American Craft / Jewelry / New Materials
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material culture “When artiws play wix or subvert xe idea of jewelry, xey are playing wix or subverting how we communicate.”—Sienna Payi Constanze Schreiber designs collars and brooches shaped like classical fine jewelry but cut from fur and filled with lead. They sit on the chest with the weight of an animal because a mink coat, Schreiber says, takes the lives of 200 minks, which would weigh about 352 pounds. New York conceptual designer Tobias Wong makes flower brooches from bulletproof Kevlar. British artist Keren Cornelius winds 50 meters of linen thread thickly about the neck. And in London, Netherlands-born Greetje van Helmond “grows” cocktail rings in crystal- line clusters by saturating string in a liquid story by sugar solution. Shonquis Moreno This is jewelry? New Jewels: Yes, this is jewelry. Today’s studio jewelry is usually made Taking in small series or as one-offs, the work of both artists and designers and still others who don’t draw any distinction. It reflects Materials to experimentation with forms and concepts, including the conventions surrounding how Extremes and why we wear it, as well as materials. 038 american craft feb/mar 08 Opposite: Above: Right: Constanze Schreiber Karin Seufert Adrianne Smelko Katharina, 2005, Rings, 2004, Heavy Hearted, 20 07, fur, lead, silver. silver, Colorit. brass, hairnet, elastic, nylon, adhesive, Plasti Dip. “While most of these jewelers have a back- Neuman oversees a collection that in- ground in traditional techniques and using cludes pieces made from marshmallows, precious materials, some of their most inter- wrapping tissue for South African oranges esting work is done while using their skills and eggshell. The noted Dutch designer to manipulate more modest materials,” says Ted Noten fills his acrylic handbags with Mike Holmes, co-owner, with Elizabeth revolvers, an ice pick, or a cut of beef. Shypertt, of the Velvet da Vinci gallery in “Today the experimentation with materials, San Francisco. A handful of U.S. institu- forms and concepts is really extreme,” tions have been collecting jewelry for sev- says Karin Seufert, a Berlin artist. “I think eral decades, but recent developments like this is due to all the new possibilities in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s recent techniques and materials and the vivid ex- acquisition of the dealer Helen Drutt’s change of information over the Internet.” collection suggest that it is on the ascent. Seufert coats silver with a synthetic ceram- New York’s Museum of Arts & Design ic-plastic alloy called Colorit, to create also recently announced the appointment of a series of rings that are essentially an ongo- Ursula Neuman as its first curator of con- ing formal exercise. She uses the silver temporary jewelry—the first appointment merely to give weight to each piece, she of its kind in the country. admits, “but I like the idea that only the “In the U.S. this type of jewelry is being wearer knows what is inside.” considered more and more as an art form. Adrianne Smelko, a graduate of the Initially, it was collected as a craft for its Rhode Island School of Design, did the op- exquisite workmanship. Now it is viewed posite, taking something common—manu- on a par with other art forms,” Neuman factured chain—and entangling it with Plasti says. “The boundaries have been crossed.” Dip and hairnet, to create a weightily feb/mar 08 american craft 039 Top Left: Bottom: Top Right: Alexander Calder Rebecca Hannon Mary Ann Scherr Necklace, ca. 1943, Camino, 2006, Heart Monitor, 1972, silver wire, cord, cut rubber. 14k gold, sterling silver, ribbon. fiber optics, electronics, light-emitting-diodes (LED), batteries. evocative necklace entitled Heavy Hearted. experimentation deepened, particularly in Sergey Jivetin, who shows his work at the Netherlands, Germany and other parts Jewelerswerk Galerie in Washington, of Europe. Since then, as materials science D.C., makes featherweight necklaces us- and technology have advanced, the means ing jewelers’ saw blades—thread-thin to play with ideas has multiplied. One might lengths of thorny steel blade. assume that art and design lovers would According to the North Carolina- be drawn to the intellectual aspects and based goldsmith and designer Mary Ann modern aesthetic of studio jewelry, but it is Scherr, new work is also being made with still struggling commercially. Why? Since chemicals, rare space metals, Delft so many successful products are collected porcelain, bones, Pyrex and electronics. as brands, suggests Stefan Freidemann, (Phillips Electronics has a concept for co-owner of Ornamentum Gallery in a shape-shifting tattoo.) Scherr herself has Hudson, New York, consumers don’t have created functional work that also serves as much incentive to invest in a field that medical needs. Her Body Monitors are has not been similarly branded, instead adornment capable of camouflaging trache- sticking with DeBeers and Cartier. “But otomies, taking the pulse, reading air qual- now that design is becoming the new status ity and monitoring the heart. symbol,” he says, “perhaps people will In the United States the studio jewelry begin to see that jewelry can also reflect a movement began after World War II, certain enlightenment.” following the creation of pieces by artists Underscoring jewelry’s growing popu- like Alexander Calder and Salvador Dalí larity since the 90s, industrial designers (skull charm bracelet), and supported by have also begun to create high-profile piec- university programs. During the 1960s, es, sometimes mass-producing them. Gijs 040 american craft feb/mar 08 material culture Top Left: Top Right: Mike and Maaike Kiel Mead Stolen Jewel, 2007, Retainer, 2006, printed and scored cast silver and gold leather. plated. Bakker, co-founder of the Dutch design casts. “The original form of these objects is Gimme More! collective Droog, as well as a leading figure exclusive and gives each its significance,” Constanze Schreiber in progressive Dutch jewelry since the explains Mead. “Gum and the Retainer are www.constanzeschreiber.com 1960s, excels in subverting people’s ideas not only specific to an individual but also Greetje van Helmond of what an object should be. Since 1995, to precise moments. This is what endears www.greetjevanhelmond.com he has drafted many outsiders into jewelry objects to people. But the fact that I can’t Ted Noten making through his Amsterdam-based control what is significant to me is the iron- www.tednoten.com foundation Chi ha paura …? (Who’s Afraid ic concept behind all of my pieces and all Karin Seufert of … Contemporary Jewelry?). Sold at jewelry, in fact.” www.karinseufert.de Velvet da Vinci, industrial designers Mike Ultimately, what distinguishes studio Jewelerswerk Galerie and Maaike’s Stolen Jewels series is made jewelry and its material exploits from tra- www.jewelerswerk.com from low-resolution images of legendary ditional jewelry and other art forms “is its Sienna Gallery jewelry downloaded from Google Images, intimate relationship to people,” says www.siennagallery.com blown up to a wearable scale (at which they Sienna Patti, owner of Sienna Gallery in Velvet da Vinci Gallery are severely pixelated) and then printed Lenox, Massachusetts. “We wear it—or www.velvetdavinci.com on scored leather so that anyone (with think about wearing it—and therefore it be- Ornamentum Gallery $600) can wear, say, Imelda Marcos’s ruby comes intrinsically personal in a way that www.ornamentumgallery.com necklace. The Brooklyn-based industrial few other forms of art do. When artists play Chi ha paura … ? designer Kiel Mead casts cast-off objects— with or subvert the idea of jewelry, they www.chihapaura.com his brother’s old retainer, orphaned lights are really talking about playing with or sub- Mike and Maaike from a Christmas string—to enshrine nos- verting how we communicate,” Patti says. www.mikeandmaaike.com talgia. Next year he will come out with “To think that these very large concepts are Kiel Mead a chewed-gum necklace in pink anodized thought about and achieved through such www.kielmead.com aluminum. All of his pieces must be exact small objects is amazing.” feb/mar 08 american craft 041.