Exploring Vulnerability - Laura Bennett Jewelry

Living in tune with nature

and following the ebb and flow

of life, Laura Bennett

creates jewelry using found

objects from the botanical world.

 

In a manner of speaking, by crossing

 plants with metal she's created a whole
new world of hybrids - jewelry that lives

as flora. Interestingly, she captures the

best characteristics of both elements and

manages to transform it all

into beautiful jewelry.

 

Her Dome Collection is simply beautiful,

and her Nature of Fragility Collection

includes sprigs of plants preserved with resin

captured just before they decay to

"offer the wearer an experience, challenging them

to confront their vulnerabilities . . . "

 

 

 

 

 

 By capturing their essence without
ruining their beauty and fragility
 this artist brings new appreciation to
the concepts of vulnerability and weakness.

There is alot more to see at
her website.



 

Exhibition - Mirror-Mirror

 

I admit I’d never heard of Suzy Solidor.

She died many years ago yet the memory

of her full and satisfying life has inspired a

jewelry exhibition lauding her drive and spirit.

 

Mirror-Mirror is currently showing at Velvet da Vinci

in San Francisco, California.

Originally on view last month in

Cagnes-sur Mer (near the French Riviera),

Mirror-Mirror is described as an exhibition

in homage to Suzy Solidor (1900-1983).

 

A singer, model, writer, actress and nightclub owner

Suzy Solidor was an iconic figure of the

Parisian nightlife during the thirties and forties.

Two of the many things for which she

was known included posing for some of the most

celebrated artists of the day (Pablo Picasso,

Georges Braque, Jean Cocteau and

Tamara de Lempicka), and collecting over

200 paintings done of herself.

 

Let's just say she had a very high opinion of herself.

This jewelry exhibit is described as,

Twenty-nine artists from fourteen countries have accepted our invitation to study - and creatively respond to - the life of Suzy Solidor. We believe that their propositions constitutes a tribute to her singular life, and that they are best read in dialogue with the paintings presented in the Castle. A distorted mirror of that collection of portraits, this collection of objects prolongs it (some of the jewels are portraits themselves) but 'exceeds' it as well. Indeed, the practices represented in Mirror Mirror (jewellery, object, installation) are not mimetic; their point is not to resemble the 'sitter', but to outfit her fictions of identity: "I am a pirate / a singer / a (wo)man eater / a brittany gal who fled her native Saint-Malo…the better to ply Parisians with nostalgic shanty songs." The conceit that this jewellery is for someone specific in turn allows the makers to pretend that it is someone's: their pieces at once designate and invent new Suzy fictions. What better medium indeed than jewellery to fuel her mild mythomania?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a side note, I could not resist including

this 1932 photo of Suzy Solidor

wearing bracelets that were created

  for her by Coco Chanel.

 

 

 

See more of the Mirror-Mirror exhibition
at Velvet da Vinci's website.

 

Pencil Me In - Andrea Melissa Arias Jewelry

Andrea Melissa Arias takes a playful approach

 to creating jewelry with pencils. 

Whether it’s the colorful patterning of colored pencils laid

 side by side or the texture of creamy resins seemingly

melted over the tops of pencil stubs, she takes

these ordinary elements and transforms them

 into intriguing jewelry.

I especially like how she describes her process

and motivation,

 

“Jewelry is for me a way to discover new sensations and get in touch with another part of myself . . . It is a way to experiment, think, breathe, and create. . . Colouring pencils were my favourite toy as a child, giving me feelings of pleasure and excitement. My working process began by deconstructing the pencils in order to reconstruct them in totally different shapes and structures. . . The resulting new forms show clearly the marks of the present working process and reveal the memories of my childhood. This work represents my desire to preserve the spontaneous way children act.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Allowing irregular shapes and imperfections to nestle

together this is jewelry that embraces playful textures,

bold colors, and a sense of spontaneity.

 

Be sure to see more at her website.

 

Vibrant Paper Flowers - Begoña Rentero Jewelry

Springtime flowers can help
revive a dreary autumn day -
especially when those flowers are handmade
 with silk and paper.
 

 Fiber artist Begoña Rentero creates
lush, layered, textural jewelry
in eye-popping colors.

 

 

  

  

   

Speaking of bright, cheerful fiber art jewelry,
if you’d like to revisit some of the

contemporary work previously featured

on this blog, there’s quite a lot to see.

 Click on each name to see designs

created by Ana Hagopian, Carol Windsor,

Francesca Vitali, Lydia Hirte,

Sabrina Meyns and Tia Kramer.

 

Each utilizes an innovative

approach to working in this medium,

most are self taught, and each of their creations

counters the preconception about jewelry

 having to be made with precious
metals and expensive gems.

And to see more of Begoña Rentero's work,
visit her delightfully cheery website.

Exhibition - Signs of Life 2012

There’s an annual jewelry exhibition currently

on view at Facèré Jewelry Art Gallery called,

Signs of Life 2012.

Only on view for a few more days

(October 3, 2012 - October 24, 2012)

"Signs of Life" is a contemporary jewelry art

show paired with a companion jewelry art

catalog/literary journal.

The show features work by nine artists

and the catalog/literary journal pairs these

jewelry artists with nine writers in a

unique publication that celebrates

both literature and jewelry art.

JEWELRY ARTISTS in this exhibition include:

Heather Bayless, Bifei Cao, Sharon Church,

Yong Joo Kim, Jeong Ju Lee, Claudia Rush,

Myung Urso, Ellen Wieske, Dukno Yoon.

This event showcases work created
specifically for this exhibit; materials
range from tin, silver, steel and copper to
silk, thread, velcro,
keum boo and enamel.

 

 

 

 

Be sure to visit this exhibit before

it ends on October 24th.

 

See more images at

Facèré Jewelry Art Gallery.

 

 

 



Working With Mother Nature - Ann Jenkins Jewelry

When jewelry includes Mother Nature,

I tend to pay attention.

 

Natural elements like

 porcupine quills,

 dried flowers, sea shells, leaves,

butterfly wings, crushed gemstones,

feathers and other found objects

 become the jewels for Ann Jenkins' jewelry.

 

 Enshrined in spectacular frames

these 'jewelry reliquaries' as the artist refers

 to her creations,

become objects of beauty

and contemplation.

 

This tiny brooch features a dried cat's claw pod

encased in a sterling silver frame.

A clematis blossom is the

centerpiece for this brooch.





A delicate white coral is

protected in sterling silver.

 

 

 

 

This anemonite fossil is showcased within

a frame made with sterling silver and 24K gold.

 

 

This bracelet contains an array of delights including,

a lobster shell, a butterfly wing, an azurite geode,

a fish-egg case, turquoise, liche and a bit of tomatillo.



 

 

 

 

 

These porcupine quills are framed with

24K gold leaf, fine silver and oxidized copper.

 

  

 

 

Each reliquary is a little world

of contemplative splendor

providing a moment of being one with Nature.

 

Be sure to visit Ann Jenkins' website to see more

of her work.

 

 

 

Hiromi Suter Jewelry

Layers upon layers of metal.
 

A profusion of flowing whorls
and decorative flourishes.

Hiromi Suter creates several
collections of eye-catching jewelry
especially one called, Past Elegance.

The heart-shaped foliage formations
in this collection are carefully
hand cut with a jeweler's saw
and layered to create
three-dimensional effects.

The symmetry and repetitive elements of
her designs bring a charming

classical quality to her work.

 

 

 

 

There is a sentimental and

 stylized aspect of this work

that is reminiscent of old-world charm.

 

Visit Hiromi Suter's website to see

her other collections.

Carolyn Morris Bach Jewelry

Sometimes jewelry is
thought provoking.
That's how I feel about
the work created by
Carolyn Morris Bach.

Over the years I’ve come across her jewelry

again and again, and I feel drawn to her

instantly recognizable work

which is dominated by a strong

mysterious earth-goddess motif.

This feminine figure is frequently accompanied

 by symbolic creatures from the animal kingdom

including owls, rabbits, deer, bears and foxes.

 

Using all natural materials such as

wood, bone, metal and stone

this artist builds each of her pieces

one at a time, and each

 piece tells its own magical story.

yes, the owls are my favorite

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carolyn Morris Bach's creative jewelry

may not actually

bestow magic upon the wearer.

But then again maybe it will.

 

See more of her work at her website.

 

Mixing the Precious with the Mundane - Elaine Cox Jewelry

 

Elaine Cox designs jewelry that suggests
 landscapes with especially irregular
 and eroded rock formations.

 

Working with silver and 18 kt gold
each of her pieces are created with
multiple layers of richly textured surfaces
 using both precious and nonprecious materials.
 

Her work explores contrasts such as,
 rough with smooth,
 matte with burnished, light with dark,
 and precious with non-precious.
 

And many of her pieces are usually encrusted
with non-precious materials like dirt or salt
giving her gemstones the appearance of
 having just been pulled from the ground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I believe the key to

creating art jewelry is

to find a way to express

one's inner vision.

This artist definitely does.

 There's alot more to see

at Elaine Cox's website.