Well, as I think I’ve mentioned before, I look at a lot of jewelry. Just when I think there isn’t anything new out there for me to ponder, I find something like Teresa Arana‘s collection. Flat out, it’s amazing. I really love the alternative ring designs — especially the open ring.
These gorgeous pieces and more can be found in Teresa’s Etsy store, aranajewelrydesign.
I love it when people really get their own work. Being able to articulate your point of view to yourself allows your work to have a consistent voice to others. I think that can be said of Angi Glenn-Quincy. She called her Etsy story “Tiny Armour” and describes her designs as being inspired by “texture, geometry, mid century modern design, rainbow colors, and all aspects of nature.” In her work of shapes and symbols, I see all of that and more. The words that come to mind are “graphic design jewelry.” For my money, the whole line hangs together all the better because she understands her own work.
As a side note, I have to commend the liberal use of brass. As we know, the cost of precious metals has gone through the roof. Brass allows Angi to offer affordable pieces to her customers. But, aside from that, I love brass. It has a beautiful, warm color and can take on a patina that gives it such character.
Did you ever see the show, The Riches? It didn’t last very long but, in my opinion, it should have. It had a group of great actors including the hilarious Eddie Izzard and the talented Minnie Driver. In short, the show is about a family of grifters who find themselves impersonating members of a wealthy family. For a time, it appears that they are going to get away with it and Minnie Driver’s character muses, “What are we going to do with all this good fortune? What are we going to do with all this good fortune?” Under the circumstances, it’s a funny question for the character to ask but, really, it’s a good question for most of us.
Make no mistake, I’m a lucky lady. I have a wonderful husband; entertaining, loyal friends and family; and beautiful pets. I had the opportunity to be educated and I have a good job. I have a roof over my head in the best city in the world, if I do say so myself. Lucky. Fortunate. Still, I spend a lot of time thinking about what I am going after next and what my perfect life would look like. One of the things that comes to my mind in my afternoon reveries is how awesome it would be to be a full time, successful jewelry designer. Almost immediately, I start to bargain with the Universe. “Dear Universe, if I were ever able to live that life, I promise to give back more. I promise to do something with all that good fortune.”
I went looking for an example of a jewelry designer who has turned personal good fortune into fortune for others. There are many great examples of corporate giving from jewelry companies and of jewelry artists supporting their favorite charities. But, in my search, it didn’t take long to find Joan Hornig and her strikingly charitable style. As her website states:
Her model of giving 100% of the profits on each piece to the purchaser’s charity of choice challenges women to use beauty and fashion in a new way.
Joan’s jewelry is meant to be noticed and talked about as it carries the all important message that philanthropy is beautiful, personal and worth promoting.
Joan Hornig
Joan has turned her obvious good taste and knack for design into a vehicle for good. Harvard and Columbia educated, Joan knew what to do with all her good fortune.
While we’re at it, let us not forget that Joan Hornig can help her customers support deserving charities because she makes desirable jewelry. I have to admit that I was not previously aware of Hornig’s work but it is truly something to behold. She is confident and assertive in her approach to modern design. There are also lots of nice, little touches that one notices the more that one looks. Note, for example, the clasp on the daring garnet necklace.
We should all be grateful to Joan Hornig for her good works and beautiful design.
That’s not exactly true. This post is a window into my jewelry fixated mind. I have collected some images of things that, to me, suggest personal adornment (i.e. should be jewelry — but are not).
I realized a long time ago that my mind is always altering what I see around me. Somewhere in the back of my head, I am always playing with space and scale and imaging how else things might be put together or altered. I am not saying I do it well — but it happens unbidden all of the time. Often, but not always, that takes the form of imagining how I might wear what I am seeing in the form of, say, a pendant or a bracelet. It’s just a thing my brain does.
There is something about photographic or scientific equipment that seems so sophisticated in design that it suggests it a sleek, cosmopolitan piece of jewelry. This, for example, I can imagine as the inspiration for a brooch or a pendant. I suppose, in general, I love clear glass in jewelry.
To some extent, the use of old lenses and pieces-parts of old equipment is covered by the steampunk folks. I’ll admit to not being the biggest of steampunk fans, although there are some artists out there doing it really well. To extent that steampunk doesn’t speak to me, that may be because the materials that are often used are put into a context that I find incongruous. I do understand that that is the whole point. Conceptually, though, it just hits a wall in my head. The whole distressed, vintage-y thing (the steam in the steampunk) with modern items only goes so far with me. I suppose I always want to see the modern realized.
I love stripes, polka-dots, and other tight, repetitive patterns. While all plants seem to be fodder for jewelry designers everywhere — from patterns to actual casts of plant life — there is something about vines and ivy in particular. I think they speak to me with their closely repeating pattern of leaves. I find them the perfect inspiration for chains, cuff bracelets, and beaded jewelry. Nature has a way of creating the perfect rhythm in a pattern — big, small, and just the right amount of variation in space.
I think fire can be strongly evocative of good design. It has movement and light and interacts with the space around it. Under good conditions and not destructive ones, it improves the space it is in with warm light. Good jewelry design, with nicely set stones, can seek to do the same. It can create movement, catch and reflect light, and make everything more beautiful.
If you’re into making things, you might understand the principle that a complicated or fancy design can camouflage a number of ills. You can always make it look like you meant to do that. Simple and clean is so much more difficult because the mistakes have no place to hide. Making simple design attractive and interesting can take some work. It is for such reasons that I was struck by the clean and attractive work offered by Colin and Marian of the Etsy store, Chinchar and Maloney.
Silver Pendant with Tanzanite
I love the color of tanzanite or, perhaps, I should say colors — it changes so much in different light.
Green Grey Diamond Ring
Another fine example of a gorgeous stone that gets to take center stage in a nice clean design.
Comes in Waves - molded fine silver wave pendant
Finally, it’s almost hard to believe that this is a piece of metal because it is so fluid.
Such nice work that reminds one of what good design can do to showcase beautiful materials and masterful metal work.
Metal in the hands of the right person can be an amazing thing. Metal can bend, stretch, take on a texture and more but, to make it do these things and produce a desirable result, takes talent — talent for handling the metal and a vision for the design.
Manya Pickard makes metal sing in a way that says raw talent perfected by countless hours of practice. Her pieces are created with tasteful design concepts and a mastery of metal.
These beautiful pieces are available in Manya’s Etsy store, Bob’s Whiskers, along with many other designs.
I love Manya’s consistent aesthetic in her pieces. While she manages a lot of dimension and depth, there is something that gives her work a lovely hand-drawn quality. Her painterly style, for me, calls to mind things such as storybook illustrations and Japanese screen paintings.
It is my impression that jewelry designers are frequently influenced by architectural details. I suppose it’s funny that things so different in scale can reflect each other — aesthetic principles at their largest and smallest. For some reason, though, this interplay does seem to happen. I, for one, often see an old window and think it should be the setting for a stone or that the contours of a piece of crown molding could be the pattern on a bracelet.
There are lots of great examples of the juxtaposition of jewelry and architecture. Here are two. They range from the “inspired by architecture” end of the spectrum to the actual depiction of an interesting building.
Architectural Geometric Bangle - by Kat
This sleek bangle is available in Kat’s Etsy store, aeliodesign. I see so much in this piece that references architecture, furniture, and just larger space in general. I see an atrium, a column, and even a funky, retro coffee table.
Amsterdam Necklace - by Laurie Poast
This miniature building, by Laurie Poast, is available in her Etsy store, ARTISANIEeurope. This adorable piece, of course, is more directly influenced by architecture. The little building is just beautifully rendered with just the right amount of detail to give it character.
As I have mentioned, I am in the process of learning metal work and to make jewelry. I’ve been taking classes at Scintillant Studio for about a year. Scintillant, which is in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco, is run by the fascinating Adam Clark. I began my education at Scintillant with a beginner’s class taught by Aimee Golant, who is incredibly talented and a great teacher. Since then, I’ve taken Adam’s class, which is largely an independent study style, about three times. I am pretty sure that there isn’t anything that Adam doesn’t know — seriously, bring up just about any topic.
This is my most recently completed project from Scintillant:
The stone is a Herkimer diamond. I cut the band and the prongs out of a continuous sheet of silver and the prongs were folded up to hold the stone. The band is closed with a copper rivet. It was a challenge but allowed me to practice some new skills — like riveting. But, it was a ton of fun to make and I’ve enjoyed wearing it.
Polly Wales already has an impressive resume and a stunning collection of work but there are still more inventive pieces on the way. Courtesy of the sales staff at Polly Wales, here’s a sneak peek at Polly’s diamond collection to be launched in January 2012.
Truly unbelievable. Unique, stylish, and heirloom quality.
Polly uses a casting method, where stones are cast directly into the metal. She allows the method to really speak in her pieces. That is a skill in itself — to know when to not try and exert control. Casting this way creates a unique effect that does more than just set the stone in the piece. The setting becomes more of a design element and it marries with the stone and changes it. This, for example:
This piece, from her Crystal Collection, is currently available on Polly’s website and it shows how this casting method, when unleashed, allows the stones and the metal to somehow become more blended — more one. Every piece is the frozen moment in time when the metal and the stones met. It is not a method for use by a timid jewelry designer. It’s bold and a huge design risk that, for Polly Wales, pays off over and over again.
On her website, Polly describes her work this way, “a disregard for the traditional, juxtaposed with a love of the ancient and classical jewellery.” I think that comes through clearly in her designs. The words that come to mind for me are “modern artifacts.” It’s the past reflected in a new way.
Aside from the aesthetic value of jewelry, which I love, I am attracted to the idea of carrying around a little piece of life with me. Typically, that “life” is metaphorical. It can be a piece of history — personal or human history in general. It might be the connection one feels to the maker of the piece. In the case of Wearable Planter, Colleen Jordan‘s Etsy store, the concept of a portable piece of life takes on a whole new meaning.
As the song says, that’s worth a million in prizes.
Colleen manages to make a novel concept very attractive. I think it is a testament to her well-considered designs that little pieces of greenery can stand in for stones and really not miss a beat. These pieces might not be for every day or for every occasion but they are unmistakable as jewelry that is actually meant to be worn and are not just art pieces. I love the natural variable that is built into the pieces by virtue of the addition of plants. No two plants will ever be the same and they will be beautifully flawed.
Bread and Cake 