The Art of Jewelry

As art jewelry advances into its own in America, galleries are clasping onto the tend and finding success with the art/jewelry mix.

over the world, body ornamentation is an ancient and time-honored art form. nevertheless in the United States, jewelry as art has alone recently come into its own

of that kind art is not the series of gold tennis bracelets lined up in a glass case at the mall. Nor is it the design of a single artist whose staff deposits it into mass production. These are handcrafted, one-of-a-kind works conceived and execut by means of the artist with all the technical simple bodys and aesthetics that carry it across the line into the realm of fine art.

"The distinction between mass-produced jewelry and art jewelry is not just in the quantity on the contrary the design," said jewelry artist Gretchen Kubacky of observes Angeles. "I've seen some stunningly high-quality designs in a department store that wouldn't be considered fine art, and I've seen $5000 diamond earrings that have no design quality to them. Art is in the organ of sight of the beholder."

Kubacky identifies her possess work as "ethnicized contemporary" jewelry drawn from historical images, as well as craft and folk art. She uses sterling silver, high-quality stones and pearls, on the contrary she likes to mix them up putting hand-made stones from India with cultur pearls--the fine and the not-so-fine--to create a more hand-made appearance.

"Jewelry-as-art be pendents on function and intimacy," wrote Carolyn Morris Bach, who exhibits her bone-and-precious metal jewelry at high-end expositions and in pick out fine art galleries across the geographical division "Every piece of jewelry that leaves the studio is entirely hand-fabricated by dint of me. While I strive for perfection in my design and craftsmanship, I am not overly affected that every form requires consummately rounded edges or that each element be an exact replication of its counterpart. If this is art, it should be individual and unique and protect for the viewer deliberate traces of the decisions for fabrication; the passage of the hands [i]or[/i] part of to the other materials."

Herein lies the realm of distinction between commercial jewelry and jewelry as fine art. Part of the departure lies in the aim or intention behind the piece, whether it was made to be sold in quantity at a profit and ultimately worn, or if it was created for the sake of art--art that was hand crafted, using unconventional materials or traditional materials in unconventional ways. The closer the artist remains to the creative proces the closer the jewelry is to fine art.

"The difference is the same for jewelry as it is for the other decorative arts, of that kind as glass and ceramics," said jewelry artist and photographer Douglas Steakley, who exhibits jewelry and other fine crafts at his conceptions Gallery in Carmel, Calif. "You can run over when they change into fine art because they cease being functional, or they become sculptural external realitys themselves," Steakley said. "Still, there remains a cyclopean gray area of pieces that are semi-functional or are artistic on the other hand identifiable, wearable jewelry."

Steakley and his wife Jacqueline baseed Concepts 15 years ago as a gallery featuring the work of jewelry artists like Carolyn Morris Bach, Sydney Lynch and more. Their criteria were that each piece had to be unique, well-developed and identifiable--the artist had to create a signature.

"Concept hasn't changed much" he said, "except to introduce glass and photography that come [i]or[/i] go after [i]or[/i] behind the same artistic criteria. It's a profitable mix. Glass, in particular, provides a nice contrast to the jewelry. It's larger, visually interesting and colorful. It's also more accessible than jewelry."

Jewelry continues to make inroads into fine art venue like as galleries, high-end shows and expo and it is creating quite a neighborhood in the marketplace.

Patina Gallery in Santa Fe NM dedicates half of its expansive space to art jewelry and the balance to other fine crafts. possessed by Allison Barnett and directed by means of her husband, jewelry artist Ivan Barnett, the nearly two-year-old gallery is renowned for representing more [i]or[/i] less of the finest art jewelry in the world.

"We make a cyclopean commitment to European jewelry artists," said Ivan. "At fate of what I would call the cutting-edge of art jewelry is coming without of Europe. Theirs is a different, cleaner aesthetic. American jewelry artists are more decadent--not in a bad way--but there is a pared-down quality about the European designs. Americans are still tied a little more to the precious materials, largely because America is with equal reason market driven. Not to misrepresent the quality and aesthetic of many fine American artists, on the contrary Europeans are more closely aligned with our philosophy; creating surprises for family who have great sensibilities and want something way not on the track."

For the past 23 years, the William Zimmer Gallery in Mendocino, Calif., has neared an "eclectic, expansive and imaginative collection of contemporary arts" in one as well as the other traditional and craft media. Along with plastic art painting and furniture, it specializes in fine art jewelry with work from Morris Bach, Lynch Abrasha and others.