the form of collected exhibition reviews published in the 1985 Fall issue of the Metalsmith Magazine. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Masterworks of Contemporary American Jewelry: Sources and Concepts Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England May-July, 1985…
This article showcases the book reviews for “Diamond Setting: The Professional Approach” and “Contemporary Jewellery: The Americas, Australia, Europe and Japan” published in the 1985 Spring issue of the Metalsmith Magazine. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Diamond Setting: The Professional Approach By Robert R. Wooding…
This article showcases the book reviews for “Enamels, Enameling, Enamelists” by Glenice Lesley Matthews and “The Nature and Art of Workmanship” by David Pye published in the 1985 Winter issue of the Metalsmith Magazine. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Enamels, Enameling, Enamelists by Glenice Lesley Matthews…
This article showcases the various exhibitions in the form of collected exhibition reviews published in the 1986 Fall issue of the Metalsmith Magazine. This features the International Jewelry Symposium, Peter Shire, William Baran-Mickle and Leonard Urso, Linda Threadgill and more!…
This article showcases various exhibitions in the form of collected exhibition reviews published in the 1987 Fall issue of the Metalsmith Magazine. This features William Harper, Lisa Grainick, Anne Krohn Graham, Richard Helzer, Jaclyn Davidson, Susan Kriegman, Debra Chase, and more! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Holloware…
My study of metalwork in Japan began with the words, “First you will make a ring.” The teacher ceremoniously handed me a sheet of silver, a saw and a few files. I waited for an explanation but none was forthcoming….
The recent exhibition, “Metal Under Glass,” at the Southwest Missouri State University, exemplifies some of the ways in which studio enameling, a craft “tenaciously tied to its traditional skills and interpretations,” has changed since the mid-twentieth century. “There is ample…
An Uncustomary Request – Creative freedom and some unusual pearls helped create an award-winning necklace by Brenda Smith. Let’s say you are given 27 of the largest freshwater, cultured, round pearls in the world, and told that you can make anything…
The contents of some projects are not restricted solely to creating a presitigious symbolic value, but which instead provide an actual benefit to all those involved. The cooperation between the South African gold producer AngloGold and a group of young…
Long recognized for the ubiquitous turquoise and silver squash-blossom necklaces and concho belts, the traditional metalwork of the Southwest has been in flux for well over half a century Jewelry and metal objects have been produced for both an Indian and a tourist market since the beginning of the twentieth century, and their popularity has witnessed the vagaries of travel, fashion, and the economy. During this same period, the cultures of those who produce this jewelry and those who consume it have changed.
In the mid-twentieth century, studio jewelry activity centered around two cities in southern California: Los Angeles and San Diego. There existed distinct differences, in both educational opportunities for metalsmiths and overall style between the two areas. This article will concentrate on Los Angeles and its environs.
As a moviegoer in the 1950s and 60s. I watched intently as insects and crustaceans were transformed into gargantuan monsters by manaical scientists bent on the destruction of our planet. As giant spiders and flies toppled telephone poles and overturned…
The marketing concept of the new German stainless steel jewelry maker TeNo is as clear and clean-cut as the material from which its jewelry is made. Self-confidently and with an eye toward results, a number of stores were opened in…
After many years of success, Bernd Munsteiner, one of the most renowned, creative, and innovative gemstone cutters from the village of Stiphausen in Hunsrück, Germany, has passed on both his knowledge and his studio to the next generation: his son…
Welcome to the Mystery Box Challenge! You are among the select designers who have received this box of materials, Your mission is to use these materials to create a unique piece of jewelry in four weeks’ time. You must incorporate into your design at least one item from each of the six material categories; beyond that, you can use the materials as you wish. You may also add materials as desired.
Clear floral motifs or forms like from a dream world, mystic color contrasts with soft waves, patterns that appear like grass or leaves, expansive or coiled – Namu Cho creates jewelry that is barely distinguishable from the basic form of…
Nanz Aalund’s career has been far-ranging. An award-winning jewelry artist based in Poulsbo, Washington, she’s taught jewelry and metals classes at the University of Washington and the Art Institute of Seattle; served as a designer and consultant for Nordstrom, Rudolf…
This article is a review on Recent Works of Natalie Paul, an exhibition held at the Venture Gallery, Lathrup Village, Michigan on May 12-June 6, 1984. Probably the most vociferous argument in the crafts world in recent years has been the…
From 1919-23 the Bauhaus also had a jewelry workshop run as a private enterprise by Naum Slutzky. He was on the of the only teachers at the Bauhaus at this time that was both an artist and a technician. Born…
Kimonos have neither pockets nor button. Things such as wallets or small, lacquered boxes with lots of compartments (inro), containers for medicine, tobacco pouches or writing materials were therefore tied to a cord and pulled beneath the sash-like belt (obi)….
The traveling exhibition ‘Neue Horizonte – zeitgenossischer Schmuck aus Sudafrika’ (New Horizons – Contemporary Jewelry from South Africa) will start its tour through Europe and travel to the Handwerksmesse in Munich, to Atelier Dempf, Berlin and the Jewelry Museum in…
New Products Fretz Annealing Pans Constructed in cast iron to provide steady, even heat, the Fretz annealing pans were designed to offer a sturdy platform for annealing and soldering operations. Developed to eliminate the wobbling common in other lighter pans,…
When one looks at a world map to find New Zealand, it’s easily overlooked due to its location and size. This “spec of land” in the vast Southern Ocean, made up of two islands, is nevertheless a thousand miles long,…
Discover the top jewelry trends in gold, silver, and platinum—and what you can expect to see in the metals markets this year Gold Trends Layer It On “We’re seeing a lot of stacking and layering,” reports Jamie Cadwell Gage…
The Belgian designer Nico Taeymans has a lot of stories to tell: The one about the boy who grew up in the port district of Antwerp and who always dreamt of being an artist. Or one of his many jewelry…
The jewelry manufactory Niessing started with the development of very different colored gold alloys as early as 1984. Since then the Niessing gold colors have been a fixed component of many collections, this shows just how consistent this topic has…
We are a group of artists who call ourselves “Nine Lively Ladies.” A year ago, I had to come up with a theme for our 9th show. What better inspiration than our name –Nine Lively Ladies. Each of us would…
What an anniversary celebration: in 2008, the Munich Academy of Fine Arts celebrates its 200 year anniversary. The class for jewelry and equipment deserves particular mention. Here, the art of goldsmithing is taught using a multi-faceted, unconventional and non-dogmatic approach….
The Novorit polyceramics system has been on the market for a year and offers fascinating possibilities for the creative color design of individual items and large batches of individual items and large batches of items. Now, with the expansion of…
This article features the Objects D’Dart Exhibition held at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York City organized by Chuck Schwarz on June 7-17, 1984. The “Objects D’Dart” exhibition or, more fondly, the “Art Dart” show, could be seen as a…
An object in space is exactly what the name implies, namely one which by design has left the company of its table or wall bound predecessors, like coffee pots and sconces, and assumed the role of an object without a…
Like many other metalsmiths, I am a time traveler. I am writing this on a computer, skipping over to the Internet to search the web as I go, while across the studio I have an anvil and hammers that havent changed in the last 500 years. In the course of the day, I toggle between poles that are centuries apart, regularly using ancient tools with twenty-first-century techniques. The situation is familiar to jewelers around the world as we embrace the rich legacy of our past while simultaneously extending our reach to encompass the latest innovation. In a universe of such extreme contrasts, the very concept of “new” comes into question.
A number of metalsmiths have shown an interest in including text as an integral part of their work. Many of them inscribe their pieces with words and sentences as both a decorative surface enhancement and as a way to direct…
A textured surface is information to Andrew Cooperman. Torn, distressed, and manipulated surfaces that weave a common thread throughout his work translate a deep attraction for the world of insects and chameleons into metaphors for the human eye. Lucy series…
Ben Cunningham considers the complex histories of the uses and functions of metals and jewelry, that in a lesser artists hands would become confusing and excessive. Contamination Bracelet, 1992, glass, inks, silver, plastic tube, 3 x 6” He frequently employs…
David Clifford, a recent graduate of California College of Arts and Crafts, has added a new twist to recycling. Seeking a different kind of interaction than the normal art experience encountered in a gallery, Clifford started mounting his lithographs and…
Masks & Facades – Perspectives on St. Petersburg is a book handling themes of jewelry and the pleasure of wearing it. The Leipzig-based photographer Olaf Martens has created this book that bears witness to a comical and eccentric form of…
Due to their magical variety of color, opals are evocative of a solidified rainbow. These gemstones seem to have captured all the colors of nature. Be it the orange-red tint of fire, the rich green of a thick forest of…
This article is an overview and contain details for Ornamenta 1: International Exhibition of Contemporary Jewelry held on September 30 – November 19, 1989 in Reuchlinhaus, Pforzheim, W. Germany. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ornamenta 1 International Exhibition of Contemporary Jewelry View of the Massic Zentral…
His cosmopolitan origins are reflected in the choice of artists that he represents. Together with his wife, Laura Lapachin, Stefan Friedmann, an American with Swiss and German passports, has spent the past five years running the Ornamentum Gallery in the…
The various education centers for jewelry design offer very different ways of completing a course of stuides to become a jewelry designer. The range of courses on offer is indeed equally varied as jewelry design itself is today. Applicants can…
Since 1981, Marianne Schliwinski and Jürgen Eickhoff have consistently presented contemporary jewelry in their Munich-based gallery Spektrum. Their declared goal has been to establish discerning modern jewelry creations as an artistic expression next to other disciplines of free art and…
Pál Tóth, a wildlife painter, graphic artist, and enameler from Pusztaszer, Hungary, has been working with glass on metal since 1980, after seeing a collection of enamels in an exhibition in 1978. Learning enameling techniques was difficult, as it was…
The accomplishments of Paul A. Lobel, industrial designer, metalsmith, sculptor and cartoonist/illustrator, may be viewed as the quintessential American success story. Born in Romania, at the turn of the century, he emigrated to the United States while an infant, and,…
Paul Robilotti of Robilotti Fine Jewelers in Binghamton, New York, doesn’t like to let inspiration pass him by. He always travels with a sketchpad, ready to jot down ideas at a moment’s notice. His Renaissance collection, which he began in…
I started in enameling 40 years ago by accident. 10 Commandments. 3’x6’. Wall Hanging. Copper enamel, stained glass. Brass tablets. Private Collection, Ft. Smith, Arkansas. I had been a commercial artist for 20 years at that time (commercial meaning being…
The companies Perlen Yukie and Innopoint are joining forces: one supplies the pearls, the other produces the necklaces – and instead of copying one another they bundle their respective know-how to create a joint product. Always good ideas for selected,…
The South American Andes state can look back on a jewelry culture spanning over one thousand years. This has remained vibrant until the present day in the language of colors and forms. Jewelry set by Ana Navas. Sterling silver The…
Peru, Land of the Inca, the Sun Worshippers, Land of Gold (the “Sweat of the Sun”), Land of Silver (the “Tears of the Moon”), a land where precious metals were in abundance, used not only for ritual but for everyday…
An article in the February 19, 1982 issues of the San Francisco Chronicle ironically suggests that “No body of water, ocean, bay nor trickling brook has its banks in North Beach. . . an area which has come to be…
It is a year now since Peter Schmid took over the reins from the world-renowned goldsmith and designer Michael Zobel. The change of proprietor was mild and unspectacular – the Zobel designs remain expressive, full of vitality and characterized by…
There are a lot of goldsmiths and jewelry designers out there who would state unequivocally that the Faculty of Jewelry and Everday Object Design at the Pforzheim University of Applied Science was an important step in their development as jewelry…
In 1970 Philip Guston exhibited paintings with estranged images of the Ku Klux Klan, old shoes, pink cities, and incongruous heads. This was a radical departure, a programmatic shift, from his first generation abstract expressionist work which was regarded as…
Phillip Baldwin Now that The Year of American Craft is here, the list of artists deserving immediate recognition and overdue scholarship is long. Each field clay, glass, fibers, wood and metals – has a different set of needs and a…
When I sought out a writing project Metalsmith proposed Phillip Fike, a founding member of SNAG, and resident of my childhood home of Detroit. I began my research by interviewing him while he was in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania accompanying…
The following article explains photo techniques used to transfer images onto refractory metals. These findings were developed during my graduate studies at California State University, Long Beach, California. Traditionally photo resists have been used as a masking agent in the…
“There are no rules there. At one point there will be an idea…and I will find a material that is suitable to express that idea. In some other cases, I will pick a piece of material and think ‘Oh, that’s…
Ellamarie and Jackson Woolley. The names are always said together, blended as if they were one person. Yet this visionary West Coast couple, who raised the art of enameling to national recognition, were distinct individuals. It was the unique force…
The history of the pocket watch started in the 15th century. Until then, blacksmith had fashioned the iron clockwork; however, copper, bronze or brass gradually started to replace iron. The forms of watches in the Gothic period initially remaind essentially…
There is an internationally renowned education center for jewelry designers right in the middle of the live Rhine metropolis: the Polytechnic College and its course in product design. Located in the tense field between art and design, unique and series…
Opinions are divided when it comes to beetles: while some people flee as soon as one of these six-legged creatures appears, others cannot hide their enthusiasm for their many varied shapes and colors. Danish photographer Poul Beckmann belongs to the…
When the Babylonians observed the passage of the heavenly bodies across the firmament many thousands of years ago and believed that they had discovered the secrets of their effects on the fate of human beings, this also marked the dawning…
The twelve-volume “Practical Goldsmith” series offers an entirely new means of imparting knowledge and skills in a goldsmith’s various work areas. Individual work processes are shown step by step with brief (English/German) explanations and in masterfully photographed, expressive illustrations created…
From early history through modern times, gemstones and jewelry have played a vital role in India’s culture. Forget diamonds. An Indian woman’s best friend is most likely to be her ruby ring, or the string of pearls her mother gave her for her tenth birthday, or perhaps the giant garnet earrings that have been family heirlooms for over six generations. India’s love affair with precious gems dates back thousands of years. It could be said to have reached its peak in the Mughal era.
Prix Golay 2006 The “cultured” pearl served as this year’s theme for the Prix Golay, as participants used a South Sea pearl to interpret a culture of their choice in their jewelry creations. The contest featured original pieces created by…
This is the second in a series of articles about production jewelers. This installment concentrates on design versus saleability, the incorporation of industrial techniques in a line of jewelry and preparation for running a small business. ************************* Business Name: Cathleen…
This is the fourth in a series of articles from Metalsmith about production jewelers: design, marketing and business. ************************* Business Name: Diana Vincent Co., Bucks County, Pennsylvania Designers: Diana Chrambanis and Vincent Polisano Description of Jewelry Line The clean mechanics…
From time to time, Metalsmith will locus a series of articles on a particular aspect of jewelers. Beginning in this issue we take a look at production jewelers: breaking into the field, creating and marketing a line and running the…
This is the third in a series of articles from Metalsmith about production jewelers. This installment concentrates on marketing production work. ************************* Because production line jewelry provides a feasible means of support, as well as a way to produce well-designed…
This is the fifth in a series of projects for students. These projects were created to provide a forum in Metalsmith for provocative and innovative work. They are assigned by a different professor each time, insuring a wide range of…
This is the second in a series of projects for students, created to provide a forum in Metalsmith for provocative and innovative work. We determined that a problem-and-solution approach would be fair and open, encouraging creativity and exploration. The projects…
This is the third in a series of projects for students, created to provide a forum in Metalsmith for provocative and innovative work. We determined that a problem-and-solution approach would be fair and open, encouraging creativity and exploration. The projects…
This is the fourth in a series of projects for students, created to provide a forum in Metalsmith for provocative and innovative work. The projects will be assigned by a different professor each time. In this way, we hope to…
Although the political situation has caused a reorientation and reevaluation of the entire society for years, not very much has happened to jewelry compared to other areas. The euro-centric approach – processing gold and diamonds to make traditional jewelry –…
This article is a review on the Works In Metal Exhibition by Randy Long held at the Fine Arts Gallery, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana on November, 1983. Randy Long began her new position as Assistant Professor of the metals department at…
If you are on the road a lot doing business, you know what it means to reduce your luggage by a couple of pounds. And the Rebra Collection from Kling shows you that presentation systems don’t have to be heavy….
This article series from Metalsmith Magazine is named “Recent Sightings” and here Bruce Metcalf talks about art, craftmanship, design, the artists, and techniques. For this 1989 Spring issue, he talks about working with metalwork book art. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When “collectors” bookstores are visited…
Pekka Hirvonen, a Finnish goldsmith and jewelry designer, has been designing for Lapponia since 2002. Hirvonen worked there as a model goldsmith for several years after completing his training at the goldsmithing school at Lahti Polytechnic. When designing his jewelry,…
Founder of both Bonny Doon Engineering and Knew Concepts, Lee Marshall—who passed away June 25 at the age of 81 after a brief struggle with cancer—was an inventor and tool designer whose numerous creations are sure to have a place…
Ricardo Basta Ricardo Basta Fine Jewelry Los Angeles First Place, CAD/CAM Distinction Ricardo Basta believes in melding traditional jewelry-making techniques with the high precision of computer design. Both sides of the equation are at play in his Vision Award CAD/…
Robert Lee Morris is a one-man revolution in the contemporary jewelry industry. What first comes to mind when you hear the name Robert Lee Morris? It’s hard to pin down a single image regarding this man. His innovative jewelry designs…
Jewelry was never on his mind—at least not while he was studying art and anthropology in college. It was filmmaking which claimed his most serious career intentions and to which Robert Lee Morris committed himself, until he realized just how…
Ross Palmer Beecher The Yankee qualities Ross Palmer Beecher mentions in discussing her art – thriftiness, tradition, waste not/want not – are almost as mythic as the stories, forms and genres she invokes. Whether emulating New England churchyard gravestones, quilts,…
Ruth Robinson has an unusual and special position among the grand dames of contemporary jewelry art. The encounters with the various cultures from which she acquired her findings are transformed by this artist, who rose to fame in the nineties,…
The goldsmithery and jewelry factory of Dr. Sabine Brandenburg-Frank and Egon Frank is located in an imaginatively-remodeled country house in Meerbusch, near Düsseldorf, Germany. Their jewelry reflects the concept of joint effort and individual expression. It is meticulously handcrafted exclusively…
By the mid-nineteenth century, European ironwork was in decline due to innovations brought about by the Industrial Revolution. Cast iron was replacing the more time-consuming and skillfully made hammered iron, driving the decorative smith toward extinction. A French historian wrote that the last piece of decorative ironwork to be produced in the ‘glorious tradition’ of wrought iron was made in 1809 and surrounded the choir in the Cathedral of Notre Dame. One hundred years later – in 1909 Samuel Yellin established a blacksmith shop and attempted to recreate the quality craftsmanship found in historic ironwork.
Obsession and desire, whetted and starved by a society inundated with images of perfection and the elusive satisfaction concomitant with consumption, do battle with our exhausted souls. Martha Stewart becomes a celebrity offering a 12 step program for realizing domestic…
It has been decades since .jewelers have started claiming they were artists, but the long legacy of craft-as-design continues to have a profound effect on American studio jewelry. Even today, the work produced by jewelry-stars like Mary Lee Hu and…
New gold and carat scales for stationary and mobile use – working with precious metals and high-carat gemstones calls for extraordinary precision of both measurement and weighing technologies. The new series of gold and carat scales from Sartorius AG is…
Sascha Brastoff was known for his talent and ability in many fields of art, both performing and visual, both fine art and fine craft. He was also one of our own, an enamel on metal artist, however that was just…
The message was a revolution. While the wounds of the Second World War were eased in Europe using conciliatory kitsch and a new sense of comfort, a totally different message was heard from the far reaches of the North. It…
The Carinthian goldsmith, photographer and painter Sepp Schmolzer exercised a highly significant influence on jewelry design in the second half of the 20th century. Much of the work conceived and implemented by this Austrian artist and mentor continues to affect…
Serik became acquainted with enamel while studying at college. He graduated in 1988 with the specialty of “Art Processing of Metal.” Later he became a professor at an art college and he worked mainly in painting. In 1991, he started…
A bright light shone over the world of South African design for the seventh time when the DTC Shining Light Awards for Excellence in Diamond Jewellery Design came to elect its ten winners. 73 diamonds (sponsored by Rosy Blue) weighing…
Ten years after it was first established, the ‘Alchimia’ private School for Goldsmithing and Jewelry, together with the ‘Opera Rebis’ cultural association in Florence, is setting out on a real adventure: its exhibition with the ‘Siamo qui – we are…
The Swedish silversmith and designer Sigurd Persson retained his most typical characteristics to a ripe old age: his creativity and love of experimenting. The man who had a major effect on the design history of the 20th century died in…
Of all the luxury commodities in the world, fragrance is the most paradoxical. Volatile and ephemeral, it nevertheless summons up our deepest hidden memories. Unseen, it is felt everywhere. Given its flyaway nature-as well as its precious ingredients-fragrance calls out for beautiful containment.
One of the newest earring findings to hit the market is showing a little earlobe midriffand it could turn the way people perceive earring design inside out.
Patented Sphearrings insert through the back of the car, leaving more of the lobe exposed. Think of the bare midriffs on a summer beach, and youll come close to the look offered by this new earring design.
Orsolya Ráski Nagy and Daniel Nagy Splendor Jewellery Budakeszi, Hungary First Place, Professional Excellence (4 or More Years in Business) “We saw the ring having a tangled, jungle-like effect while retaining balance and harmony.” So much of jewelry relates to…
The Austrian city of Steyr has been a trading post for iron and a center of metalworking for many hundreds of years. It is therefore logical that this place should also train young people in metal design. The Blümelhuber Villa:…
People who think exclusively of geometric forms when they hear the name Alberto Zorzi only know half the story. His jewelry combines avant garde design with traditional goldsmith techniques. Alberto Zorzi Born in Santa Giustina in Colle in the Province…
When Theo Janson and Vanessa Compton moved into the winding basement studio space on Toronto’s Markham Street in May 1978, they were not thinking that a short four years would find them moving again to a larger windowed storefront, that…
“Culture of materials,” an expression originating from the early 20th-century teaching of Russian Constructivist Vladimir Tatlin, defines the artist’s deliberate examination and selection of materials for use in the art-making process. This examination and application defines the form and concept…
Strings of sweets, chocolate bars set in porcelain and bras made from colorful chocolate sweets – the diversity of the international confectionary industry serves as an endless source of inspiration for German jewelry designer Susan Pietzsch. Inspired by sweets: jewelry…
Susanne Hammer’s pieces are neither an attractive means of self-adornment, nor a status symbol. They throw traditional jewelry conventions into question with a simple wink of the eye. Susanne Hammer Necklace “Gulliver’s chain”, 1998, silver Pendant “Closed”, 2006, enamel, metal…
Plastic is not a cheap, surrogate material for her jewelry art in the eyes of the Berlin-based designer Svenja John. Instead, for years now, she has teased out of the painfully thin foil a bizarre complexity and airy gracefulness, which…
It seems as though the Tahitians were granted their wish: Tahitian pearl supply is down, and prices are up. Strict government controls implemented to improve the quality of Tahitian black pearls reaching the overseas market have resulted in a steady…
The Tanphanie Edition from German-Japanese pearl dealers Perlen Yukie is much more than just a jewelry collection. Each individual piece of jewelry is a unique work of art and offers unforeseen ways of wearing the items. Exceptional and enormously versatile:…
Before moving his studio operation to a ground-floor space in Soho, just last year, Ted Muehling lived and worked in a kunstkammer. His round-the-clock environment teemed with several thousand “found treasures.” Aside from the deliberate collections of shells, fossils, insects,…
Pearl jewelry has come a long way from the days of grandmother’s proverbial strand of round pearls. In today’s retail market, consumers can choose from golden, pink, black, and peacock green pearls in one-of-a-kind, baroque shapes. On the fashion runway…
Luxury is in no way defined by sparkling items of jewelry, overburdened with jewels or in pompous designs. Real luxury means reduction – concentrating on what’s important. One such example is the TeNo de luxx collection. This collection combines new…
The present is lively. This becomes particularly apparent during a meeting with the managing director of one of the most innovative jewelry brands currently found on the market: Jürgen Heinz from TeNo. This brand stands as a symbol for emotional…
Editor’s Note: Terry’s Retrospective Exhibition had more than 30 enamels. The Retrospective Catalog has 26 pages with 31 illustrations. There are 14 enamels depicted (some of the enamels are as large as 17 x 14 inches). The enamels are on copper…
A visit to Bloor Street and Avenue Road here in Toronto, Canada brings you face to face with the old and the new. The old, dignified and stately side of the Royal Ontario Museum rests squarely on Avenue Road and…
Ardagh now is scarcely more than a place-name; it is in County Limerick in Ireland. In 1868, while a peasant was digging potatoes he found at a depth of three feet some bronze objects and a silver chalice. These objects…
Many people I know romanticize an afternoon in a cage in a cultural mecca – maybe Paris or Rome – spent endlessly conversing with notable literary or artistic personalities. On the other hand, I rarely hear nowadays of someone who cherishes this…
Historically, a wide range of techniques has been used to clad or coat silver or base metals with gold. These processes are based on efforts to balance three factors: cost, physical properties and appearance. Rolled gold or gold-filled stock is…
The fork that lays to the left of the dinner plate has a rich past, not often enough considered when twirling spaghetti around its tines. Functionally it fills the need to spear and pick up food. Its antecedents were probably the stick and skewer used for cooking over an open fire. Successive ages have decorated and interpreted the fork according to varying views of morality, beauty and manners.
‘The Art of Gold,’ curated by Michael Monroe, is the first major survey of contemporary American goldsmithing. The traveling exhibition was organized by the Society of North American Goldsmiths and toured by Exhibits USA. Comprising 79 works from 76 artists, the exhibition bas a preponderance of jewelry over objects and hollowware. Bruce Metcalf’s excellent essay in the exhibition catalogue locates the studio jewelry in the major design movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, most notably the Arts and Craft. Movement, as well as assessing the current state of American goldsmithing.
This research paper was presented at the Society of North American Goldsmiths Conference at Cranbrook Academy of Art in June, 1987. All photographs and illustrations are by the author, unless otherwise noted. “The island is well people, full of houses,…
In northern Greece, sometime after the death of Alexander the Great, a master goldsmith fashioned this unusual medallion with its bust of Artemis, goddess of the hunt. The medallion projects Artemis in high relief encircled by a rich frame of…
“It is allowing machines to be our masters and not our servants that so insures the beauty of life nowadays.” Ironically, this quote does not come from a contemporary philosopher decrying the computer age, but rather, from William Morris, the…
At the start of the year, inhorgenta europe in Munich will provide answers to the questions on how jewelry will develop, what influences it will absorb and what repercussions it will have. C2 Designer’s night: This occasion is used to…
In this article Deborah Norton traces the rise and fall of this seminal 20th-century school. Although Bauhaus policy revolved around personalities and philosophies, it nonetheless embarked on an influential experiment of incorporating the principles of art with the economies and…
Richly detailed portrait sculptures of great American heroes—in solid pewter, solid brass and fine enamels. An heirloom chess set to be enjoyed for generations. Created by the world-famous craftsmen of The Franklin Mint. THE NATIONAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY is dedicated to…
The very word PRECIOUS, the concept of PRECIOUSNESS is anathema to most contemporary artists, especially painters and sculptors, and perhaps rightfully so, given the stance of contemporary aesthetics. Yet it continues to intrigue the goldsmith, jeweler. Precious can refer to…
Dusty cobblestone streets traversed by oxen and donkeys pulling hay carts, anvils ringing, woodsmoke, chickens pecking next to the wooden bellows and a new Volkswagen Jetta parked in the yard of an outdoor shop — these images reflect the dichotomy…
In our April issue, we reported the 189-piece collection (including 9 Fabergé Imperial Eggs) owned by the late Malcolm Forbes had been sold to Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg. At that time, it appeared the collection would soon be on its…
To Bryant Clark design is foremost, and the designs for his hand-crafted knives are created from his knowledge of history and tradition and from his observation and enjoyment of nature. His involvement with historical projects is impressive and indicates the…
The Kremlin Armory houses unique collections of precious items that mirror the artistic wealth of the country and the relations with other peoples and regions. They include the fantastic testimonies to Russian goldsmith art from the 12th to the 20th century. The Czars gold conveys an impressive overview of the development in the gold and silversmith crafts in the East of Europe. Each epoch contributed to the rich variety. The Kremlin Treasure Chamber is mentioned for the first time in the 14th century. The bijou owned by the Grand Prince Ivan Kalita form the basic inventory of the current collection. This is no coincidental development. This mention is linked to the ascendance of Moscow as a potent, central power Previously, marauding Mongols and Tartars had time and again led to destruction and had obstructed the development of Russian cities.
The Department of Gemstone and Jewelry Design of the University of Applied Sciences of Trier is the only one of its kind in Europe. In the summer of 2002, the department celebrated its fifteen-year anniversary by honoring its graduates and…
Bernard N. Jazzar, President of the Board of Directors of the newly formed Enamel Arts Foundation, announces that the Foundation has received a non-profit designation by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) educational and cultural institution. The Enamel Arts Foundation is…
The English enameller, Alan Mudd, born in Lancashire, began his studies in the fine arts, and served an indentured apprenticeship as an engraver in the textile industry. This gave a wide-ranging background in design and comprehensive skills in engraving, extending,…
This article showcases the selected works from the enamelist John Smith exhibition at Kaskaskia college. The exhibition took place March 15 through April 4, 2010 at Kaskaskia College, Centralia, IL. About John Smith His background is in large scale metal…
Pat Peat O’Neil, now ninety-two, started enameling in Girl Scouts when she was sixteen. They used a torch to fire pieces in a large tin-can muffle, setting on a stand that straddled burning logs. Later she graduated from the School…
The tendency to dismiss enamelwork as a superficial artliterally, as a matter of surfaces glossing over the duller hues of base metal, and figuratively, as nothing more profound than a decorative, and therefore decadent, mode of appeal to the eye-has clearly diminished in recent decades..
My affair with precious metals began while working with my father a talented jeweler who worked with spring movement. He once made a life-sized rose in gold that would bloom. It weighed a pound and a half, and a pull…
In 1987, some drawings I had made were exhibited (about 30 etchings) in Szolnok, Hungary. A friend of mine, László Bokros, a painter, organized and directed the exhibition and when he saw my etchings, he shouted, “You have to enamel.”…
American crafts are under-going self-examination. Expressed in countless ways, varying from anxiety to optimism, the observation that the field is changing is heard frequently now. Although no ready answers are available, artists, gallery owners, museum directors, collectors and others close…
This talk was the part of a speech about the history of the Ganoksin Project Website and its growth. The presentation was given in March 2004 to the SNAG conference in St. Petersburg, Florida.
As early as during the acceptance exams, preferred creative people are selected not only for their artistic talent, but also for their ability to come to grips with the challenges of modern society. The Giebichenstein Castle School of Art and…
The Helen Williams Drutt Collection offers a personal view of the development in fine art jewelry over the past 20 years. A refined eye that understands new developments and experimentation chose works of jewelry for their intelligence, wit, seriousness of purpose,…
Several disparate techniques and a clear personal philosophy came together over a period of years to produce these extraordinary pieces. Born in 1971 in Michigan, Huang settled on visual art as a career even before he entered high school. By his senior year, five of his six classes were studio art, and he was selling the jewelry he was making under the tutelage of his teacher Nona Bushman. The work was relatively flat, and meticulous renderings in his notebooks from that time show a marked preference for formal geometric structures paired with looser, organic forms..
Myra Mimlitsch-Gray occupies a well-recognized position in the field of metalwork. She produces both jewelry and holloware, the latter being the subject of this essay. As an artist she brings to the workbench a keen sense of history and the social contexts of metalwork, particularly such precious metals as silver and gold. Mimlitsch-Gray belongs to the breed of contemporary artist that revels in the blur zone existing between craft, art, and design.
The new campus is still a building site and will most likely not be ready for opening until 2009. However, this hasn’t stopped the Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI), newly founded this year, being home to 4,370 full-time and 200…
My earliest awareness of the art of enameling occurred when I was only ten or eleven years old. My father, a prominent eye surgeon, had received a few of Karl Drerup’s beautiful plates as payment for treatment given to Karl’s…
The third week of October was, ostensibly, a week like any other. But in the art world, it was a wild week of almost deafening hype. There was coverage of the tedious back-patting that surrounded the opening of the new…
Earl Pardon’s work has an elusive quality that is difficult to describe, yet this quality has motivated him throughout years of prodigious jewelry making. For four decades he has worked with an energy and curiosity that seems only to have…
Lisa Gralnick makes jewelry of rare power from imagined artifacts of our own time. Its extraordinary impact derives from her sure compositional eye and her success in focusing our attention on forms which, in an important sense, epitomize how we…
When Venetian glassmakers sold out their state secrets to Czech glassmakers, Jablonec began its hegemony in glass beads. The region also became renowned for through its production of costume jewelry during the second half of the 18th century, and together the two industries helped it survive numerous European conflicts and two world wars. After World War II, however, the Germans were expelled and resettled in NeuGablonz, the German name for the old Czech town. Jablonec, however, still exists as the center of Czech glass beadmaking.
Someone once called Donald Stuart a Renaissance Man, an that doesnt seem too far from the truth. In a career that has stretched over 35 years, Stuart has mastered the arts of gold and silversmithing, textile weaving, and woodworking. He has taught jewelry-making around the globe, has founded a unique postsecondary jewelry program, and is an acknowledged leader in the craft world. Not content with his long list of achievements, exhibitions, commissions, titles, awards, and accolades, Stuart presses on, creating “Souvenirs,” a new body of work that combines his uncanny design sense and signature inlay technique with a personal iconography that is a fresh element in his work.
Since the late 60s, Gijs Bakker (b. 1942) has been influential to both Dutch and international jewelry design. His work, often humorous and ironic, rarely decorative, poses the seminal questions: Why do people wear jewelry? What does jewelry do to…
At mid-career, goldsmith Glenda Arentzen still produces jewelry with the freshness that has been her hallmark for a quarter of a century. It permeates whatever she makes, appearing not only in lively, asymmetrical profiles, but also in details: the crisp…
Over the past forty years, jewelry making has become increasingly rich and diversified as the time-honored reliance on precious metals and gems has been augmented or even disavowed. After the Second World War, jewelry artists more and more turned to intellectual and artistic concepts as their starting points to provoke a reexamination of the role of jewelry itself as well as of the relationships between maker and wearer. Jewelry artists in northern Europe and the United States led the way, and in Germany, Hermann Junger exerted a strong influence on the development of contemporary jewelry both as an artist and mentor.
Manfred Bischoff has a fascination with language. Like many Europeans of his generation, Bischoff is fluent in several languages, including German, English, French, and Italian. And, as an artist of his generation, he is similarly versed in aesthetic theory that arises from deep structure linguistics. Although he makes jewelry, he insists, I am creating language. If I find a sentence or a theme I like, then the piece is done. I must only, search for how to do it..
Since earning a BFA at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1983, Enterline has narrowed her focus to a handful of simple shapes and forms and has emphasized construction so spare that it might almost seem severe. In the first decade of her career, she often made spheres, but found herself frustrated by what she calls the “industrial” feeling of the shape. Around 1992, she began elongating the halves. “If I raised them up a little bit more, it was an egg form,” she recalls, noting that the shape still remained simple and abstract, yet was suggestive of the natural world. Since the early 1990s, she has evolved a library of signature forms-egg, sphere, truncated cone, cylinder, circular medallion, and four-lobed star fruit-that she repeats with endless variation. Each one employs a biomorphic geometry that straddles both the natural world and the constructs of mathematics.
Once upon a time, all art was about nature, the simplification or elaboration of natural forms. Egyptians assembled leaves of the thinnest gold and molded fruit in vividly colored glass into necklaces and diadems. Ancient Greeks fashioned ears of wheat from beaten and chased gold. Islamic prohibitions against showing the human face have led to highly developed and abstracted plant imagery, and in Japan Nature herself is sanctified.
Not so many years ago Thomas Mann figured that 2002 would be his year to retire. But the projected date has come and gone, and Mann is busier than ever with reinvention instead of retirement. The publication in 2001 of the monograph Thomas Mann: Metal Artist may have summarized his career as a jeweler, but it didn’t bring down the curtain his performance. If anything, he’s busily proving F. Scott Fitzgerald’s assertion that American lives lack second acts..
On the second floor of a historic wooden building in an elegant shopping area of affluent Concord, Massachusetts, is found the studio/gallery of Goldsmiths 3. This environment reflects the mature stage in the logical progression that has melded a working-class…
In the three years since her retirement from 31 years of teaching, Ramona Solberg has had three exhibitions of her jewelry, participated in several invitational shows, given jewelry workshops, moved her household and studio and taken seven tour groups to…
People who think exclusively of geometric forms when they hear the name Alberto Zorzi only know half the story. His jewelry combines avant garde design with traditional goldsmith techniques. Born in Santa Giustina in Colle in the Province of Padua in 1958, Alberto Zorzi now lives in Loreggia, close to Padua. When his interest in goldsmith art first kindled at the age of 15…
Fred Woell’s spirit was born in and of the sixties. His molten slogans register, graffitt-ilike, upon the collective “wall” of his pins and reliefs. One reads these signs as transcribed symbols of our debased culture. His visual rhetoric bred of…
In 1946 a small band of metal enthusiasts in Toronto, Canada, formed the Metal Arts Guild (MAG) “to promote and encourage the cultural and commercial development of metal arts and crafts both non-ferrous and ferrous.” The articles of incorporation list…
Harry Bertoia was not simply a metalsmith or a furniture designer, sculptor or printmaker, artist or craftsman. He was all of these. Apparently unconcerned with the barriers that had been assumed for years between art and craft, esthetics and function,…
The artistic treatment of jeweler in South Africa has long been a subject of neglect. Now, this nation with its history of colonization and apartheid is slowly making progress along its own path toward modern jeweler design. One of the…
The National Drawing Academy in Hanau was founded as early as 1772. It is one of Germany’s oldest education and training centers for the gold and silversmith trade. The traditions here include above all the high standards demanded of the…
The following interview between Akiko Busch and Etienne Perret and Michael Good was held as a result of the business panel on which Perret and Good sat at the Society of North American Goldsmith’s conference last June. Their subsequent conversations…
One of the more difficult challenges Chihiro Makio of 314 Studio in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, faced when creating her Orange Necklace was getting the citrus-themed elements to sit properly on the wearers neck. The piece comprises roughly 30 three-dimensional elements, some shaped like oranges and others like leaves, and deciding how to best get them to sit in harmony with one another took some doing.
While gold’s mystique is indisputable, we must resist being so entranced by its luster that we fail to recognize and consider the realities of gold at the beginning of the twenty first century. The ecologic, economic, social, and political price of gold is far costlier that we imagine. We are in the midst of a new gold rush, one that is consuming wilderness areas, contaminating watersheds, destroying ecosystems, and imperiling the economics of poor nations and the well being of indigenous people throughout the world. Some cumulative, irreparable consequences of mining will be with us, in this country and around the world, forever.
The teacher of vocational courses in art should be thoroughly trained in his craft and, if possible, should be a practicing artist. One might hope, of course, that he might also be a person of well-rounded education. To hold this…
My recollection of the first piece of metalwork I owned is of a pin consisting of two poodles connected by a silver chain. This, the use of representation at its most banal, probably floats somewhere in all our early memories…
When I returned from Europe in 1951, my friend Margaret de Patta called and invited me to join a group of metal artists who were structuring an organization dedicated to the needs of producing craftsmen. This group held monthly meetings…
The history of the School for American Craftsmen (SAC) can be seen as a microcosm of the history of the post World War II craft movement. Because of this a study of the former can help illuminate the latter. This…
It was about seven years ago, I was living in Paris, spending a typical Sunday afternoon scouring the flea markets of Clingancourt for “hidden treasures.” I had moved to Paris to paint, although at the time I found myself buying…
Five thousand years of Korean goldsmithing was interrupted from 1913 to 1953 due to the Japanese invasion and the Korean War. In looking back, goldsmithing or metalsmithing programs in Korea’s colleges and universities formerly concentrated on design rather than practice….
This article is a continuing dialogue on the State of Metalsmithing and Jewelry by Donald Friedlich and Judith Mitchell with to two jewelers, a curator, a collector and a gallery owner. “I am not an expert in jewelry…I feel uneasy about giving…
The conservation lab, located at the Tiffany ‘ Co. manufacturing facility in Parsippany, NJ, is a long, stark room with high ceilings and cold fluorescent light. It is oversees the collection of nearly one million design drawings, production records, and correspondence that had been accumulating since the early 1850s.
The track record of the modern watch was when the art of watch making mutated from a more or less expensive pocket watch to a practical wristwatch. And social and economic factors such as burgeoning industrialization gave society a technical…
It all began in 1978. Gretchen Klunder-Raber issued an open invitation to all persons interested in metalsmithing in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area to meet to discuss the possible formation of a guild. Raber was keenly aware of the frustration…
Tompkins was born in 1933 in Everett , Washington. His Parents were lifelong teachers, mainly in small rural western schools, The Pacific Northwest has long been a fertile center for the crafts, but only relatively recently has the importance of Don Tompkins in this history been acknowledged. And his story cannot be told without bringing in a reminder of Russell Day’s significance in this history.
Preparation for writing this piece began, I guess, when I was six or seven years old. At that age, my whole world was confined to a small yet comfortable apartment in Brooklyn decorated in the material evidence of my parents’…
In a speech recently delivered at the Platinum Day Symposium, entitled Evolution of a Design, Ms. Evans detailed her affinity for Platinum, her varied creative inspirations, and the design process involved in the launch of her exciting new Diana Couture Collection for Fall 1999.
There are few artists who can subtly control the relationship between what they perceive and the manner in which this perception takes form. The ability to communicate an idea tangibly is a thoughtful, emotional endeavor, dependent on a clear sense…
Eighteen months ago, New York City-based designer Lisa Jenks began a partnership with Origins, the well-known skin care products store. As the venture has progressed, shes created everything from compacts to pomanders for potpourri to votive candle holders, all in her signature style — and expanded the reach of her business at the same time.
Imagine walking into your studio and having the skill and confidence to create anything you desire. From the tiniest ladys wristwatch, surrounded with articulated platinum leaves and set with diamonds, to enormous cast-bronze doors weighing over 800 pounds, your ideas can be made any size you want. You have training in multiple media, so your art can take form in precious or base metals, in forged iron, carved wood, stained glass, or stone. You have experience designing buildings, monuments, gardens, and interiors, and the many decorative items that transform these spaces into places of transcendent living. Also, dont forget the long list of prestigious clients who highly regard your abilities and commission you to create magnificent objects to enrich their lives.
Missiles chase one another around Mark Rooker’s Circular Reasoning. Beneath the smoke plumes, lustrous silver water ripples on the bracelet’s surface and separates two island nations, each with a but and a nearby hatch that opens to launch another exchange of missiles. Rooker describes Circular Reasoning as ‘a diagram’ of political madness. Tiny ladders lead us through the cross section, extending from the huts, down through the bracelet, to the system of loaded missile silos visible on the bracelet’s interior..
Mounted in Paul McClure’s silver pendant, Alveoli, are two pearls taken from a necklace his mother left him when she died of cancer. The work is a memento of her death, in memory of her life. Shaped like the bronchial branches of the lungs, the pendant references the tiny sacs that exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide from the blood.
Archetypal images in sheet-constructed holloware, the vessels of Robly Glover give concrete form to the most ethereal and intuitive of content. Fascinated by the notion of unconscious predilections that from the unfathomable recesses of the mind murmur their incessant persuasion over actions, Glover is an implicit Jungian. His work tacitly acknowledges both the reality of the soul and its nonsensory receptiveness to rhythms in nature and the influence of events from the remote past.
Twenty first-century artists consider how best to relate to our changing world in a meaningful way. Pittsburgh artist ROY has chosen just two formats to present her worldviews: the bracelet, an object of adornment that she has always explored, and the candlesnuffer, a domestic object little considered today. Recently her bracelets display a creative leap in response to 9/11, with such works as.
Visitors to craft shows may know Steven Ford and David Forlano by their company name, CityZenCane, the polymer clay guys, but that doesn’t cover all they do. True, they emerged from the world of polymer clay with a highly developed aesthetic, and have only recently considered the conceptual side of jewelry. But their spirit, their constantly evolving designs, and their refusal to coast on a well-earned reputation warrants attention. Ford and Forlano have been making jewelry together since 1988. As sophisticated interpreters of the new idiom of polymer clay.
Silver has been a part of American domestic ritual and tradition since the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when bourgeois families used coffee and tea services, serving utensils, and other silver domestic objects in imitation of their English Counterparts. A robust American silver design and manufacturing industry gross a, people of means were no longer satisfied to live with homemade utensils and furnishings, and fine craftsmen became a part of the social-culturaleconomic nexus. The wealthy had sterling silver gravy hosts, porringers, and crumb trays, and the middle classes had silverplated items of similar design. Even the big silver designers such as Gorham and Tiffany created whimsical and ornate holloware and utensils according to the prevailing design motifs of the time. Commercially available modernist pitchers from the 1930s seem close cousins of Muir’s vessels.
Daniel Pedersons planishing hammer came into the possession of William Frederick in a way that still provokes emotion. Pederson, a master Norwegian silversmith renowned for his shy but courtly manners and deft hammer marks, was co-owner of the venerable Kalo Shop, one of Chicagos earliest and most prominent Arts and Crafts metalworking enterprises. Pederson died in 1970, the same year the hugely successful shop closed, after selling its handmade silver objects to three generations of Chicagoans. At its height, the shop employed 25 silversmiths and opened an outlet in New York City.
Chang’s work is intentionally anthropomorphic, disturbingly so. She likens her technique to that of a plastic surgeon, shaping and sculpting on and beneath the surface, using traditional fabrication methods like dieforming, chasing, and repousse.
Solveig Haukaas started to work in an enamel workshop in Bergen, Norway when she was near 17 years old. One day of each week she attended art school and in the evenings she studied accounting. After four years of study,…
One function of art is to challenge the status quo-to persuade, shock, or seduce us into seeing the world, and perhaps our own attitudes and beliefs, differently. David Freda, a San Clemente , California , metal artist and enamelist makes art out of things many of us would like to step on or avoid because we consider them strange, frightening, nasty, or squirmy.
The fact that the jewelry by Turkish designer Sevan Bicakci looks like they come straight from the legend of Ali Baba is not simply due to the environment in which the creative goldsmith grew up and still lives… The jewelry…
“Thema: Stahl” is the title of an exhibition that the North Rhine-Westphalian Colloquium proposed and organized for showing in a number of museums. 16 jewelry artists from Germany were selected and asked to show a wide variety of differing ways…
Although Thomas Gentille has the distinction of having a black ceramic glaze named for him, it is his little-known recovery of an ancient eggshell surface for jewelry that marks for him an emblematic achievement. Eggshell, the skin of the egg,…
Juanita Hill, an Ohio resident, is known for her generosity of spirit as well as talent. Much of her work includes cutting out shapes, hammering them from flat to concave and then enameling them. A final step is the joining…
The magic of the moment is revealed in a summery fresh flower bouquet. As a symbol of vitality and transience, or simply for the pure love of extravagant decoration, floral motif have always been popular topics for goldsmith artists to…
This year’s fall and winter fashions are decidely subdued. The necklaces worn at Anna Sui’s Fall 2006 show reflect the jewel tones of her fashions; photo © REUTERS/Seth Wenig. Gone are the flamboyant layered chains and wild color mixes of…
You never know how visiting the doctor could change your life. While Tony Snodgrass of Kent Jewelry in Rolla ,Missouri, waited with his pregnant wife to be seen by their doctor, he was flipping through Missouri Conservationist magazine and stumbled…
Three weeks before “Towards A New Iron Age” was to open at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina, it arrived in a huge truck from its prior location at Southern Illinois University. An exhibition of this size (18,000 pounds of iron)…
The origins of metallurgy are shrouded in mystery, contributing to the mythology that dev eloped around the metalsmith’s art. With some variations this tradition existed in ancient China , Africa , and Europe but stemmed from roots so archaic as to arise from a basic principle.
Along with a desire to know how things work and how to do things, I have had a lifelong fascination with the vibrant colors of enameling. So, when in late 2002, I received a telephone call from Falcher Fusager, whom…
Jewelry plays an ancient and well-documented role in broadcasting social status, but charm bracelets, known to almost all American women and girls since at least the 1940s, are also distantly related to traditional charms or amulets, carried for millennia to protect the wearers avert danger, or ensure good fortune. Mesopotamian amulet seals date from the 5th millennium.
The assumption the business economist and philosopher Dr. Ulrich Freiesleben invented two revolutionary new diamond cuts out of pure boredom would not do him justice. But, it’s not entirely off the mark. After all, one of the things that spurred…
“Brand New – New Brand,” held at the Munich jewelry trade fair Inhorgenta Europe, is a new platform for young jewelry designers daring to take the plunge together into the realities of the market. At the starting point of the…
Big names, small prices – this principle is familiar to us from the furniture industry, but less so from the jewelry industry. Where sophisticated design and enticing prices are joined by a high degree of quality, the jewelry must be…
Urushi is the sap from a staghorn sumac tree (rhus vernicifera) which is native to East Asia. Japanese and Chinese lacquer of the century old lacquering technique is based on this sap. The Japanese name is urushi. The exclusive surface…
Vada Clark Beetler, designer craftsman in metal, passed away December 7, 1984. A native of Columbus, Ohio, Vada Beetler received her BFA at Ohio State University, did studio work in Denmark, studied metallurgy and electroplating at Battelle Memorial Institute and…
Naive, primitive, anonymous, magical are characteristics that often accompany our image of the folk artist. In reality, he is an artisan who seeks to understand, preserve and reflect the beliefs, traditions and customs of the common people, often with untutored…
Watches are normally round or angular, usually with an analogue and sometimes an additional digital display. In the past decades, particular noticeable cycles in watch design occurred repeatedly. At the start of the twentieth century watches were mainly rounded in…
The latest watch and design trends in 2004 make it obvious that the trend is going towards larger casing sizes and more colors while especially integrating motifs into design of the face and the watch straps. Radically new design –…
This exhibit, which originated at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1982, will be traveling for two years throughout the United States. The pieces included in this collection, mostly metal and ceramic jewelry, span about 13 years of…
Cowboys were especially particular about their gear and took pride in buying the best equipment they could afford Blacksmiths generally started making bits and spurs as a favor to local cowboys. Those who were the most skillful were usually swamped with orders, and what started as a sideline became their mainstay. Spur and bit makers were individualistic craftsmen, developing their own stylistic trademarks. The makers were locally or regionally famous during their active careers, but today many are only remembered by collectors, who admire their skill but know little of their lives.
Porcelain – for over 600 years a well kept secret of the Chinese, before it was discovered for a second time in 1709 in order to cater to the refined needs of the royal lines in Europe. Since then, the…
In 1898, Wilhelm Krische, owner of a factory that made history books and a stone printing shop, patented one of the first plastics. But he had no way of knowing that thiry years later, Coco Chanel would take the “milk…
It seems only just, when so many barriers are collapsing, that one of the more prophetic artists of the late 20th century should work in the so-called minor craft of jewelry. By instinct, intelligence and conviction, William Harper has been…
…it’s daybreak in Honolulu. Wolf-Peter Schwarz known to most jewelry-cognoscenti as the inventor of Charlotte variable jewelry, has come up with a light watch that indicates the time in the world in a sophisticated and sensual fashion. Light watch at…
There are no limits to what we can learn from one material. And I feel that I still have a lot ahead of me in white gold, red gold and silver…”, says Wolfgang Gessl, whose mostly geometric work has been…
It is often multi-professionals that enrich contemporary jewelry design with their new points of view. This is also true of the work created by the mechanical engineer Wolfgang Uhl from Offenbach am Main near Frankfurt. He has dedicated himself to…
Colored gemstone mining is a hard thing to pin down. The vast majority of mining is still done by independent, small-scale miners, working in remote locations and selling to buyers who pay cash and may or may not declare their gems on export. For many producing countries, particularly in Africa, the real production from the mines probably outstrips the reported production by a factor of 10 — or 20, or possibly 100. No one really knows. In compiling this report, weve included estimates from both official and unofficial sources, but in some cases there simply isnt any information available. This report isnt intended as a comprehensive list of gemstone deposits; its a guide to the most active mining areas in the world right now, with the humble acknowledgment that no matter how much we see, theres always more out there.
Colored gemstone mining is a hard thing to pin down. The vast majority of mining is still done by independent, small-scale miners, working in remote locations and selling to buyers who pay cash and may or may not declare their gems on export. For many producing countries, particularly in Africa, the real production from the mines probably outstrips the reported production by a factor of 10 — or 20, or possibly 100. No one really knows. In compiling this report, weve included estimates from both official and unofficial sources, but in some cases there simply isnt any information available. This report isnt intended as a comprehensive list of gemstone deposits; its a guide to the most active mining areas in the world right now, with the humble acknowledgment that no matter how much we see, theres always more out there.
Colored gemstone mining is a hard thing to pin down. The vast majority of mining is still done by independent, small-scale miners, working in remote locations and selling to buyers who pay cash and may or may not declare their gems on export. For many producing countries, particularly in Africa, the real production from the mines probably outstrips the reported production by a factor of 10 — or 20, or possibly 100. No one really knows. In compiling this report, weve included estimates from both official and unofficial sources, but in some cases there simply isnt any information available. This report isnt intended as a comprehensive list of gemstone deposits; its a guide to the most active mining areas in the world right now, with the humble acknowledgment that no matter how much we see, theres always more out there.
Colored gemstone mining is a hard thing to pin down. The vast majority of mining is still done by independent, small-scale miners, working in remote locations and selling to buyers who pay cash and may or may not declare their gems on export. For many producing countries, particularly in Africa, the real production from the mines probably outstrips the reported production by a factor of 10 — or 20, or possibly 100. No one really knows. In compiling this report, weve included estimates from both official and unofficial sources, but in some cases there simply isnt any information available. This report isnt intended as a comprehensive list of gemstone deposits; its a guide to the most active mining areas in the world right now, with the humble acknowledgment that no matter how much we see, theres always more out there.
Colored gemstone mining is a hard thing to pin down. The vast majority of mining is still done by independent, small-scale miners, working in remote locations and selling to buyers who pay cash and may or may not declare their gems on export. For many producing countries, particularly in Africa, the real production from the mines probably outstrips the reported production by a factor of 10 — or 20, or possibly 100. No one really knows. In compiling this report, weve included estimates from both official and unofficial sources, but in some cases there simply isnt any information available. This report isnt intended as a comprehensive list of gemstone deposits; its a guide to the most active mining areas in the world right now, with the humble acknowledgment that no matter how much we see, theres always more out there.
Colored gemstone mining is a hard thing to pin down. The vast majority of mining is still done by independent, small-scale miners, working in remote locations and selling to buyers who pay cash and may or may not declare their gems on export. For many producing countries, particularly in Africa, the real production from the mines probably outstrips the reported production by a factor of 10 — or 20, or possibly 100. No one really knows. In compiling this report, weve included estimates from both official and unofficial sources, but in some cases there simply isnt any information available. This report isnt intended as a comprehensive list of gemstone deposits; its a guide to the most active mining areas in the world right now, with the humble acknowledgment that no matter how much we see, theres always more out there.
Colored gemstone mining is a hard thing to pin down. The vast majority of mining is still done by independent, small-scale miners, working in remote locations and selling to buyers who pay cash and may or may not declare their gems on export. For many producing countries, particularly in Africa, the real production from the mines probably outstrips the reported production by a factor of 10 — or 20, or possibly 100. No one really knows. In compiling this report, weve included estimates from both official and unofficial sources, but in some cases there simply isnt any information available. This report isnt intended as a comprehensive list of gemstone deposits; its a guide to the most active mining areas in the world right now, with the humble acknowledgment that no matter how much we see, theres always more out there.
People have adorned their bodies all round the globe since the dawn of time. They drew on paints, scars, tattoos, precious metal piercing or other materials such as feather and bones. Jewelry designers use these worn symbols in order to…
The stories are undeniably heartbreaking. Yang Renping, 41 of two children, coughs continuously and walks only weakly. He’s suffering from silicosis, a lung disease caused by 12-hour days cutting gemstones and beads in a Shenzhen factory. His 200,000 yuan (US$25,000)…
Gold and silver smithing is one of the oldest artistic crafts known to humanity. It has a long tradition in Europe in particular. The oldest goldsmiths guild in the world is 775 years old and is located in Braunschweig. But…
For the last four years, ten young gemstone designers from Rhineland-Palatinate have been collaborating under the title of ‘ZeitZeichen’ (time signal) to present their individual style at Inhorgenta Europe in Munich each spring and Intergem in Idar-Oberstein each autumn. Many…
Drawing on the motto “Zeitzeichen” (Signs of the times), this years Intergem will feature striking exhibitions by ten young designers. This exhibition forum, initiated by Progrem Marketing GmbH from Idar-Oberstein, serves to promote young gemstone and jewelry designers. Pendant/earrings by…
Zoe Zong ZoeZong LLC McKinley, Texas First Place, Professional Design Excellence (1-3 Years in Business) “We’re born, but we make changes along the road of life, perfecting our lives again and again.” Custom jewelry doesn’t just allow customers the opportunity…
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