The annual gathering of jewelers and jewelry enthusiasts will take place in Munich again from March 6-10. This year, there are two sorely needed attempts to organize maps and locations for all the shows that pop up during that time. Current Obsession is working on a map and list and so is Handwerkskammer f�r M�nchen und Oberbayern  

The Northern Lights in 2012, Northern Norway, photo: John Stenersen

The incorrigible will gather from January 14-18 in the dark to celebrate contemporary jewelry. Coolest Corner includes an exhibition, conference, workshop, and catalog.

It sounds like a wonderful event.

The Francoise van den Bosch Foundation invites jewelry artists to apply for a two month working period (May and June 2013) in a studio apartment near the center of Amsterdam. It is the third time the foundation has offered this opportunity to live and work in one of the most active jewelry communities in the world. 

Lips, brooch, fabricated by Henryk Kaston for Salvador Dali, 18K yellow gold, cultured pearl, and rubies

Bonham's

Earl Pardon brooch sold for $2750

Clars Auction Gallery

Salvador Dali jewelry

Ruby lips sold for $15,000

Tristan and Isolde brooch sold for $4000

Pomegranate Heart brooch sold for $7500

Honeycomb Heart brooch sold for $3500

LAMA- Los Angeles Modern Auctions

Alexander Calder brooch sold for $37,500

Jean Arp brooch sold for $30,000

Attending the Miami fairs was an overwhelming experience. There were acres and acres of booths and thousands of artworks to see. The jewelry was mostly concentrated at the Design Miami fair with a couple of booths at the Red Dot fair. The best overview I have come upon isn't directly about the design fair. Rather, it is an interview with almost all the galleries showing jewelry there. Written by Brook Mason for Modern Magazine, the article is called The New Art de Vivre: Five Dealers in Artist Jewelry Discuss the Market. 

Kiff Slemmons, Huipil

As a result of the Kiff Slemmons talk we sponsored at SOFA Chicago, freelance journalist Amy Yee wrote an article for the International Herald Tribune which shows up on the New York Times website. The title of the article is A Jewelry Maker Who Goes Far Beyond Metal. We will acknowledge that Kiff is an amazing speaker and artist, but we can take some credit for creating an opportunity for the mainstream press to pick up on this story.

Nicole Polentas, Hatt-1 Humayun, 2011

Bella Neyman, our new board member and an aspiring writer, came along on the Philadelphia trip in November. Consequently, she wrote a post for her blog called Emily Cobb and Nicole Polentas: Jewelry That Tells a Story, Both Fiction and Nonfiction.

Nancy Worden, Frozen Dreams, 2004

The AJF website has many layers of information and articles. Perhaps there is a section or two you haven't visited? Here's a taste of one of our Museum Profiles, an interview by Damian Skinner with Rock Hushka, Director of Curatorial Administration and Curator of Contemporary and Northwest Art at Tacoma Art Museum.  

Damian Skinner: Has contemporary jewelry always been collected by the museum?  

Rock Hushka: We started collecting in the early 1990s, right after we did a Ken Cory project. The jewelry collection is the fastest growing component of our permanent collection. I've tried to be really thoughtful about how we grow it. I've been a little bit conservative in a certain way, in that I've always focused more on narrative jewelry rather than wearable, purely decorative, more production-line stuff. I've shied away from that because it's easier to tell the story to a visitor. Artists like Nancy Worden or Ken Cory or Laurie Hall or Kiff Slemmons have really infused their works with certain kinds of meaning, so to preserve that history has been first and foremost on my docket. But now that I'm feeling a little bit more comfortable with the history and the tradition and the makers, I've slowly been bringing in other kinds of work. Although, in a museum context, its way easier if there's narrative content.  

Read more... 

Lisa Walker, Blue Pendant, 2011

This month's AJF Questionnaire is featured on the website. It was handled jointly by Susan Cummins and Kamal Nassif and answered by Katie Scott of Gallery Funaki, Melbourne, Australia.  

Kamal Nassif: How would you describe the Melbourne jewelry scene in an international context? What do you think are key qualities that identify works as Australian?

Katie Scott: That's a tricky question. I'm not an expert on the Melbourne jewelry scene by any means. There are galleries here that specialize much more in that area. I would say that we have one of the most vibrant, active scenes in the world. We have university programs at Monash University and RMIT, excellent TAFE programs (all of which soldier on despite savage cuts in funding) and galleries that represent all points on the spectrum between commercial and art jewelry. That means there are a lot of makers and a lot of exposure to the craft here. I don't think it's going too far to say that contemporary jewelry is part of the city's identity. Read more...