Art Jewelry Forum will organize their next trip in conjunction with the SNAG (the Society of North American Goldsmiths) conference, which will take place in Philadelphia, May 20 - 23 2009. Among the conference speakers, SNAG will feature Stanley Lechtzin, Paul Greenhalgh, Leo Caballero (of Klimt02.net fame), Camille Paglia, Myra Mimlitsch-Gray, Albert Paley and Helen Drutt English. It is quite a line up. Philadelphia is a city promising wonderful opportunities to see private collections, artist's studios, and numerous other adventures. Mark your calendars! More information will be coming soon.

Object Fetish: In thanks for supporting the idea of jewelry as art, we are offering Art Jewelry Forum members 20% off all purchases over $1000. Please use discount code AJF2008 during checkout at www.ObjectFetish.com

Sienna Gallery: AJF members will receive 10% off pieces made in multiples (most which are under $400) November 28th - December 18th and free shipping to anywhere in the continental US. Great gifts! www.siennagallery.com

By Jennifer Cross Gans
At first sight, this new exhibition at the Palo Alto Art Center, CA, holds the delight of a child's playroom. There are oversize drawings on the walls, a large case with a train set in a rocky, wintry landscape, and some display cases with peepholes to entice the viewer. Children, and any adults raised on cartoons, instantly get the message.

Signe Mayfield, the exhibition's curator, said that "the idea of the miniature world fascinated me" and quoted the artist in the exhibition catalogue:

"The miniature can only be entered through an act of imaginative projection. Looking at small objects, viewers will get very close and the object will fill their field of vision. There's no scale in the imagination, and very small things can become psychologically large."

But isn't this supposed to be a jewelry show? Well, yes and no.In a broader sense, the exhibition showcases Metcalf's versatility as an artist, cartoonist, model maker, jeweler and writer.

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Admirers and collectors will relish the catalog which accompanies the Bruce Metcalf exhibition. Over 50 mostly full page photographs illustrate this artist's development from 1971 to the present. Additional black and white designs reproducing the artist's sketchbook pages on the endpapers inside the front and back covers highlight Metcalf's talent as a cartoonist.

The photographs add a level of detail viewers might miss, particularly peering through the peepholes, while the frontispiece gives an idea both of the detail and the actual scale of the work.

The exhibits have been borrowed from museums, galleries and private collectors, including Susan Beech and the Rotasa Trust, and the artist himself. There is an introduction by Linda Craighead, Director of the Palo Alto Art Center, followed by essays by Signe Mayfield, curator of the exhibition, and the artist himself, which are of more interest than that by Dr. Vicky Clark, who attempts to put Metcalf's work in the pop/underground/art context of the late 20th century. The well-designed catalog, product of the local firm Shore Design, Brisbane, CA., comes in both hardback ($32) or paperback ($25), plus postage. Copies can be obtained from pat.broadwin@cityofpaloalto.org.