Does the absurd have a meaning? Perhaps it is a question of perspective. Claude Chavent was a formidable jeweler who mastered gold, silver, steel, and iron. He also mastered double-entendres, which he loved to play with like throwing a bottle into the sea. From his initial training, as a scientist, he kept seriousness and precision. […]
The Society of North American Goldsmiths honored Sharon Church (1948–2022) with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018 An American Craft Council Fellow, she taught in the Craft + Material Studies department of the School of Art, The University of the Arts, in Philadelphia, PA Her jewelry often contained carved bone and wood in forms inspired
Beauty and Its Dark, Damp Underpinnings Read More »
Karl Bollmann and his wife, Heidi, are among the important international collectors of contemporary jewelry. This endeavor began ca. 1970 with a husband’s gift of diamonds which spurred an interest in jewelry that gradually grew and formed a collection of over 1,000 works. Karl was born in Vienna on August 30, 1943, and died there
Remembering Karl Bollmann Read More »
How do you measure a person’s size? Maybe in the echo that stays behind when an actor has left the stage? Kadri’s echo is loud, as is only possible with an extremely talented, passionate, and hard-working performer. As a dedicated and fearless creative nature, Kadri had a talent that pulsated until her last
Remembering Kadri Mälk (1958–2023) Read More »
“You have to live your life in [such] a way that if you collapse then everyone believes it has happened due to the ultimate feeling of happiness.” This sentence is quoted on the website of HOP gallerii in Tallinn, where in September 2022 Kadri Mälk produced a two-day installation. The quote, from tragi-comedian Ervin Abel,
A Dark, Romantic, and Spiritual Being Read More »
Anton Cepka was among the earliest makers of contemporary author jewelry In 1990 he founded the Metal and Jewelry Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava The Slovak artist made not only jewelry, but also sculptures and kinetic structures Sad news reached the world of jewelry makers at the end of
In Memory of Anton Cepka (1936–2022) Read More »
The Austrian attorney was—with his spouse, Heidi—an important collector of new jewelry, the term he preferred Bollmann didn’t view himself as a collector, but rather as someone who enjoyed purchasing jewelry to give to his wife The exhibition Schmuck 1970–2015, held at Vienna’s MAK in 2015, showed roughly half of the couple’s collection at the
Karl Bollmann, 1943–2022 Read More »
By exploring forms and color and using base materials, Annamaria Zanella radically innovated the language of jewelry An expert gold- and silversmith, she also excelled at the techniques of enameling and niello She won the prestigious Herbert Hofmann prize twice, in 1997 and 2006 The Italian maker studied under Francesco Pavan, Graziano Visintin, and Renzo
Annamaria Zanella, 1966–2022 Read More »
Art jewelry’s rock-n-roll designer, Terry Castro, of Castro NYC, unexpectedly passed away on July 18, 2022, of a heart attack. He died in Istanbul, where he was based. Through his originality in mixing antiques with African design, Castro pushed his work to always live up to his artistic ideals. He often went without commercial prominence
Terry Castro, of Castro NYC Read More »
Jennifer Cross Gans was a freelance writer and a collector of jewelry, and a generous supporter of the arts in many different ways. She lived in the City of Fog and died of old age. Gans described how her jewelry collecting began: “It was a summer afternoon in 1973, and my son, then two-and-a-half, was
Jennifer Cross Gans, 1932–2022 Read More »
On January 29, 2022, Berend Peter Hogen Esch passed away; he was the last surviving member of the BOE-group. Early in his career, Berend Peter Hogen Esch chose his double first name, Berend Peter, as his artist’s name. He died in the house where he had lived since 1979 with jewelry artist Marion Herbst (1944–1995),
Berend Peter Hogen Esch, 1945–2022 Read More »
Pioneering crafts collector Sandy Grotta died in September 2021 at the age of 87. She and her husband, Lou, began collecting in 1957. Gijs Bakker remembers his friendship with her. A shy lady, of short stature, touched my arm and asked me to make something for her. It happened in 1989 during my retrospective at the
