Glitz glamour and guys
A look at the tailor Nudie Cohn and his use of rhinestones to create opulent garments for clients such as Elvis and Liberace, successfully subverting gender norms while doing so.
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United States
With hymen on hand: probing the chastity ring
An introduction to the concept of “mating jewelry” and chastity rings, contextualized with different cultural views on abstinence and courtship.
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JEWELRY DESIGN PRINCIPLES
It’s not happenstance that some pieces of jewelry draw your attention, while others do not. It’s the result of an artist fluent in design. That fluency begins with selecting design elements, but it comes to full fruition with the application of principles of composition, construction, and manipulation. This is where the artist flourishes, shows a
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The Goal-Oriented Designer: The Path To Resonance
Jewelry designers want to be successful. But things can get a little muddled when thinking about how to get there. Our teachers, our friends, our colleagues often disagree on this point, and tell us to look for conflicting measures of success. We can often lose sight of what we want to end up with. The
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Contemporary Jewelry is Not A Look–Its a Way of Thinking
Contemporary jewelry represents a specific approach for thinking through design. Making jewelry is, in essence, an authentic performance task. The jewelry artisan applies knowledge, skill, and awareness in anticipation of the influence and constraints of a set of shared understandings. Shared understandings relate to composition, construction, and performance. These understandings are enduring, transferable, big ideas
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Jewelry Design Composition: Playing With Building Blocks Called Design Elements
Jewelry making is a constructive process of expression. The language of expression begins with the idea of design elements. Design elements are the smallest meaningful units of design. Design elements function in a similar way as vowels and consonants in a language. They have form. They have meaning. They have expression. Some can stand alone,
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Jewelry Design: A Managed Process
Jewelry artisans rely on their creative skills to conceptualize, construct, and present their pieces. But it makes more sense, and leads to better success on all levels, when jewelry artisans redefine jewelry design, not merely as a creative endeavor, but as a managed process, as well. First, this means understanding what they do as a
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Go For Baroque: Opulence and Excess in Contemporary Art
This text explores how theoretical concepts of opulence and excess are explored in contemporary art, especially jewelry. Images of several exhibited works are included. Focusing on artists from the United States and Western Europe, it offers a Western-based interdisciplinary perspective for thinking about what “baroque” could mean in a modern context. Jewelry forms the basis
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Out on a Limb: Contemporary Wood Jewelry
This text explores the theoretical use of wood as a material for contemporary jewelry. Images of several exhibited works are included as well. Primarily emphasizing artists at work in the United States, it offers an overarching look at the use of wood in jewelry today. This exhibition features the work of emerging and established artists
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Cutting Edge: RAM Explores Contemporary Glass Jewelry
This text contextualizes glass jewelry through the lens of history and contemporary practice. A brief overview of contemporary usage is supported by quotes from several of the artists whose works are featured in the text. Images of several exhibited works are included as well. It is useful for an overarching look at the use of
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The exhibition as metaphor of social organisation
“Can craft curators create new spaces and contexts that are inclusive and provide opportunities for innovative strategies within the field?” Love Jönsson asked the three panelists gathered in Stockholm at the behest of IASPIS (The International Artists Studio Program) in November 2016. The question surfs on a persistent belief that craft naturally tends to encourage
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