emiko-o reware

Hard to believe it’s almost March; where did Jan and Feb go? The end of this week will be the closing of Closet Artists: Art to Wear exhibition at Florida Craftsmen Gallery in St Petersburg, FL. Unexpected and re-purposed materials are the themes of this fashion exhibition, so it was a great fit for my work. Sponsored in part by the International Academy of Design and Technology, IKEA and the Surface Design Guild. My First Royal Jewels were prominently featured in the press for this show.

Check out articles in the South Tampa News and Tribune, “Wear your art on your sleeve“, and in Creative Loafing, “Playing with clothes: Closet Artists...”.

REOPENING OF SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF CRAFT + DESIGN
SFMCD has been moving around into Pop up locations around SF while they search for a new permanent space, their latest space is on 201 Third St @ Howard. The opening was Feb 15 for the show, Crafting Architecture: Concept, Sketch, Model. The space itself is architectural and intriguing with its steel and glass nooks and crannies, and I’m honored to have my ready-to-wear jewelry line in the Museum shop during this show’s run through May 29th.

My b&w stripe basic bracelet was featured in their latest newsletter and is available on their website store.

To add to my incredible emiko-o Month of Press (someone recently asked me “Who does your PR?”, and i was like, uhhhhh…you mean me?), the current issue of Metalsmith features My First Royal Jewels Collection, starting on page 46. An intelligent and interesting article, “Mining History: Ornamentalism Revisted“, written by Namita Gupta Wiggers (curator of Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland OR) and Lena Vigna (curator, Miami University Art Museum, OH), takes us on a tour of contemporary jewelers (myself included) whose work harkens back to an earlier period of the decorative arts . I was overjoyed and floored that a full-page image of my Queen Margherita necklace was presented opposite the title page!

I really  had no idea that a return to ornamentalism was happening on a larger scale until I saw the Decorative Resurgance show that my work was in (and won first place for) this May at Rowan University. Then this article came out and now I’m seeing more and more exhibitions pop up in this vein. Works for me!

metalsmith article

Queen Margherita in Metalsmith

Cygne Noir necklace

Well, it only took me 6 weeks to finish the photos for the 2 new necklaces I made for SNAG’s Jewelry In Motion at the Philadelphia Museum of Art this May. Cygne Noir (pictured left) and Blue Steel (see below, left) are the latest editions to the My First Royal Jewels Collection, reinterpreting works by Lalique and Boucheron, respectively.

The photo shoot was well worth the wait, as I discovered that Calumet Photographic rents Canon lenses, specifically the EF 24-105mm f/4L IS. LOVE IT! For $30/day I can finally shoot portraits of my jewelry with the appropriate lens and not have to stand 20 feet away from the model. And to think that I was considering plunking down $1300 for the lens new! One of the many reasons I love living in the Mission.

Jamielyn in Cygne Noir

Thanks to my gorgeously photogenic model, Jamielyn, who graciously let me squeeze her into what seemed like a size -0 david’s bridal dress from Mission Thrift (another plus for the hood!). And also get powdered white for a few hours. Special thanks to Shana Astrachan‘s makeup artistry in helping realize my 18th century aristocratic vision! Go team!

Blue Steel necklace

See more of the photos on my flickr.

Yesterday Christine and I sadly packed up our shows at the SF Museum of Craft + Design, marking the end of a spectacular run for both My First Royal Jewels, MakeArt and Jewelry_cycle. Ahh, the memories…the group tours, the press, Sept & Oct’s never-ending adrenaline rushes. Now it’s how to fit it all back into the apartment.

We just received a copy of our TV debut interviews of our exhibitions on Comcast Channel 104′s Inside City Limits, and hopefully will be able to post clips online soon. There really is nothing like a 3-month run for an exhibition to get the word out on the street and online. Here is the clipping from Dec 14th’s SF Chronicle Datebook, where The Duchess is featured.

Apparently, Reed Easley’s circuit board series was featured on Dec 25th; haven’t seen it yet, but will post it when I get a hold of a copy. Her fan showed up on eventful.com (events posting site), as did my Maharajah piece.

Gotta love those Google Alerts–just got one a few days ago for this posting on American Craft Magazine’s online Calendar for My First Royal Jewels! With less than a month left for the exhibition, it’s great to have some press to remind folks to get over to the museum before it’s too late. Much thanks to PR Queen Christine Dhein for getting my press release out into the world!

Mark your calendars for this Sunday, Nov 9 from 1-3pm when I and fellow Critique Collective members are hosting a Meet the Artists Open House at the San Francisco Museum of Craft+Design. Artist walkthrough/tour begins at 1:30. I’ll be giving a tour of My First Royal Jewels Jewellery Collection LEGO necklaces, and the Collective will be talking about the Jewelry_cycle exhibition.

Jewelry_cycle:Artists Discover Hidden Sparkle in the Discarded is an educational showcase of wearable treasures made from re-purposed and re-cycled materials. With the idea of an exhibition in mind, co-curators Christine Dhein and Christoph Koch asked the Critique Collective to create wearable art from a variety of small, discarded circuit boards. Circuit boards are commonly made from fiberglass, epoxy resin, and a variety of metals, which is likely to be one third of the material. These metals include copper, silver and gold, which add a precious element to what would otherwise be considered e-waste. These artists discovered the hidden potential, and transformed these materials to create brilliant, sparkling jewels.

Participating artists are: Shana Astrachan, David Casella, Christine Dhein, Reed Easely, Aimee Golant, Christoph Koch, Kelly Nedderman, and myself. Shout out to Christine for working extra hard to have the exhibit be super clean and pro looking! Check out Julian on the job!

Come join us and learn some facts about environmental waste and how you can do your part to lesson your carbon footprint while being creative!  Plus sit down and make your own jewelry from recycled toy parts at the MakeArt:Jewelry + Objects self-serve table that I developed.

Shout out to SCRAP and UGlu for being awesome sponsors of my MakeArt table and workshop!

Last Thursday, Oct 16 was the artist reception for my show, My First Royal Jewels Jewellery Collection, at the SF Museum of Craft+Design. Finally, the day had arrived after an intensive, adrenalin-pumped month of prepping, making, photographing, and installing. Wow! I still can’t get over seeing my name all huge in vinyl wall lettering. My first solo show, and boy does it look sharp! It’s so exciting that it has a nice long run through Jan 4, 2009.

Here I am finally taking a moment to catch my breath and take it all in. Salut! Photos taken by the ever-gracious Matt Cantu, who made the digital interactive component of the show possible.

I really dig this angle, where you can see all four pieces, including Maharajah’s 6th necklace (in the mirror).

I feel that people really responded to seeing the process of each piece, through the drawings and historical photo reference. Above is The Duchess 2, based on a Cartier necklace and Harry Winston pendant. Below is The Duchess, based on a Cartier bib necklace.

Luckily, no one tripped over or got tangled in the brass ball chain that secures the necklaces to a fixed surface. It actually adds a bit of jewelry-esqueness which I like.

Turnout was super, considering it was an invitation-only event. Best part for me is observing people interact with my work, especially when they have that AHA realization that: A. They are allowed to try on the work,  B. It’s LEGO, and C. They can take a photo of themselves in that proud moment, wearing the work. And hopefully by the end of next week, these self-portraits will be viewable via the museum’s Flickr account. Stay tuned for more info on that front.

We’re planning on having a docent tour/walkthrough/2nd opening, very casual, sometime in November (tentative date: Nov 9, Sunday). The Critique Collective’s Jewelry_cycle show (see Julian at work!) will also have a walkthrough/tour at that time as well.

In case you’re near Union Sq and want to check out the shows at the museum:
SF Museum of Craft+Design
550 Sutter St @ Powell    SF CA 94102
Open Tues-Sun: Tues-Sat 10-5, Thur 10-7, Sun 12-5