Art Jewelry magazine Editors' Blog : gold

Metropolitan Museum of Art — I could be here all day!

Hazel Wheaton — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:47:00 GMT

Good news for researchers and aficionados of beautiful things — including jewelry. Bad news for anyone hoping to have a productive day doing anything other than poking around online. New York's world-famous Metropolitan Museum of Art has put its catalog online in a searchable form.

Me, I have some deadlines to meet today, so I'm forcibly removing my fingers from the keyboard and heading down to the art department. But for the rest of you, have at it. And here's a taste.

This happy-looking image (it's not just me, is it?) is a collection of early 5th-century Etruscan jewelry, combining glass, rock crystal, agate, carnelian, and lots and lots of yummy high-carat gold.

The world's finest collection of gold jewelry and objects

Hazel Wheaton — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 17:17:00 GMT

I had an oh-so-pleasant surprise waiting in my inbox yesterday morning: a news update about the imminent reopening of the Museo de Oro (trans.: The Gold Museum) in Bogota, Columbia. The museum has been in existence for nearly 70 years, and houses what is arguably the world's largest and most important collection of gold pieces, including statuary, vessels, ritual objects, and jewelry. For several years, the museum has been undergoing renovations, so that they could exhibit more than the tiny fraction of their collection (with numbers in the tens of thousands of pieces).

On November 2, the museum will open the doors of its new facilities, allowing awestruck visitors to see a truly staggering collection of gold objects, displaying exquisite craftsmanship. Here's a taste, the most famous piece in the museum's collection, called the "El Dorado Raft."

The raft, only 19.5 cm in length, was found in 1969 in Pasca, south of Bogotá, and was quickly acquired by the museum — it has never left Colombia. Pre-Hispanic societies in the Americas showed a high degree of social and economic organization, leading to the growth of specialist craftsmen, including goldsmiths. Starting in Peru, metallurgy spread through much of the Americas, and the work of Colombian craftsmen is astonishing in its artistic invention and technical expertise. The El Dorado raft is testament to that expertise; it was cast in one piece using lost-wax casting in a clay mold, some time between 1200 and 1500.

Here's a link to the AP news report; CNN has some footage of more pieces from the collection, filmed without a voiceover. For more luscious photos and information, go to the Museum's Web site. Be sure to check out the link at the top tagged "Masterpieces" — that's where you'll find the goodies. The following pieces are some of my favorites:

Hammered nose ornament; A.D. 1250; 13.2 x 15.9 cm

Statue of a man wearing the mask of a bat and surrounded by spirals and figures of birds; 900–1600 A.D.; 10.6 x 11.3 cm

Gold bottle cap; 0–600 A.D.; 11 x 9.5 cm

Gold bracelet; 150–900 A.D.; 5.4 x 8 cm. Made of hammered gold sheets connected with tabs.

Cast gold cat, 350 A.D.; 7.5 x 12.2 cm.

The Olympic Games in Beijing begin in a week. Have you seen the medals?

Katie Streeter — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:02:00 GMT

The Olympic Games start in a week, and I'm really excited. Gymnastics and aquatics (swimming, diving, etc.) are my favorite events, but the other thing that I love about the Olympics is seeing how each host country adds elements of their culture to the games. One way they do this is through their medals.

Inspired by Chinese culture, this year's medals feature jade insets along with the familiar gold (in actuality, gold-plated silver), silver, or bronze metals. The global campaign to find a design for the Beijing games began in early 2006, and the final design was completed in early 2007. Read about the Beijing medals here.

If you want a refresher on what medals have looked like in the past, check them out here. I'm so impressed by the creativity that has gone into each medal design. The medal of the 2006 Torino, Italy, games was unusual because of its donut-like shape. The medal of the 1998 games in Nagano, Japan, featured lacquer, embossed gilding, and shippoyaki (a cloisonné technique). My favorite is the Lillehammer, Norway, medal from the 1994 Olympics, which uses granite for the main part of the medal, with a frame of metal surrounding the granite.

––Katie

You can have your gold and eat it too?

Katie Streeter — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:46:00 GMT

I love cooking and baking, and I generally make everything from scratch. I've never followed a recipe that calls for biscuit mix, refrigerated dough in a tube, pasteurized process cheese food, or other "convenience" foods (I never found them convenient or tasty). I don't make brownies from a box, I make homemade pie crust, and I don't think anything with Jell-O in it should ever be called "salad."

But am I a gourmet? No. In fact, I was completely shocked yesterday when I stumbled on edible silver leaf and edible gold leaf and gold flakes. I had no idea that people ate gold and silver, and of course the first image that came to my mind was of wealthy Hollywood actors and actress sprinkling gold on their dinners, as I might sprinkle salt and pepper on mine. My coworker Addie Kidd corrected this image, mentioning that she's eaten both gold and silver before, so apparently those of us who don't have chauffeurs and maids can also partake.

Supposedly, gold and silver leaf and flakes are popular on wedding cakes and other special-occasion desserts. Although the gold and silver are probably beautiful on food, I can't image eating a precious metal. I love how recyclable gold and silver are. When a piece of jewelry becomes worn beyond repair, the metal can always be reclaimed and reused. But let's be honest, once you eat it, no one will be reclaiming it.

I won't be adding gold or silver to my diet anytime soon, but if you're interested, the edible leaf and flakes can be purchased through several online suppliers, including Edible Gold.com and Mister Art.com.

––Katie

Wedding ring makeover part 2: the new design may be a band with bead-set champagne melee diamonds

Kristin Sutter — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:19:00 GMT

If you've read my last blog post, you know that I'm in the process of revamping my wedding band to commemorate my and my husband's five-year wedding anniversary (read good excuse to change the design of a ring that neither of us loves). I'll be keeping the vintage engagement ring intact, but I'll have the band's infinity-symbol design changed because it's a bit jarring next to the delicate filigree.

Seconds after Associate Editor Addie Kidd told me that a good jeweler would incorporate my existing band's metal into a new band, she and I were brainstorming the new design. I attempted to sketch the design my husband had given to the jewelers five years ago (he mimicked some of the filigree pattern), but I wasn't remembering it right. Addie said, "You could add stones," and my first thought was, "No, that would be gaudy." She said, "They could be little. You could do a band with melee diamonds — they could be about 1 mm." And before I could reject the idea for looking too much like a mother's ring, I thought, "I could do champagne diamonds! And they would match the color of my metal (which isn't modern white gold, but an antique, yellower alloy). And I could do 13 of them!" (I would have 13 diamonds because that was my favorite number before I met my husband, it also happened to be his favorite number, serendipitously we started dating on the 13th, and we got married on the 13th.)

Addie pointed out that if I did 1 mm bead-set champagne diamonds, the stones wouldn't draw attention away from the engagement ring; they would merely provide sparkle. Also, 13 stones would line up nicely, one centered on the engagement ring's diamond and six on each side. She suggested that I have the melee diamonds bead-set to mimic the vintage look. She found a good example of what she envisioned here in a piece by Etienne Perret. Of course, my band would look a bit different from Perret's. I'd like to keep the filigree and etching on the side of the band to mimic the engagement ring, and the band will need to curve to fit the contour of my ring. If at all possible, I'm hoping that the band will be a bit thinner than it is right now, too.

So, that's the concept for the new design. I am, however, open to further suggestions. If you want to throw any ideas into the mix, just comment below. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

—Kristin

Today in jewelry history...

Addie Kidd — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:31:00 GMT

Do you want to know what today is???

Well on this day way back in 1848, gold was first accidentally discovered near Sacramento by James Marshall and Johann Sutter, thus starting the California gold rush.

I know this, and now you do too, because my co-worker Kristin Sutter (perhaps she's related to Johnann...?) shared with me her Forgotten English word-of-the-day calendar. And today's word, thematically inspired by that historical fact, is a fantastic word: clinquant.

I was a bit sad that I'd never heard of this old French-based word before (And 20 bonus vocabulary points to you if you already had.), because it means "glittering with gold." What a cool adjective. I'm huge fan of specificity like that, especially with jewelry-related words.

Now I just wish I had some glittering gold to play with in the studio for the rest of the afternoon. But with the price of gold any more ($913.00 USD/oz. as I type this – Ouch!), I think I'll make due with some sparkly silver instead.