Articles

A Boy and his Torch The torch begins things and the torch can end things. I like that about it. I like that it channels something as elegant or brutal as fire and relies on my skill to decide which it will be. On a good day I can solder the wings onto a fly […]

Displays and installations are fascinating to me. Artists and jewelers seem to be trying to find more and more compelling ways to show work and add to its meaning through the use of display strategies. In the past year the installation that I found the most amusing and brilliant was the Marzio Cattelan retrospective at

Sergey Jivetin Looking Closely Since I constantly experiment with new materials and techniques, the set of tools I employ varies significantly from idea to idea, object to object. Given that for every new process I either acquire an already traditionally associated tool, sometimes alter it, or devise and make a totally new type of tool,

Helen Carnac’s Rolling Mill Rolling Mill  I often think about the tools around me and what they mean. I have many since I collect them as well as use them to make my work. It’s really hard to pick out a particular favorite and my thoughts on this waver between a pencil and a scalpel.

Rita and Don Newman <–break–> As a collector, Rita had a well-developed eye. She responded strongly to works and never shied away from ‘tough’ pieces. She committed to acquiring pieces by senior jewelry artists such as Kiff Slemmons but remained on the lookout for new talent such as Jennifer Trask. In doing so she built

Susan Cummins But before I dive into my next post, I would like to thank Mike Holmes and Damian Skinner for keeping the AJF blog a dynamic and engaging place for the past year and a half. Without their vision, this new website and blog would not exist. Thanks so much, you two.

The redesigned website is envisioned as an online magazine full of original content relating to contemporary jewelry.  This redesign centers on AJF’s desire to be a major resource about the international art jewelry scene. How did that vision come about? AJF editor Damian Skinner and board member Mike Holmes, who were originally working on the

Lisa Walker Lisa Walker, Galerie Ra Lisa Walker, Cobra Museum of Modern Art Lisa Walker, Galerie Ra Lisa Walker,Galerie Ra It seems that anything can become art jewelry, you just have to figure out how to get it onto or relate it with the body. And make no mistake, 85 of the 86 works are

Klaus Bürgel, LOOP XIV, brooch, sterling silver It is another frequently unacknowledged fact that during the late Medieval and early Renaissance periods tapestries were valued as much as paintings—and in certain parts of Europe, even more so. Outside of Italy, tapestries solidified dynasties in a way that paintings could not. The nobility throughout Europe and

Alexander Blank Where did the night go? encompasses three bodies of work all which exhibit a stunning level of craft and are related to fantastic realities. The work began as a conscious departure from Blank’s conceptual methodology. As a student at the Munich academy Blank reached a moment in his artistic practice where he needed