Jill Baker Gower, Fleshgem Brooch #1, 2013, rubber, garnets, pearls, silver, 69.9 X 85.7 X 19 mm, photo by artist Jill Baker Gower is an artist, metalsmith, and educator. Her jewelry, often based on the female experience, has been widely exhibited and printed in publications such as Metalsmith magazine and the book 500 Enameled Objects. […]
Jill Baker Gower: Dermal Read More »
Jeweler Adam Grinovich trying on someone’s Rolex at Schmucksymposium Zimmerhof, Bad Rappenau, Germany Jeweler Adam Grinovich trying on someone’s Rolex at Schmucksymposium Zimmerhof, Bad Rappenau, Germany Toward the end of the Q&A portion of the talk he gave during Zimmerhof 2015, Adam confessed that he had recently acquired a crazy obsession with getting a Rolex.
Lessons from Adam Grinovich Read More »
The Jaw Bone mouthpiece is modeled after the jaw of jeweler Shaun Leane, and was created for Alexander McQueen’s untitled spring/summer collection of 1998 (originally called The Golden Shower until a sponsor found out its pornographic meaning and threatened to back out). Hooks around the ears and inside the mouth are used to fasten
Savage Vanities: Leane versus Kalman Read More »
In 2014, Benjamin Lignel visited Māori jewelry artist Areta Wilkinson in her home, a few weeks before she presented her doctoral research in front of her peers and her kin. This introduction to Areta’s work—and Ben’s growing interest in the customary Māori greenstone figure known as hei tiki—led to the purchase, a few months later,
The following interview was conducted in the wake of Areta Wilkinson’s exhibition titled Whakapaipai: Jewellery as Pepeha, which was shown at the Canterbury Museum in association with The National, Objectspace, and is now at The Dowse Art Museum. The work she presented is the result of four years of doctoral research, for which she was
In conversation with Areta Wilkinson Read More »
The Sacramento Public Library has a 3-D printing lab. Photo credit: Jim Wilson/The New York Times On a recent trip to visit family, this writer was privileged to attend the grand opening of a new local library. While reviewing the map to locate where my nephew could meet Curious George in person, my sister-in-law noted
Visit Your Local Jewel-brary Read More »
American sculptor Beverly Pepper speaks to Rhode Island School of Design students at her home in Umbria, Italy. American sculptor Beverly Pepper speaks to Rhode Island School of Design students at her home in Umbria, Italy. One by one the students were asked to introduce themselves by their department and to talk a bit about
Lessons from Beverly Pepper Read More »
Elvis Costello and Kelsey Grammar, 04-22-2003 episode of Frasier, image source: NBC Writing about art (or music) is like dancing (or sometimes singing, or occasionally knitting) about architecture, or maybe football, as once quipped either comedian/art collector Steve Martin, or comedian/artist Martin Mull, or maybe musician/comic actor Elvis Costello, or possibly even experimental satirist/Zappa-esque musician
Everyone’s a Critic/Curator/Comedian! Read More »
Georgian Mourning Ring, 1772, sepia ink, hair, crystal, 18-karat gold, white enamel, 16 x 14.5 mm, photo: Erie Basin Does the sentimentality behind antique hair jewelry simply fade away over time? While the original owners of these objects are deceased and we typically do not know whom the locks of hair belonged to, with some
Cut, Washed, and Worn Read More »
Installation view of Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo, Sicily, Italy Museum interior and display design by Carlo Scarpa, 1953 For all their alleged “insularity,” makers in this field are remarkably curious, and invariably compile extensive (mental or actual) visual archives on, well, the world around them. You and I think of it as a way to justify
Lessons from Carlo Scarpa Read More »
College professors worldwide tear out a thousand metric tons of their own hair each year whenever they see Wikipedia cited as a reference in student term papers. However, Wikipedia still holds the power in today’s society to confer existence itself to all manner of people, places, thoughts, ideas, and things. Wikipedia is the alchemical force
Art Jewelry Forum Is Officially Wikipedia-Real! Read More »
The explosion will not happen today. It is too soon … or too late.[1] Frantz Fanon (1925–1961) was a Martinique-born psychiatrist, writer, and revolutionary. Like other middle-class Martinicans, he received a French education. He fled the island at age 18 and enlisted in the Free French Forces, continuing his service to the end of the
This Summer, I Am Re-reading… Read More »
