Metalcyberspace – Contemporary Jewellery Design + Modern Studio Jewelry

Updates from December, 2007

• Verdura: The Life and Work of a Master Jeweler

  metalcyberspace 12:16 pm on December 24, 2007 | 0 Permalink
  

  Through Feb. 17, 2008 at the Houston Museum of Natural Science
  Jewelry with the original renderings will be displayed.

  Born in 1898, Duke Fulco di Verdura is probably best known for his Maltese Cross bracelets that he designed for Coco Chanel. He worked with Chanel in Paris in the 20’s & 30’s then moved to America in 1934 and worked with Paul Flato for a while before opening his own company in 1939.

  Nature was inspiration for many of his designs.  He loved color and mixed materials regardless of the value encrusting with gems sea shells, pearls, animals, fruit and leaves. His jewelry adorned many stars and they wore it in the movies they filmed. Keep a close eye on Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo and Rita Hayworth and you will see it.  Cole Porter commissioned him to create cigarette boxes to commemorate each show.

  Verdura died in London in 1978.
  In 1985, Ward Landrigan purchased the firm and has been reviving his unique designs.

  I’ve always been drawn to Verdura’s renderings because I enjoy rendering in watercolor and gouache so much myself and love his sense of whimsy and style.  I visited the 5th Avenue salon in New York while studying at FIT (1988-89) to get a first hand look at his designs.

  Susan Sarantos

  

   

• metalcyberspace 6:06 pm on December 21, 2007 | 0 Permalink
  

  LIBIDO- chains, gender, feelings and love

  Jewellery – Jenny Edlund
  Foto – Morgan Norman

  Exhibition runs until February 2, 2008
  PLATINA, Odengatan 68 in Stockholm

  The exhibition is the result of one years work with the female body and identity in focus.

  The theme is chains where Jenny Edlund has created handmade chains and used prefabricated ones in big collars and bracelets. The exhibition also includes photos by the photographer Morgan Norman with Jenny herself as model.

  Together the jewelleries and the photos make a unit, where the issue is the position of the female body, in society, in artwork and the rules that surrounds a female body.

  Libido is a work about jewellery as tactile, sensual artefact and a work about the female being and sexuality that reaches into the political and feministic discussion about the gender power order. Jenny Edlund claims that the jewellery that is in contact with the skin has a very high erotic potential, and in the exhibition Libido has developed from the crossroad of her artwork and life.

  The exhibition reminds us that it is the body we live in and act through.

  Jenny Edlund (born 1959) lives and works in Stockholm. Educated at Konstfack, and represented at Röhlsska museet, Gothenburg and MAD, Museum of Art & Design in New York

   

• metalcyberspace 2:17 pm on December 19, 2007 | 0 Permalink
  

  New West Coast Design: Jewelry + Metalwork

  Velvet da Vinci Gallery
  2015 Polk Street @ Broadway
  San Francisco, CA 94109

  Jan. 18 to Feb. 17, 2008
  Artist Reception, Friday, Jan. 18, 6-8 pm.

  Velvet da Vinci Gallery in San Francisco presents New West Coast Design: Jewelry + Metalwork, an exhibition showcasing 60 West Coast established and rising metal artists and jewelers creating exceptional new work.

  New West Coast Design is a group of exhibitions to be held in different venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area focusing on specific developments in the craft and design fields.  New West Coast Design exhibitions have a rich history which started with a desire to exhibit furniture and objects by California artists.  The California Design exhibitions began at the Pasadena Museum of Art in the 1950s and continued through the 1970s. Designer Craftsmen of the West, curated by Elizabeth Moses in 1957 and held at the de Young Museum, and the thirteen California Design events sponsored by the Baulines Craft Guild in San Francisco from 1988 to 2004 were also premier showcases for regional design.  West Coast designers and artists continue to create unique work exhibited in Museums and private collections. 

  The exhibition at Velvet da Vinci, New West Coast Design: Jewelry + Metalwork highlights a collection of the most exciting new designs in jewelry and metalwork currently being made on the West Coast.

  Helen Shirk is one of the New West Coast Design: Jewelry + Metalwork artists.  Ms. Shirk is a world-renowned, Southern California metalsmith who creates large organic (plant like) vessels out of copper.  The piece in the exhibition is textured and painted with colored pencil to evoke the color palette of Western Australia.  The work is deeply rooted in her time spent there.  She says, “I try to create the feeling of sensuousness, strangeness, and vitality that I find in the natural world.”

  Jeweler Maria Phillips, (Seattle) conjures up the female body through her choice of materials.  Her series of brooches made from gut, gold, silver and thread look almost like quick, precise sketches. 

  Cynthia Toops, (Seattle) an established polymer-clay jeweler, has created a new series of work out of felt.  Her Twig bracelet is hand felted into an organic oval with three-dimensional texture emulating small protruding branches. 

  James Yont, one of the younger artists in the exhibition, has created a modern style brooch.  Made from red, white and orange plastic and a variety of industrial metals the appearance is that of a space ship with its modern sleek angles.

  Mike Holmes and Elizabeth Shypertt co-curated New West Coast Design: Jewelry + Metalwork. 
  Velvet da Vinci is one part of a Bay Area-wide exhibition of the New West Coast Design Exhibition. 
  In total there are five other museums and galleries:

  San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design
  New West Coast Design – Contemporary Objects
  Jan. 18 through April 27, 2008

  San Francisco Center for the Book
  New West Coast Design – Books
  Jan. 25- April 25, 2008, reception Jan 25, 6-8pm

  Bucheon Gallery
  New West Coast Design – Fiber
  Jan. 4 – Feb. 9, 2008, reception Jan. 4, 2008 6pm – 8pm

  Museum of Craft and Folk Art
  “C” Change: Craft in Our Future
  Recent Graduates from the California College of the Arts 
  Nov. 1, 2007 – Jan. 27, 2008

  Artworks Gallery
  New West Coast Design – The State of the Art Quilt
  Jan. 10 – Feb. 28, 2008, reception Jan. 24

  Since 1991, Velvet da Vinci Gallery has been a leader in showcasing new developments in contemporary art jewelry and craft-based sculpture and regularly organizes exhibitions of contemporary craft.  The Gallery represents more than 75 renowned artists from across the globe and regularly holds lectures by both local and visiting artists that are free to the public.
  Velvet da Vinci is open Tuesday through Sat. from 12 pm – 6 pm, Sunday 12 pm – 4 pm. 
  The Gallery is closed on Monday.

   

• metalcyberspace 10:27 pm on December 8, 2007 | 0 Permalink
  Tags: art jewelry (11), Contemporary jewellery (14), Contemporary jewelry (30), fibula, jewelry artist (8), Metalcyberspace (10), metalsmith (8), metalsmiths (9), Phillip Fike, S.E. Sarantos (8), SNAG (4), Society of North American Goldsmiths (3), studio jewelry (6)

  

  Phillip Fike

  born July 17, 1927 – died Dec. 8, 1997

  Wow ! Has it really been ten years since my good friend Phillip Fike left this planet? I feel his presence around me all the time and it makes me think he’s still here.

  We met at my first SNAG conference in the 80’s. I remember being in a dark bar surrounded by a sea of people and being told these amazing stories of past escapades. I wish I had taped them because I can no longer remember the exact details but I will always remember them with a smile.

  For those too young to have met him, Phillip was a founding member of SNAG and the person who came up with the acronym SNAG (the Society of North American Goldsmiths).

  He would make fabulous fibulae which is an ancient form of a brooch. The types that the Romans and Greeks would use to fasten their garments. He was an expert with Niello. He was a professor at Wayne State University in Michigan from 1953-1997.

  When I told him that I was running for the SNAG Board, he grabbed my hand strongly, would not let go, then thanked me and told me that I understood and represented the spirit of the original Society of North American Goldsmiths. Michael Good told me the same at Tavern on the Green in NY at WJA. I was honored that they felt that way about me. I won the election and served on it from 1994-1998.

  It saddens me to know that a new generation of metalsmiths will never have the chance to experience firsthand the great man Phillip Fike.

  I do have a page in progress.  I need to add a few photos and more information. Just have not been able to scan them yet. If people have info and stories I would love to hear from them.

  Susan Sarantos

   

• Musings

  metalcyberspace 3:42 pm on December 5, 2007 | 0 Permalink
  

  My library is quite extensive. I own almost every jewelry & metalsmithing book ever published along with my own collection of files. Last count that was over 400 binders. YIKES! And I have a long way to go to finish sorting boxes of torn out articles into those too. I save about every invitation, article and image of and about jewelry, exhibition catalogs, newspaper clippings, magazines. It’s an obsession of mine.  I think I was a librarian in a previous life. When I told that to Jan Yager she said “You are one in this life”. Hah so true.

  I’m missing Metalsmith Vol 25 #s 1 & 2 if anyone has copies of them that they don’t need, I will give them a good home.
  If you have anything else too contact me and I’ll let you know where to mail it. Show invitations, artist work postcards & info, jewelry articles, bios, etc.

  Thanks!
  
  Susan Sarantos

   

• Textures of Toscana 2008

  metalcyberspace 8:55 am on December 5, 2007 | 0 Permalink
  

  TEXTURES OF TOSCANA 2008
  A Renaissance Style Workshop of Chasing & Repousse’
  June 9 – 15, 2008

  Come “apprentice” in the art of ancient metalworking techniques with  master Italian metalsmith Davide Bigazzi in his native Tuscany. Learn chasing, repousse’, and tool-making in an intimate and inspirational setting in Pian Di Sco, a small village in the Chianti hills just south of Florence. The workshop, held in his Tuscan studio, will offer students the chance to study one-on-one with Davide and learn about the land that inspires his designs. Students will stay in a rustic Italian farmhouse and feast together daily. The course also includes a day trip to Florence to see works by Benvenuto Cellini and other Italian master metalsmiths and
  sculptors.

  The workshop includes:
  -35 hours of individualized instruction :: previous experience helpful but not required

  -Limited Enrollment:: 5 students
  -6 nights in a rustic country farmhouse, double or single occupancy
  -Breakfast, lunch, & dinner included – Homemade Tuscan cuisine!!
  -Land transfers including pick-up from Florence train station to Pian Di Sco’ and return
  -Transportation to Florence to visit Il Bargello museum and Museo degli Argenti
  -Use of tools and studio space

  About Davide:
  Davide Bigazzi is a metalsmith and designer from Florence, Italy currently living and working in the U.S. He has worked as an instructor, designer, model maker, and production supervisor for prestigious fine silver companies in Italy. His work is featured in galleries worldwide. Capturing the intrinsic beauty and sculptural qualities of metal has been his life-long passion.
  During his early teens, Davide apprenticed with Bino Bini, the renowned Florentine metalsmith and sculptor, aiding in commissions for the Vatican, national banks, churchs, etc.. Bino, one of the most notable Italian metal artists of our day, left a legacy of the Italian chasing and repousse’ tradition, which Davide is committed to preserving via the hands-on workshops he teaches throughout the U.S. and in Italy.

  *The maximum class capacity of Textures of Toscana is 5.
  Early registration is highly recommended!!
  The registration deadline is April 10, 2008.
  For info contact Elisa at 650-323-1923