emiko-o reware

All My First Royal Jewels are officially out of the house and showing off their sparkle at various exhibitions through most of this month! Just recently, two shows opened on the East Coast at Sienna Gallery in Lenox, MA, and at the Atrium Art Gallery at Ball State University in Muncie, IN.

anya kivarkis ring

At Sienna is So Fake They’ll Think It’s Real (through Sept 21), a show curated by the group 18K GOLD TONE, inspired by their experience at a pawn shop, where the attendant tried to sell them an engagement ring with a huge plastic stone –”It’s so fake, they’ll think it’s real!” Posing the question, “When we can no longer discern the actual from the absurd where do our values fall?” All of us artists in the show have in our own ways subverted this idea of Real. Anya Kivarkis‘s ring above is quite to this point.

karin seufert necklace

I love this necklace by Karin Seufert, probably because like my own work, it is mimicing a familiar, possibly historic style. And I hadn’t the slightest clue what the material was (until i saw a description–pvc!)–always a success when using alternative materials. Honored to be included in this show alongside such artists as: Pia Aleborg       Gijs Bakker Frédéric Braham        Mike Bray        Gisa Elmer        Karl Fritsch          Anya Kivarkis Mia Maljojoki        Trevor Mahovsky Karin Seufert       Kevin Yates        Rhonda Weppler

Hop over a few states to Indiana at Ball State University’s Atrium Art Gallery for a recycled art show, Reclaim Reuse Renew, through Sept 26. Artists who use  post consumer materials, leaving a lighter footprint with their art. The big names in this show are: Michelle Stitzlen, Boris Bally, Leo Sewell, and of course, Harriete Estel Berman. (Note that the images below do not neccessarily depict the exact work in the show, but rather give an example of their styles.)

Harriete Estel Berman's tin teacups

Leo Sewell's assemblage

Michelle Stitzlen's Butterfly

Boris Bally's use of traffic signs

Gallery Panel SNAG

The last segment of the PDS program, The Evolving Role of the Gallery in a Virtual World of Commerce, gave us the insider perspective of what it takes to run a gallery in this age of internet commerce, not to mention a bad economy. Each gallery owner had 5 minutes to show a powerpoint presentation about their gallery and mission. From left to right: Ruth Synderman of Works Gallery, Beth Ann Gerstein of Society of Arts and Crafts, Sienna Patti of Sienna Gallery, Whitney Couch of ObjectFetish, Patti Bleicher of Gallery Loupe, Karen Lorene of Facére.

Questions posed to the group were:

1. What does a Brick and Mortar Store (all are physical sites, except for ObjectFetish being the sole online-only store) have to offer that justifies the 50/50 split on sales? Why wouldn’t an artist just sell retail through their own site or on Etsy?

2. How are they finding and educating new, young collectors?

3. And how is the internet affecting their sales?

Answers (higlights):

1. “the gallery is there to facilitate the future of the artist,”-Sienna Patti. “It’s ALL of our jobs to be the advocate for art jewelry,”-Karen Lorene.

2. Co-sponsoring important art jewelry exhibitions with local art museums, as Patti Bleicher did with the recent Helen Drutt Collection show; brings in new audiences. “All my customers are collectors,” says Karen, who makes a point to educate every customer about the artist they are purchasing from, even with a letter welcoming them to the world of art jewelry collecting.

3. Whitney finds that the competition, like Etsy, pushes her to work even harder to promote her artists; she encourages the competition!

Thanks to the PDS organizers for all of their hard work: w

SNAG PDS organizers

From left to right: Andy Cooperman, Harriete Estel Berman, Don Friedlich, Ken Bova. Also, much thanks to Etsy and MJSA for sponsoring this program.

This will be the last year that the PDS will be a Pre-Conference event. Next year, PDS will be incorporated into the SNAG conference itself (no more flying in the night before, maybe…)

Soon to hit the bookstores is the newly published Art Jewelry Today 2, by Jeffrey B. Snyder. My work is in it, plus many others I know, like Shana Astrachan, Christine Dhein, Harriete Estel Berman. It is the second in a series pioneered by the late Dona Meilach, and is a survey of contemporary art jewelry around the world. Hardbound, published by Schiffer Publishing; if it’s anything like the first book, this one will be well worth shelling out the bucks for hardbound.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opened today! Will it surpass Spiderman as the highest grossing film? To celebrate this long-awaited film, today I introduced to my etsy page my NEWEST Limited Edition earrings: Indie and Marion 4, Irina and Guard, and of course there must be an Indie and Marion Classic.

Speaking of earrings, my red and white classic space earrings (“adventure 5″ on my website) made an appearance on GreenYour…. Recycling artist, Harriete Estel Berman saw it up yesterday and let me know. Random but awesome!