Art Jewelry magazine Editors' Blog : made-by-hand

Art Jewelry magazine now offers free desktop wallpaper downloads!

Addie Kidd — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:35:00 GMT

Hello everyone!

I don't know about you, but I could look at jewelry morning, noon, and night. No, seriously – I'm surrounded by it every day, and oftentimes jewelry even ends up in my dreams. (If you dream about jewelry too, I'd love to hear about it in the comment section below. It'd be nice to know I'm not the only one!)

There's inspiration to be found in other artist's jewelry work. Plus, well...it's just plain beautiful stuff. And I'm not alone in this art appreciation. Judging by the response we get to both our in-print Gallery and our online Gallery, you guys looooo-oooove looking at innovative and stunning jewelry.

I guess it's no coincidence that the Show Us Your Work section of our Online Reader Forums has more views than any other section!

So that got us thinking here at Art Jewelry. We've got all this beautiful imagery of equally beautiful jewelry. Hmm, what could we do with it? What...to...do?

Simple: Wallpaper!!!!

There's something for every jewelry maker in this first batch of 6 images:

Metals: silver, gold, copper, and brass
Polymer clay (metal clay to come shortly)
Gemstones
Tools and equipment
Techniques: soldering, fusing, cold-connections, hammered finish, keum-boo, chain-making, patination, and bezel- and prong-set components

These images are from articles featured in Art Jewelry magazine, and you can learn how to make each and every one of them!
(Okay, so we can't teach you how to draw a cute ilustration like in the Kiln Love image, but we can teach you all about how to operate and care for your kiln!)

Visit our wallpapers page for more details about the projects and the artists.

Top row: John Sartin, Patricia Tschetter, Jill L. Erickson
Bottom Row: Melissa Muir, article by Pam East, Kim Stephenson.

To get your own free wallpaper, head on up to the Resources tab at the top of our Web site, and click on Wallpapers link. You can download your favorite image instantly! You can also bookmark www.artjewelrymag.com/wallpapers. Then again if you're looking for ultra-convenience, sign up for our newsletter. It's free, and we'll send you link every month with the latest free wallpaper.

And if you've got a minute, head to our Web site's home page to take our new Reader Poll — we'd love to hear your opinion on our new wallpapers.

Take care everyone and have a happy Friday!!

~Addie~

P.S. If you have any favorite images from the pages of Art Jewelry, or a specific technique you'd like to see featured as wallpaper leave a comment below.

Video gives sneak peek inside Ford Forlano studios and how they make polymer clay art jewelry

Kristin Sutter — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:26:00 GMT

If you like polymer clay jewelry, chances are you've seen work by Ford Forlano; that is Steve Ford and David Forlano, with Maryanne Petrus-Gilbert doing metalwork. We first featured Ford Forlano's work in "A Rarefied Medium," an article by Ronna Weltman (September 2006) about A-list polymer clay jewelry. If you've never seen their work, prepare for a treat. For me, Ford Forlano pieces never disappoint. The texture, the shape, the color — the pieces are always exciting and elegant. When I'm feeling creative, I tend to work better on my own. So it was really interesting to learn more about the team's collaboration in this video.

It shares not only great images of their studios and finished pieces, but also a bit about their history and how they continue to work together. Check it out!

—Kristin

Green Jewelry: if you're into pieces made from recycled, repurposed materials, check out jewelry by Mana Bernardes and the Touch NY show

Kristin Sutter — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:35:00 GMT

Personally, I get excited about anything green — I mean both the color (my favorite) and the concept. I learned about Touch, a group of eco-minded designers, a few months ago when I came across jewelry by Mana Bernardes, whose jewelry is showcased on the Touch Web site. For anyone in the New York area today and tomorrow (May 19th and 20th), you can check out the Touch NY show from noon to 7 p.m. at 148 11th Ave. According to the Touch Web site, they'll have products and installations made from recycled materials. Judging from the pictures on their flyer, the show looks like a great place to find fresh ideas and inspiration.

Have you ever made jewelry with the intention of making it green? I'd love to hear about it — and see pictures!!

—Kristin

Can you make a living by making objects of beauty? An exhibit of Wiener Werkstätte jewelry at Neue Galerie inspires questions.

Kristin Sutter — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:00:00 GMT

From now until June 30, 2008, you can visit Neue Galerie in New York to see an exhibit of jewelry from the Weiner Werkstätte (Vienna workshops), a movement that developed at the same time and with a similar ideology as the English Arts and Crafts movement. I found out about the exhibit from an article by Ken Johnson that appeared in the New York Times.

Johnson's review, "Rage Against the Machine with Artisans and Beauty," piqued my interest, because the more I read, the more I recognized similarities between those artisans from a few generations ago and our beloved Art Jewelry readers. Johnson points out that the jewelry's value for these artisans came "not from the raw materials but from its aesthetic, the purview of artists and designers, and its craftsmanship, handled by the workshop’s expert artisans." In every issue of Art Jewelry, we publish pieces that fit this description — it's one of our defining characteristics.

But in his review, Johnson goes on to talk about how the Wiener Werkstätte was an "ultimately untenable business model" that failed partly because it didn't have a "political vision." Instead, he says, "Its only purpose was to make beautiful things without compromising artistic quality, an expensive ambition." He hopefully suggests at the end of his review that perhaps such a movement could survive in, say, the 21st century with "rich and enlightened patrons."

The article raised a lot of questions for me:

How do you, as an artist, find the line between accessible art and quality materials and craftsmanship? Or do you even feel the need to make your art accessible in the first place?
Is it necessary to have a political vision behind your work in order for it to sell? Or can you simply make objects of beauty that are marketable on that merit alone?
Do the "political" pieces sell better than the "beautiful" pieces, or do 21st-century buyers actually fork over more money for objects of beauty rather than for pieces with political vision? Are you finding "rich and enlightened patrons"?
How does the mass-production of jewelry continue to affect you as a craftsperson?
How do modern concerns about social responsibility (where do we get our metals and our stones, what chemicals are we using, do we have sustainable working practices, etc.) compare to the concerns that the early-19th-century artisans had?

Of course, the list could go on. But I'm really eager to hear what you have to say about this. To share your thoughts, leave a comment in the comment box below.

—Kristin

Buying and selling jewelry online

Hazel Wheaton — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:11:00 GMT

After reading my post of 12/19 about the wonders of handmade gifts and the growing etsy.com phenomenon, a reader sent me a link to another great site where independent jewelry makers (and, indeed, makers of all kinds of things) sell their work. Just as jewelry artisans might sell their work at trunk shows, now they can sell it at trunkt.org. The site has much in common with etsy.com (including some of the same artists), but I find the trunkt.org layout more user-friendly in minor ways — I personally find it easier to navigate, and so far I've been quite impressed with the consistency of quality of artists.

I have to admit, I was a bit behind the curve when it came to online jewelry sales. I'm continually being reminded that when it comes to the Internet era, I'm part of the Old Guard. I still remember Usenet, and the primitive message boards that we used at my college. And when personal Web sites started appearing, I was firmly of the opinion that jewelry was one of those things that wouldn't do all that well online, because buying jewelry is such a personal — and often very tactile — experience. In order to buy a piece of jewelry, I felt, a buyer had to be able to pick it up, fondle it, try it on, feel its weight. Pixels on a screen couldn't ever hope to replace that, surely!

Well, things have obviously changed. I now happily buy all sorts of things online that I never thought I would. I'm a dedicated online catalog shopper, and boy, did I miss that particular boat! How could I possibly buy clothes if I couldn't try them on first, I thought. Now, avoiding the crowded dressing rooms is one of the things I most appreciate about online shopping! And jewelry is no different. I vastly underestimated how personal personal Web pages could get, how much of a sense of the designer's style and personality could come across on a computer screen. I don't think online jewelry shopping will ever completely replace the bricks-and-mortar experience (although I should learn not to make such absolute predictions!), but there's no doubt that online adornment buying is alive and well.

Web sites aren't the only ones who are getting it — one of my favorite recent discoveries is a catalog (along with a Web site) called The Artful Home. They're proof that catalog shopping can exist side by side with limited-edition and one-of-a-kind work by highly individual artists. Browsing through the jewelry listings is like looking like a recap of my old favorites, names I've known and respected for years, with a healthy dose of new recommendations thrown in. Did I ever think the day would come when I could buy jewelry by Eleanor Moty in a catalog?

(If you're planning on selling your work online, either through sites like those I'm mentioned or through your own personal Web site, here's one very small piece of advice from a dedicated online buyer. Let me know how big the piece is. Give measurements, or include a commonly recognized household item for scale, so that I can judge how it'll look on me. If it's a ring, it's less vital, because I can estimate the real size by the shank, but when it comes to a brooch or a pendant, size does matter!)

Crafts in the Grey Lady

Hazel Wheaton — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:53:00 GMT

I've been sent this link by about three different people, so I know it's making the rounds... but it's evidence that the made-by-hand movement is picking up momentum when it gets a feature in the New York Times. Check out the story here. (The NYT site requires registration, but it's free.) The writer spends much of the article talking about etsy.com, which isn't surprising, given its rising popularity among both sellers and buyers of handmade work.

I'm thrilled to see made-by-hand gaining popularity — the number of friends who have told me that they're not buying presents this year, but making them instead has surprised me. Not because I don't think my friends are creative, but because when things get hectic around the end of the year, it's just easier to run out and buy something. Making things by hand requires forethought, and planning, and time set aside weeks and even months in advance... but then, all of that goes into the best kind of gift to receive. I don't think that the growing number of people who are making things rather than buying them is a result of our individual budget limitations, because there's no limit to the amount of cheap goods that one can buy at short notice, and buying ingredients can often be more expensive than buying prepackaged, finished items. But cheap also all too often equals cheaply made, and I like to think that that's much of what's fueling this resurgence of handcrafts. A dissatisfaction with the impersonal and cheaply made goods that fill the shelves of mega-stores, the same plastic items that you can find in every mega-store anywhere in the world.

So, is a return to personal, handmade goods a rebellion against the consumer society that swung a bit too far in the direction of mass production? I like to think so. And I hope that my family members enjoy the boxes of cookies that I'm sending out for the holidays this year!