In 2016, I submitted a dissertation on the history of craft communities, with an emphasis on contemporary jewelry education and its institutionalization in the 21st-century art school. It is almost exclusively primary source material relating to the founding of the American Craft Council and the Society of North American Goldsmiths, but despite the dense historical […]
Department of metalwork and jewelry undergraduate class, photo courtesy of the metal and jewelry department at Kookmin University Kookmin University was founded in 1946 in Seoul, Korea. It was the year after Korea’s independence from Japanese colonization, and nationalism prevailed. The founder, Ik-hee Shin, was one of the politicians who fought for Korea’s independence. The name
The Eastern Incubator Read More »
The Hammer Room, Ädellab, Konstfack University College of Art and Design, Stockhom, Sweden, photo: Fredrik Ingemansson Ruudt Peters, who took over the department of metals in 2004, chose the name Ädellab, which means “precious laboratory.” This is a funny name for a program whose students aren’t as concerned with using precious materials as they are
The State of Things Read More »
Two years ago, Italy’s Associazione Gioiello Contemporaneo (AGC) together with Fondazione Raffaele Cominelli organized the first Cominelli Award for contemporary jewelry. The Cominelli Foundation is a private cultural foundation based in a seventeenth century palace in the north of the country. The palace, Palazzo Cominelli, is in the center of the village of Cisano di San Felice del Benaco and
Edinburgh College of Art At the Cominelli Foundation Read More »
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
Cranbrook’s Metalsmithing Department: The Story Behind Monomater Read More »
It was the day after the opening of the Galerie Marzee graduation show, during the symposium where graduates were invited to present their work. A young Chinese jeweler asked one of the girls in the room to come and sit on a chair in front of him. He, standing behind her, took a golden chain
The Victory of Non-Precious Handwork: The Marzee Graduation Exhibition 2011 Read More »
Laura Prieto-Velasco, Phona-Form Brooch 2, iron wire, carpet tacks, paint, tape, silver Laura Prieto-Velasco, Phona-Form Brooch 3, iron wire, carpet tacks, paint, silver Seth Papac, Collected and Fabricated Parure, 22 karat gold, silver, brass, paint, found objects When attempting to locate contemporary metalwork within the discourse of contemporary art, an artist like Cornelia Parker often
To Be: (Determined) – An Exhibition of the First Five Read More »
Ahna Adair,Vogue Pattern No. 1462, Souvenirs of an Unfinished Project, 2008, detail-postcard, 6 x 8.5 inches Ahna Adair, Vogue Pattern No. 1462, Souvenirs of an Unfinished Project, 2008, found fabric, archival photos, postcards Ahna Adair, Vogue Pattern No. 1462, Souvenirs of an Unfinished Project, 2008, detail-rings sewn of found fabric, 1 Ahna Adair, In Process
A Craftsperson’s Experience Within a Fine Art Program Read More »
