In late 2001, lower Manhattan was the site of intense physical, psychological and emotional activity. Many thousands of people were working to clean, to clear and to understand the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Scurrying through the streets – beneath notice – was Xu Bing, busily collecting the dust that coated the city. In […]
Marion Fulk I have asked Marion Fulk to contribute to the ongoing series of Collector’s Choice. She is a new member of the board at AJF and an impressive contemporary jewelry collector from Little Rock, Arkansas. My favorite piece of jewelry is the necklace I wore to my wedding in November 2009. The wedding was
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Collaborative Candleholders Susan Cummins: Can you tell me something about the history of your gallery and how you got interested in showing metalwork and jewelry? Rosemarie Jaeger: The gallery was founded in 1989 in a baroque listed building in Hochheim near Frankfurt. For the first decade ceramics and sculptures were the main themes of the
Anne Fischer, Juliane Scholss and Ja-kyung: Object / Jewellery Read More »
The overwhelming success of Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, an exhibition of the late fashion designer’s work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this past summer, was a stark proclamation of the influence that fantastical body adornment has over the public imagination. In just over three months the MET saw over 650,000 visitors to the exhibition
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Sofia Bjorkman Marta Mattsson, Black Beetle, brooch, 2011, beetle, copper, cubic zirconia, 80 x 30 x 20 mm Susan Cummins: Can you give me some insight into your fascination with the repulsive? Marta Mattsson I have always been drawn to both biology and art and when I was growing up I had a personal battle,
Marta Mattsson: Forever Dead Read More »
Six Months Wasted by Keith Lewis part 6 This is the beginning of a series I am calling Collector’s Choice. I asked each collector ‘What is your favorite piece of jewelry in your collection? And how do the qualities reflected in that piece describe something about your whole collection?’ One of the first to answer
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My favorite tool is without any doubt the ‘mouth-blowing torch’ or ‘blowpipe torch.’ I am always fascinated by our extraordinary capacity to turn stiff and solid metal into something fluid. It is somewhat reminiscent of the alchemical process. Sometimes when I solder, especially with the mouth-blowing torch, I feel that it is like a meditative
In a continuation of the series called Maker’s Tool I asked a group of jewelers to talk about their preferred tool. Mah Rana, my next choice has contributed to the AJF blog in the past and is an articulate and thoughtful maker from London whose transitional moment may have impacted her timeless choice.
What is my preferred tool? Well, perhaps not such an easy ask, trying to chose one from a collection that has grown over the years. I first thought about choosing the ‘safety back’ needle file, sometimes known as a barrette file. Why? Because that and the round tapered needle file seem to be the only needle files that I rely on when I am making jewelry, which I’m sure reflects some insight onto my working practice – but let’s leave the analysis of that revelation for another time.
At the moment I am without my own workshop and have been for two years now. Moving house and waiting to have the garage rebuilt into a new workshop has meant that the majority of my tools and equipment are stored away in boxes and will be for a while. A difficult adjustment to make at the beginning, but I bought a large tool box on wheels – the sort you buy from a hardware store – and made a careful selection of hand tools to go in it. So currently my workshop is on wheels and I am able to do whatever the jewelry term for ‘couch-surfing’ would be. (Perhaps it’s ‘bench-surfing.’)
Karl Fritsch’s bench Amongst all the tools that I love there are two that are my most favorite. I can’t work when either of them is missing. One is the little knife in the middle of the photograph, which I have used for placing stones ever since I learned stone setting. With the knife and
The National in Chistchurch, New Zealand, was founded in 2004 by Caroline Billing to raise the profile of New Zealand jewelers. She is currently showing work by a really imaginative jeweler named Octavia Cook. I love artists who make up myths or narratives about their work and Octavia is one who does. The jewelry itself
Patti Bleicher and Eileen David started Gallery Loupe in Montclair, New Jersey, United States, six years ago. They show a roster of both established and emerging international artists and are interested in furthering the dialogue that contemporary jewelry evokes. In February they asked Kiff Slemmons, an established American artist, to show her most recent work in an exhibition called Huesos. I caught up with Kiff and asked her a few questions about her work and her interests.
Susan Cummins: Kiff, I know you have been working with artisans in Oaxaca, Mexico for the past ten years and that these paper pieces represent work you did with them. Please tell me something this project and the resulting work.
Kiff Slemmons: These pieces emerged from an art residence at Arte Papel Oaxaca. The artist and members of the atelier did the work together. Early pieces referenced African jewelry with discs built up into sculptural bead forms. Later pieces exhibit the techniques of folding, cutting and hollow-punching, rolled and formed paper pulp. The atelier is dedicated to ‘reviving the pre-Columbian tradition of making paper from natural fibers.’ The result of this project is a collection of paper jewelry, which is highly sculptural and utilizes indigenous plants, fibers, natural and synthetic dyes.
Talking about paper in Oaxaca involves countering assumptions about the material, its fragility versus strength, the metaphoric implications of paper in this regard, in relation to books and the culture at large. What paper meant in pre-contact culture in Mexico, its magnified significance after conquest and its current place in culture today. How I came to work as I did there means looking at my previous work, how it might have led to such a project which involves a kind of world view through jewelry and writing. My work is really not technique determined, even with the paper. It’s ideas that interest me first and the possibility of being poetic in a visual language.
Mike Holmes and Elizabeth Shypertt of Velvet da Vinci in San Francisco, California Deb Lozier, Brooch, 2012, De Patta stones, 6 x 3.5 inches
The De Patta Project Read More »
