New York’s Water Tank Project “wraps more than 100 of the city’s iconic water tanks in artists’ canvases, versions of which will be auctioned to raise funds for project in Tanzania and other places facing dire water shortages. On a visit to Ethiopia, curator, Mary Jordan realized that fully a fifth of the world’s population lacks access to clean water…just another thing New Yorkers take for granted.”
The featured photo is from conceptual photographer Laurie Simmons’ image of a life-size latex doll taking the plunge.
Prior to taking the position as Design Director, Francesca Amfitheatrof requested a visit to the Tiffany archives. She discovered that through Tiffany’s 177 year history there was much more than ‘traditional’ design. It was a geometric necklace with clean lines and a square setting that inspired the Tiffany T Collection. “A trained jeweler and silversmith, design director Francesca Amfitheatrof reimagined the letter T as a piece of engineering, which you can see in the mechanisms for cuffs. The T is sculptural and bold and very closely linked to the architecture of New York City,”
If you have read Ornamental Elements for any length of time, you begin to realize I am inspired by the jewelry of Frey Wille. The latest collection in the Homage series is Homage A Claude Monet. The video below gives us a peek at the design process behind the artistry.
I apologize for the delay in my latest post. We have been without phone and internet for over two weeks…a long, frustrating two weeks.
In 2014, when the name Vera is mentioned, typically, we think of Vera Bradley’s colorful textiles & accessories. Well….once upon a time, there was another Vera…Vera Neumann, whose colorful prints with her bold signature were a must have in every woman’s wardrobe.
“Vera Neumann was an unlikely revolutionary–her tiny five-foot-tall frame typically dressed in mod tunics and a bold scarf, armed with a quick but shy demeanor. But Vera–the innovator of cross-licensing and one of the most successful female entrepreneurs of her time–had a radical philosophy: fine art should be accessible to everyone, not just a select few. She believed that artwork should not be relegated to walls. Rather, people should surround themselves with art–wear it, dine off it, and dream under it. And why not? Great art endures. It lifts your spirit and makes you feel better. Vera’s art certainly does. It’s bright, happy, and inspirational.”
Follow this link for more inspiration from the original Vera.
Myung Urso’sinspiration relies upon an abundance of disparate materials in her studio. “I often observe how different elements play out in their own way, helping to define the destiny of each work. Pursuing the textures of abundant materials is my primal interest in making jewelry. Adopting different fibers with other solid material reveals unique surfaces, characteristics, shapes, colors and textures.”
Karen Vanmol is inspired by the architecture of the city and the texture of the natural landscape. “A city without a little nature works claustrophobic for me, but a nature landscape with no sign of humanity is too quiet for me. Protecting or imitating nature, the use of natural materials in architecture, the restoring of a road surface, accidental strong shapes on a construction site, these things I find very interesting.”
McKenna Hallet’s challenges herself create jewelry with low or no impact to our planet. “I want to create objects of art with a minimum of impact on OUR PLANET and to this end I will never use electricity or heat or corrosive chemicals to construct my jewelry and I will use as few items as possible from newly manufactured sources.” The two photos on her home page highlight her ability to source materials and see a future for the metal far removed from it’s original purpose.
Daria Salus grew up in Chicago, but her work as a jeweler began in Santa Cruz, California. “For over two decades, Daria has used her ever-developing “deep connection to the ocean and forest environments” as a springboard for creativity, crafting pieces that are at the same time personal and universal, connecting hand-crafted art with the spirit of nature.”
Jill Hermans likes to take one idea and explore it to the max! “Sometimes I find that a simple pattern can be like an extremely catchy song. The pattern or configuration screams loudly in my head until all possibilities are explored and exhausted; one idea leading on from the other in a chain of possibilities. I have come to notice more and more that the art of jewellery making is for most an obsessiveness: a want to explore a material, form or concept to the very end. At the present time my mind is occupied with the Japanese alloy shibuichi, and Japanese ideals of beauty and truth that seem to click so well with this rich material. By juxtaposing simple shapes and forms with rich and intricate surface colours and textures I am able to create a balance between simplicity and complexity. These explorations result in playful works that push the boundaries of conventional perceptions of the material, whilst still staying true to the essence of the metal.”
Gustavo Delgado considers making jewelry a ‘transformation game’. “My work in Jewellery attempts to explore the abstraction of shapes with the purpose of liberating them form their commonness. Behind the veil of everydayness, many natural or artificial shapes surround us, sometimes with real movement and in other occasions feigned, and when we recover the forgotten surprise of observing them, it is then that the temptation to create becomes irresistible and inevitable. It is this astonishment for shapes, its symmetries and disorders that starts up my creative process.
And at the workshop, the transformation game, everything changes and moves around us, but it can cause changes and even accelerating them represents another temptation, to which I succumb, and succumb again…”
Sorry for the delay in posting. Bill and I have been ‘retired’ for a total of three weeks and he has been fighting pneumonia for two of those…with ten days in the hospital. Things appear to be going in the right direction now and we are closer to recycling our lives…again…
Ornamental Elements 