April 2012

Spain’s Jewelry Hotspot: The Massana School of Barcelona curated by Montserrat Lacomba

crafthaus is an online community with close to 2000 members. Brigitte Martin, who is the originator of crafthaus and keeps all their balls in the air, is also a gallery member of AJF. crafthaus is a place for professional craft artists to display their work and connect internationally across all fields of interest. Each month, […]

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Marjan Unger

Portrait of Marjan Unger Favorites Owned and One That Got Away ‘You must be Dorthea Prühl,’ two young women said to me in Munich this year. Well . . . Dorthea is at least a full head shorter than I, she has a round face and short hair without curls, while I have curly hair

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Cranbrook’s Metalsmithing Department: The Story Behind Monomater

Iris Eichenberg, Black Birds, 2011, copper, beads, 102 x 89 x 64 mm, Collection of Susan Beech, Photo: Réka Fekete At its most basic level, Monomater posed a challenge to current Cranbrook students in the metalsmithing department and a few select alumni: think differently about contemporary jewelry. Eichenberg’s concept involved asking them to create a cogent statement

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Ford/Forlano: Overlay

Ivan and Allison Barnett Patina Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is owned and run by Ivan and Allison Barnett, an energetic and engaging couple. They chose to have a show called Overlay with Steve Ford and David Forlano through April 22, 2012, during the time of David Forlano’s painting exhibition at the New Mexico Museum of Art. Ford and Forlano are popular artists on the craft fair scene and innovative makers using polymer clay. But beyond that they have very active creative lives, as you will see.

Ford/Forlano Susan Cummins: I understand that you and Steve Ford met in Rome during a year of studying abroad through the Tyler School of Art. Can you retell the story of your meeting and explain why you became friends and working partners?

Steve Ford: David and I were assigned adjacent studio spaces at Tyler/Rome in 1984 and had similar work habits. We both liked to work until the building closed at midnight. We’d then walk back to our pensione, stopping at Giolliti’s near the Pantheon for a late night gelato. While our individual styles were very different, I think we were both intrigued by the other’s thinking about art and how to make a successful painting. Our first collaboration was in a figure drawing class there. Working next to each other, our two drawings of the same model had opposite problems. We spontaneously traded drawings and ‘corrected’ each other’s work.

David Forlano: I remember being interested in the way Steve thought about painting. We had studios directly next to each other, which allowed for constant dialogue about the process of making work. I was intrigued by Steve’s focus on the construction of paintings as an object.

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Ford/Forlano: Overlay

Ivan and Allison Barnett, photo credit: Sergio Salvador Portrait of Ford and Forlano Steve Ford: David and I were assigned adjacent studio spaces at Tyler/Rome in 1984 and had similar work habits. We both liked to work until the building closed at midnight. We’d then walk back to our pensione, stopping at Giolliti’s near the

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Elyse Zorn Karlin

Elyse Korn Karlin Elyse Zorn Karlin loves jewelry, usually traditional or historical jewelry and she has dedicated herself to curating and writing about it. Along with Yvonne Markowitz from the MFA Boston, she is the founder of the Association for the Study of Jewelry and Related Arts (ASJRA). She also is their trip organizer, the editor of their biweekly newsletter and their quarterly magazine. ASJRA  is dedicated to the advancement of jewelry studies. This organization and AJF have worked together on several projects and AJF asked Elyse to join with Ursula Ilse-Neumann, MAD curator to lead a walkthrough of the SOFA New York show on April 21, 2012. Ursula and Elyse picked their favorite pieces from the jewelry galleries showing at the fair and explained their choices. I have asked Elyse about her favorite piece to add to our series of Curator Choices.

My Jade Ring

My favorite piece of jewelry is a jade ring which I wear every day. It was given to me a number of years ago by a dear friend and I feel naked without it. The ring’s design is carved into real jadeite – one of the two stones collectively known as jade. The highly three-dimensional design features a carved bat, known as fu in Chinese and a symbol of good luck and two peaches. The depiction of double peaches is a symbol for long life.

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European Jewelry, Nostalgia, and Trans-Atlantic Exchange

After graduating from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam in 1994, Iris Eichenberg worked as an independent artist and art educator, as well as a part-time curator. She began teaching jewelry in 1996 at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and has given numerous workshops at various art academies in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. Eichenberg

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Rings 4 Spring

Inside the Silver, Blue and Gold Gallery Susan Cummins- Did you name your gallery after the song Silver, Blue and Gold by Bad Company? How did you come by the name? Karin Worden- Well, yes, but I rarely admit it! I spent the first year telling people it was because the jewelry shown was silver

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Transformation 8: Contemporary Works in Small Metals

Meghan Patrice Riley, Interstitial, 2011, 
metal, 
12 x 15 x 0.25 inches, 
Photo: Toky Photography Mari Ishikawa,
 Parallel World, 2011,
 silver, Japanese kozo paper, 
3.5 x 3.3 x 1.75 inches, 
Photo: Dirk Eisel Daniel DiCaprio, Colony Necklace, 2011, ebony, silver, 
12 x 8 x 2 inches,
 Photo: Taylor Dabney Elizabeth Raphael The show is documented

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Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design

Installation, Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design, Museum of Arts and Design, New York Installation, Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design, Museum of Arts and Design, New York Romona Solberg, Shaman Necklace, 1968, sterling silver, Alaskan ivory, found objects, 10 3/8 x 5 3/8 x 3/4 inches, Museum of Arts and Design, New

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Gesine Hackenberg: Still Lifes

 

Galerie Pont & Plas, located in Ghent, Belgium, is housed in a beautiful old eighteenth century house. Nicole Thienpont founded the gallery in 2002 and shows a variety of artwork, including jewelry. She says she was inspired by the words of Dr Adriaan Claerhout, ‘Is there a purer, more honest meeting point imaginable between cultures and people than art?’ Her show with jeweler Gesine Hackenberg opened on a drizzly night in early March 2012 and will continue through April. I was curious about Hackenberg’s work and her decision to use contemporary glassware imagery.

Susan Cummins: Can you describe your background as a jeweler?

Gesine Hackenberg: I was born in 1972 in Germany but now I live and work in Amsterdam. I was trained as a goldsmith at the Fachhochschule für Gestaltung in Pforzheim, Germany and in 2001 I received my degree from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. I am currently a Visiting Professor at the MAD-faculty in Hasselt, Belgium and at the VakschoolEdelsmeden in Amsterdam.Gesine Hackenberg

Was there a particular teacher or artist that influenced you?

I guess Iris Eichenberg, who was one of my teachers at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, has influenced me most in my way of working and looking at materials. Though I believe that also my background as a goldsmith in Germany has always stayed with me.

How would you describe your work in general?

A basic theme in my work is placing ordinary objects of use in the perspective of jewelry. I reflect their emotional value and possible position on the body. The pieces are based on craft techniques and various materials that tell their own stories about preciousness and adornment, like ceramic tableware, (precious) metal, Japanese Urushi lacquer and glassware. They refer to the validity of traditional themes and their heritage. In the same time, they merge concepts like jewelry, ornaments and objects of use.

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