Art Jewelry magazine Editors' Blog : art

Add eco-friendly art supplies to your workroom

Katie Streeter — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:35:00 GMT

Yesterday I stumbled upon EcoChoices, an Internet store that sells all kinds of environmentally friendly products. They sell everything from bedding and clothing to cooking and cleaning supplies. I was especially happy to see that they have a range of eco-friendly art supplies. They have colorful beeswax modeling wax, hemp sketchbooks, soy crayons, and colored pencils with leads that are colored with natural plant extracts. Although they don't have jewelry-making supplies, you can still find plenty of fun, earth-friendly things to add to your home and studio.

––Katie

Jewelry design inspiration is all around me, it seems. You too??

Addie Kidd — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:05:00 GMT

I brought a pack of bottled water in to work earlier this month. And as it was sitting on my desk, waiting for me to put it in the refrigerator, I noticed the back of the packaging.

It shows a photograph of an dormant volcano with a simple, hand drawn illustration laid over top of it.

The illustration depicts all the various sediment layers that rainwater filters down through within the volcano before the water's ready for this company to bottle it up and ship it off to jewelry magazine editor's all over the world.

As soon as I saw that illustration superimposed over that photo, it looked to me like the volcano was wearing a necklace.

All I wanted to do was go pick up a hammer and start texturing some metal. I could picture arranging and soldering the textured pieces together into layers, assembled it into this giant volcanic-inspired mixed metal collar.

Since I didn't have time to get to the studio right then, I just kind of let my mind play for a bit, and sketched a few ideas.

It doesn't matter if I ever end up making my volcanic sedimentary rock choker. The point is that I felt my inpiration and honored it, without judging it as silly since it came from "just some commercial packaging."

I wonder what will inspire me next.

Has anything unusual, or off-the-wall, or even mundane, inspired you?

If so, I'd like to hear about it in the comments section below.

~Addie~

Check out the Scottish silver exhibit at the National Museum of Scotland

Katie Streeter — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:38:00 GMT

Last Thursday I returned home from a wonderful two-week trip to Scotland. While there, I visited the National Museum of Scotland, which is an outstanding museum in Edinburgh. There are exhibits on art and industry in Scotland, the early people, science and industry, and more. Some of the exhibits include jewelry, which I was able to take pictures of and plan to show in a future blog (after my husband and I have sorted through the more than 1000 images that we took while in Scotland). In the meantime, I thought I'd mention a special exhibit on view there until April 25th. The exhibit is Silver: Made in Scotland, and it includes over 350 pieces of Scottish silver. If you live in the UK or are planning a trip there, check it out.

––Katie

"Art" jewelry: a souvenir bracelet from the Edward Hopper and Winslow Homer special exhibits at the Art Institute of Chicago

Kristin Sutter — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:12:00 GMT

I recently went to Chicago to visit a good friend, and topping my list of must-do activities was a very overdue trip to the Art Institute of Chicago. I'm embarrassed to say that I live less than two hours from the city and haven't been to the museum in 12 years — all I could remember was that both Seurat's painting of the park (A Sunday on La Grande Jatte) and Georgia O'Keeffe's cloud painting (Sky Above Clouds IV) are huge.

My friend and I decided to check out the special exhibits on Edward Hopper and Winslow Homer. I had only really seen Hopper's most famous painting, Nighthawks, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I was in for a treat. The exhibit was beautiful (his color palette was mesmerizing) and intriguing, and I was impressed by both his early and late work. He is now one of my favorite artists. I also really enjoyed the Homer exhibit — it's amazing to see such beauty!

Since I was so touched by the art, I wanted a souvenir. My first instinct was the tried-and-true high-quality postcard book, but the colors just didn't look as vibrant as the actual paintings (tall order, I know). Lucky for me, my friend found the one item that I would, of course, have to buy: a bracelet with images from Hopper's works.

It literally is "art" jewelry. It's so cool to have portable inspiration!

What's your favorite type of portable inspiration? Write your response in the "Comments" box below and click "Add" to share!

—Kristin

Back to the Zu Photography

Jill Erickson — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 15:57:00 GMT

We're very fortunate to have talented, professional photographers here at Kalmbach Co. They collaborate with our Art team to create inviting lead shots for the how-to articles we publish each issue. And when we originate a project article in-house, William (Bill) Zuback (shown behind the camera) or his associate, Jim Forbes, makes sure that the process shots are perfect! (Yes, that's me in this photo that Addie took while Bill balanced on a step stool to get the perfect angle for a process shot.) To see some of the work that Bill does outside of the magazine studio, visit his website, http://www.backtothezu.com/. In addition to photographing products, Bill takes incredible portraits, and makes fine art images that he exhibits.

What person wouldn't love the word "handmade?"

Addie Kidd — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:01:00 GMT

Certainly not I. I adore handmade things! I "smith" my own gold, knit my own scarves, and sew my own duvets. I rarely "chef" my own meals...but that avoidance is another story entirely.

One of the greatest things to happen to the handmade art world in recent history is Etsy. If you haven't explored it's crafty depths, I suggest you click now. (No need to navigate away; just open a new browser window. I promise ArtJewelryMag.com and Etsy.com can play nice together on your screen.) Etsy is an online collection of independent artists gathered for your shopping (and/or selling) pleasure.
On it you'll find:

finished jewelry
jewelry components
tools for jewelry and other handwork genres
sculptural objects
fiber creations
yarn, fabric, and other raw crafty ingredients
unique clothing
antique and vintage items
craft supplies
artwork

It's that last point that brings me to my blog today. Usually Etsy leads me to jewelry, but this time I ended up with fresh artwork for my home instead. Earlier this week I received in the mail some of the prettiest artwork I've bought in a long time. And I love-love-love that it's handmade, one-of-a-kind, and completely mine.

I found the artist, Racheal Anilyse, through the "Suggestions" feature of Etsy. As you browse the wares available on the Web site, you can click on your favorites. Then, Etsy will suggest new thing you might like based on your preferences. That led me to a sweet little illustration of a red bee balm flower that Racheal had for sale. I emailed her with a request of 4 more unusual flowers to go along with the lonely bee balm. I was met with an enthusiastic response, and a mere few weeks later I now have my handmade garden!

Racheal even liked the flowers so much that she turned the images into a notecard set. What a great way to spread the "handmade-ed-ness" around! I suppose it's sort of like sculpting a beautiful ring, and then creating a mold from it. More than just one person gets to enjoy your creation and labor that way.

Have any of you tried Etsy? Do you sell, buy, or simply find inspiration?
Do you have and tips or tricks about how to stretch your handmade capacity, or are you strictly a one-off creator? Tell me your handmade stories!

SOFA Chicago or Bust!

Kristin Sutter — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:32:00 GMT

Art Jewelry's associate editors, Jill Erickson, Addie Kidd, and I, are heading down to the SOFA (Sculpture Objects & Functional Art) show in Chicago this Friday, November 2, 2008, at Navy Pier. We plan to be there when the doors open at 11 a.m. (The show goes until 8 p.m.) I've never been to the show, but I'm so excited! From what the other editors (the ones who have attended) tell me, it's the place to see beautiful art that's known for pushing boundaries. Ever since I saw the 2004 catalog, with its spike-in-the-heel glass slipper on the cover, I've been intrigued and hoping for a chance to go. Of course, scouting for jewelry and artists is the main reason we're going, but I'm also looking forward to seeing the furniture and anything that falls under the category of industrial design. A pitcher, silverware — how people design the things they encounter on a daily basis fascinates me.

The show has a lecture series that includes talks by some amazing jewelry artists: Anya Kivarkis, Sayumi Yokouchi, Susie Ganch, Graziano Visintin, Gerd Rothmann, Tod Pardon, Melissa Huff, Berd Munsteiner, Terhi Tolvanen, Evert Nijland, Marjorie Schick. I hope to have time to attend at least one!

I also hope to meet some of you there!

–Kristin

How wearable should wearable art be?

Hazel Wheaton — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 22:19:00 GMT

How important is it that a piece of jewelry be wearable?

Or, no, scratch that (perhaps literally). Not just wearable, comfortable.

This week, some of the Art Jewelry staff — myself, Associate Editor Jill Erickson, Copy Editor Kristin Sutter, and Publisher Elfrieda Abbe — went on a "field trip" of sorts: a lecture at Cardinal Stritch University in north Milwaukee by esteemed jewelry artist Rachelle Thiewes. Thiewes had come to town as part of the University's temporary exhibition series, "Frippery: Peculiar Bijouterie or Curiously Adorned."

During the lecture, Thiewes showed us slides of her work and talked about her jewelry and metalsmithing career, exploring the changing influences that affected her work. Thiewes' work is bold, challenging, and, as she frequently reminded us, "will draw blood" if you don't remain ever-conscious of how you're wearing it. In many cases, the jewelry demands that the wearer conform to it, rather than the other way around. It reminded me strongly of a conversation that I had had with jewelry maker Jan Mandel in the first of our Artist Q&As (published in the November 2006 issue) — Mandel's work is informed by her vast knowledge of the social history of clothing, and functions as a critique of how the very fashions that society celebrates often hobble the women they seemingly seek to glamorize, restricting motion, vision, even breathing, in the name of beauty. All in all, it was a challenging and fascinating evening that raised serious questions about the form and function of jewelry, and we spent hours afterward talking about what we'd seen and heard. (We ended up closing down the restaurant!)