My Future Self Is Winning!

The mill space in this image may not look like a lot, but it's my future home. Creative home, that is... Sometime in the next couple of months (after some cleaning and clearing) this will be my new studio space! I'm excited to be sharing 3,000sq feet with some really talented friends, in a huge space that will be drastically closer to where I live. The building used to be the site of the Eastern Butcher Block Company, is environmentally clean and abuts a river. Sounds like paradise to me! I can't wait to see how it looks after its prepped for us to move in!

For the sake of Opulence...

I am flattered to have recently been asked by The Opulent Project to participate in one of their ongoing projects, COSTUME COSTUME. As a result, I've been working on making lots of the Pro Nailz pieces the past couple of weeks. As you can tell from the image to the right, I've logged many hours painting nails while watching hours of terrible movies. I can barely tell the difference between my living room and a professional nail salon at this point.

The exhibition that I've been making the work for, COSTUME COSTUME, investigates the nature and subject of costume jewelry... Costume jewelry has been traditionally viewed as a mass produced, low price point, fashionable yet disposable variety of jewelry. According to The Opulent Project, 'the original intention of costume jewelry is not to become collectibles or heirlooms but to be fashionable and dispensable when the trend passes. Frequently this jewelry is a mimicry of existing unattainable luxury jewelry or simply of a notion of traditional jewelry.'

The goal of COSTUME COSTUME is to present the limited edition works of designers who have tweaked the identity of costume jewelry to address the conceptual issues associated with this genre of jewelry. The pieces that are represented in this show challenge concepts of value, material, historicism, and identity. 'By replication and alteration we seek to further remove the simulated jewelry from its origin, thus costuming the costumed.... COSTUME COSTUME.'

I shipped the work that I'm contributing to COSTUME COSTUME out this morning to the ladies of The Opulent Project. It all fit into a small sized USPS priority rate box, which is always nice because the shipping rates are tolerable but also discouraging because it seems like so much artwork and labor should take up more physical space.

Check it out: COSTUME COSTUME will be exhibited with Sienna Gallery at SOFA NY in April 2011, and will then travel to the Heidi Lowe Gallery in August.

New Traditional Jewellery: True Colours

Though I don't think that I'll be able to make this exhibition, I wanted to share the information for this years New Traditional Jewellery showcase. The show is a biannual show which is hosted at the Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem in the Netherlands. This years theme is True Colours, which is more than welcome as we exit the drab season of winter and begin to look for the colorful signs of spring.

Some of my favorites are pictured here:
The top image is a necklace by Tamara Gruner. I appreciate her monochromatic palate, and how the uniformity of the composition transforms the recycled materials into decorative objects that seem much more opulent than they are. The middle image is a necklace titled Show Me Colours 2010, by Denise Julia Reytan, and again features a composition of repurposed materials. The hyper saturation of the colors create a vibrancy that just makes my mouth water! Finally, the bottom image of the multi‐coloured Urban Tribal Necklace of Amanda Caines uses rejected telephone and computer wires made of plastic in bright colors, winding wool around them, fastens vintage fabrics to them and subsequently decorates them with beads.

Gah, I cannot wait for the catologue for this exhibition to come out!
Here is the mission statement for the show:

New Traditional Jewellery is a bi-annual international design competition in the field of contemporary jewellery. Historical or ethnographical carriers of meaning are taken as an incentive to generate new forms. In addition to this general framework there is also a specific theme. After traditional costume, faith and intimacy, this year’s theme is ‘True Colours’. Literally this refers to colour, for example in relation to materials and pigments. Throughout the ages colours and materials, such as gold and silver, often determined the meaning and value of pieces of jewellery. In the 1970’s and ‘80s other materials, such as textiles and Perspex, were also used.

As a result there emerged a new ‘language of colours’. This was an important step in the emancipation of contemporary jewellery. Therefore, ‘True Colours’ is about the history, meaning, value, magic and power of colour. Figuratively speaking, ‘True Colours’ could also mean “showing your true colours” or ‘to unveil your true self’. In this sense the theme could be approached from a social point of view, in which today’s multicoloured society is the main focus of attention. Colour contains information about status and social position. Colour can shout, curse, emancipate, help, judge and segregate.

Colours is a statement.

Solder Central

I've got my work cut out for me today...

Jewelry From Found Objects

About a year ago, I was asked to participate in a book that fellow jeweler, Heather Skowood, was writing about jewelry made from found objects. Obviously, I was flattered to be a part of Heathers' project, which focuses on the use of found objects, and recycled or reclaimed materials in jewelry. The book includes work by a grouping of amazing international artists whose work supports the books topic, and I have some work included from my RISD thesis show. In addition to being a curated collection of work, the book also features some how-to projects as well.

The book is due to be released from the publisher on March 11th, which is just around the corner! But, if you can't wait that long, Jewelry From Found Objects is already available for presale on Amazon in the States and the UK. I can't wait to check out the end result, and am excited for Heather's accomplishment!

Pro Nailz!!

I am so excited to have my most recent round of documentation back from my photographer, Maureen Keaveny. The images came out wonderfully, and she really did a wonderful job capturing the essence of the pieces that I've recently completed. I'm most proud of the series of knuckle dusters that I've been working on, which feature bezel set acrylic nails.

I'd posted a while back about the process of teaching myself how to paint fancy nails, as well as the process of building the rings themselves. Now after unknown hours invested in this project, my first round of finished pieces has been completed, and I am thrilled.

Also, be sure to check out the music video for Kid Sister's song Pro Nails, below. I've become completely obsessed with this video, and have to admit that it was a major inspiration for this project.

To see the other images of my most recent work, visit my website here.

David LaChapelle

I've been away from my studio for a bit, and have been spending more time 'doing research.' Maybe I'm trying to justify my growing obsession with pop-culture, but I find myself recently attracted to highly saturated images and colors, high gloss, sparkly jewels, gold and diamond encrusted medallions, and just really extravagant objects and imagery. I'm not quite sure what it is about these stereotyped displays of wealth and culture that I find to enticing, but there is something about how these commercial goods and images so bluntly stroke my sensibilities and entice my inner consumer.

On a recent trip around the Internet, I came across this imaged by David LaChapelle. I have really always liked his use of hyper-saturated colors, and the high sheen that everything in his images seem to have. His subjects become plasticy objects, and everything is equalized into a glossy visual melee. Bordering on pop-grotesgue, he creates images that are visual cacophonies which seem to be suspended from time and place.

Davids imagery has the ability to transform even the classiest subject into an objectified commodity. The people in his photographs uncannily seem to lose their identity and morph into anonymous objects that could almost be mass produced.

More I WANT, I WANT, I WANT

I just came across an amazing designer, Walid Al Damirji, whose pieces interpret vintage fashions while using embroidery, fur, beaded fringe, and lace appliques.

Lately, I've been interested in incorporating fur components into my jewelry, and have been using old fur coats and stoles as my source material. I literally chop up vintage pieces of fur in order to have material for the jewelry that I'm making. Walid does the opposite. He doesn't source the fur into his jewelry, but actually bejewels the fur. The resulting adornments are conglomerations of materials invoking concepts of nostalgia, opulence, and romanticism.

Be sure to check out his designs for CotureLab, which is very much in the same antique revival vein as the images below.

Tonight I went to the RISD Jewelry & Metalsmithing exhibit at the Sol koffer Gallery. It's a great show featuring graduate student work, i'll be going back tomorrow to take better pictures of the installation. Until then, consider this image as an appetizer and get you ass downtown to check it out!

And this little piggy...

...ran all the way home.

No.

No, actually he didn't.

This little piggy put on some eye-liner, donned some seriously jaw dropping Chopard earrings, and went to town. Now, that's my kind of fairy tale!

The latest issue of Russian Vogue Magazine featured a story depicting a saucy little pig (think Babe meets a more refined version of Miss Piggy) flaunting Chopard jewelry. The lucky little pig got to wear a beautiful pair of diamond earrings as well as an exquisite silver parure.

Ignoring the questionable nature of piercing a pigs ears for the sake of fashion, this is an adorable set of pictures. Clearly, the message is that opulence is back and even the swine is worthy of pearls.