emiko-o reware

Christine Dhein and emiko oye at SNAG

A couple of months ago I was invited to give a short presentation on Niche Marketing for the SNAG (Society of North American Goldsmiths) Conference in Seattle, which was a great honor and quite the thrill! The audio and digital presentation were recently released by SNAG so that those were unable to attend the conference could still experience the Professional Development Series of that Saturday, on Niche Marketing and Professional Photography. This week I’ll be breaking down my Top 5 Marketing Tips in the next few blog posts. You can catch a snippet of what I’ll be talking about in today’s “Ask Harriete“, the Professional Guidelines blog by Harriete Estel Berman.

Here are my Top 5 Marketing Tips that I’ll be discussing:

1. Professional Quality Photography

2.  Take Risks: Don’t Get STUCK: Balance

3. Take Note and Be Accessible

4. Be Ready Set GO!

5. Get Involved

Listen and see my presentation in the video link below as well as the other Niche Marketing Presenters, Hilary Pfeifer and Deb Stoner, through Slide Share. Thanks to Harriete for doing such a superwoman job of sound editing!

Dr. Damian Skinner (editor Art Jewelry Forum blog, writer, curator) headed off the afternoon of SNAG Seattle Day 2, following the captivating talks by Glenn Adamson and Lola Brooks quite well with his “All the World Over: Ambitions of Contemporary Jewelry“. You may recognize him from The Pocket Guide to New Zealand Jewelry exhibition and catalog that had it’s US debut in 2010, or his various articles on artjewelryforum.org. In this presentation he quotes largely from Peter Dormer and Ralph Turner (writers of The New Jewelry: Trends and Traditions) on locality vs. universality of contemporary jewelry.
This image says it all, I love how crude but effective it is. Basically, jewelry from Europe is regarded as the International standard for Contemporary Jewelry, whereas American jewelry is not held in such high esteem and  is by the rest of the world only referred to by locality as “American Contemporary Jewelry”. How do we feel about this? “Liberation occurs when you destroy the hierarchy”, Skinner remarks.
In the “New Jewelry Movement” (in which we  find ourselves now) there is an ongoing critique of preciousness that allows for a deeper engagement with society. As with Australian jeweler, Roseanne Bartley, her “surface archeology” work repurposing found items, such as in her “Human Necklace” (photo, left), where people became the structure of jewelry shapes in public places. The notion of a jewelry piece solely existing for a small blip of time, only to live on in the photographic form, recurs often over the course of this conference.

Her “Seeding the Cloud” acts of walking about town, tools in hand, making jewelry from discarded materials she finds along the way, “demonstrates the potential of jewellery to counterbalance the increasing physical isolation of contemporary life in info-hubs” (craftUnbound.net). She is endearingly coined a “neighborly ornament”. This leading into my favorite quote by Damian, one that I truly believe and would like to see more of:

“The Greatest Art is created when there is no boundary between art and community.”

“I know Exactly how she feels”, stated Lola Brooks, collector/borderline hoarder of shiny vintage things and jeweler of steel/gold/stones. Over the course of her talk, “Love and Other Indoor Sports” (day 2) we got a sneak peak into her closet and drawers full of vintage sunglasses, jumpsuits, and wallets, as well as the lot of rose cut garnets that have come to distinguish her jewelry line.

For Lola, she finds “power in accumulation” and considers herself a magnet for things; the materials end up finding her rather than her seeking them out intentionally. In her work, ornament becomes the structure, as in the Vomit Bracelet. 
Even though she had written out her lecture and was reading from it, her skills as a storyteller kicked in and soon we were all drawn into her world, captivated. And following on the heels of Glenn Adamson’s killer lecture, it was remarkable how many intersects there were between their lectures.

Smashed vintage cars and Damian Hirst’s “For the Love of God” 5o million pounds (100 million dollars) diamond and platinum skull, “the object I love to hate and hate to love” as Lola remarked. Thus began her obsession with diamonds and emulating them through faceting steel balls.  She takes it to the limit with her “32 Fuckin’ Balls” neckpiece, somewhat a caricature of her work, made for Sienna Gallery’s Masterpieces exhibition.

32 balls necklace

blood garnet heart Brooch

brooch

From the disco balls to ivory roses with steel bows, she is a prolific artist to say the least, and finds “necessity for making lots of things” as she finds necessity in accumulation. 
What you may not notice is that there are springs attaching the roses to the armature (see underside photo above), which causes an ever slight movement of the roses. After tiring of roses and bows, Lola turns to hearts, which may sound saccharine, but actually imbues a dark kind of sexy, especially after you hear her describe the process of carving hearts similar to “carving J-Lo’s ass and suddenly I became a believer [in carved hearts]“.

On Truth and Value
During the “Smaller conference experience” lunchtime discussion, Lola remarks that Truth is Plastic, and she focuses more on Authenticity in her work and in living her lifestyle. “I don’t always understand a work while I’m making it, often not until it is done”, and “I’m an incredibly intuitive maker”. She does employ studio assistants and does not apologize for having hired help, nor should she. How strange that some people don’t consider her a studio jeweler because of this fact; does studio jeweler by definition mean you have to make all the work with your own hands, and if so, how does this leave any room for growing one’s business? Lola proudly reveals that she cultivates special relationships with her assistants and that both parties benefit from the arrangement.
Value is subjective–value of her art work is purely subjective, in the “eye of the beholder”, whereas her fashion jewelry is priced differently.

Not only is she a studio jeweler, but also crosses over into the fashion world, as she has worked with celebrities, fashion designers such as Jay McCarroll (Project Runway Season 1 winner), consulted for TV show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and teaches at RISD. I’m very excited to see what she has chosen for the upcoming Metalsmith Magazine’s Exhibition in Print, on the theme of Fresh. Apparently she has spent the last year focusing on her writing and not as much on making, so we can look forward to more of Lola Brooks story telling.

Want to hear more Lola Brooks! Lucky for us in SF, she has agreed to be a panelist for the Metal Arts Guild of San Francisco‘s One-Day Symposium, Forging Communities, Nov 12, 2011. Come hear the discourse on What Success Looks Like in the Jewelry World Today.

Too many days of not enough sleep in combination with way more caffeine than I’d ever allow myself, plus an extreme amount of stimulation and interaction leaves me to post just a few humorous quips in this Interlude between more in-depth blog posts. Cute things and comedy are my weak spots when I’m drained, so here are some great quotes posted by the Art Jewelry Forum on Friday, following the In Memorium presentation for Marcia MacDonald. Really lightened the mood and I’m sure Marcia would have appreciated the laughter.

Contemporary Jewelry…
..makes other crafts jealous
..when adornment goes bad
..what diamonds dream about
AJF:WTF

Major cuteness with artist Hilary Pfeiffer‘s Bunny with a ToolBelt line of painted wood figures. She’s been doing stop-motion animation and For the Love of Dog video makes me forget that I’m beyond tired. See  for yourself….
For the Love of Dog by Hilary Pheiffer

We’ve just spent a wonderful first day of SNAG FLux 2011 here in Seattle, enjoying a lovely sunny/rainy/sunny afternoon settling in and running into familiar faces (they are expecting 900 some in attendance!). And naturally spending time at Pike’s Place Marketplace–especially Three Girls Bakery, a MUST for the best breads, baked goods and sandwiches. Glorious! 

Then off to Facere at City Centre, just a few blocks away, conveniently, for their artist reception, some champagne and meet the super staff of one of the best jewelry art galleries around–I love those ladies!

me and Karen Lorene of Facere

The Pin Swap back at the hotel really was the kick off of the conference fervor as we all rushed around to exchange our pins with others, meet new people, have excuses to talk to others and just plain get excited (and briefly forget how exhausted we are from getting ready for this moment!).

Dawn Miller--made this corset and dress

gary grossman's pins

john jensen- humorous shirt and name tags

sweet pin swap!

Last week I took down the Cher the Love tribute ensemble installation that was showcased at SCRAP’s 3rd Annual Art Exhibition. This was only the 2nd time that the entire ensemble has been shown (off the body anyway), and the lovely Exhibition Director, Jenny Morningstar gave me the honors of having it show in the gallery window at the Green Zebra/reMake Lounge venue (SCRAP also had a concurrent show at the Eco Center, where my Snow White collar was shown).

The boa is made from found soda can holders (mostly picked off my street) sewn together with monofilament and capped off with sequins and sterling silver crimp beads. The halter is made from found foam (from SCRAP),  sushi trays which Harriete had saved over the years and kindly donated to my cause, and fine and sterling silver scraps.

Cher the Love Strong Enough Thong was the first piece of the set, made back in 2005 from recycled Plexiglas and fine and sterling silver. My intent was to get into the SNAG exhibition at Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but instead I got the fine opportunity to model the entire ensemble in a fashion show at the museum and to Cher’s “Strong Enough” song at that!

Admittedly, these aren’t my best photos, but the best I could do onsite dealing with window glare and a busy background. Essentially I made a plexiglas, half-round rod neck hanger from which the halter and boa were attached and hung from the ceiling. Could have definitely used an accent light to really show it off, but  the venue is not really an art gallery, so oh well.

Can’t complain, cause after all, to my delight, I was selected for a Juror’s Choice Award by juror JD Beltran, conceptual artist and professor at the San Francisco Art Institute! A little birdy told me that my Cher ensemble was one of the few pieces that scored 10s by all 3 jurors!  SWEET!

Here’s a little early V-day love to y’all!

photo by Raymond King

Yep, next week I head back to the motherland Ohio for a special art-filled, emiko-o day at Miami University Art Museum in Oxford. A few weeks ago was the opening for the exhibition Adornment and Excess curated by Lena Vigna. The show runs through July 10 and is part of Luxury, Consumption & Excess, a larger suite of exhibitions comprised of both historical and contemporary objects that investigates the socio-cultural relationship between material goods, wealth and class. Some of My First Royal Jewels will be on display, as well as work by Harriete Estel Berman, Francesca Vitali, Kathy Buszkiewicz, Gabriel Craig, Anya Kivarkis, just to name a few.

exhibition announcement

Earlier last year, Lena co-authored with Namita Gupta Wiggers the article Mining History: Ornamentalism Revisited for Metalsmith Magazine, in which my Queen Margherita was the title image. I caught up with Lena at the recent American Craft Conference in Minneapolis last fall in the midst of my blogging for SNAG, and offered to visit during the run of the show.

Lo and behold she invited me to participate in a special round table discussion on Creativity and Sustainability that she is moderating Feb 10th, 6:00-7:30pm. Professors Mary Benedict Bonham (Dept Architecture) and Rodney Northcutt (Dept Art) will be speaking as well as Graduate Student Lisa Wilson. I’m excited to bring my experiences to the table! The event is open to the public, so please come if you’re in town.

Check out this article by Deniz Nural in Feb 2nd issue of The Miami Student (online and print) about the exhibition – my necklaces are in the accompanying photo. Can’t wait to see the show!

Just got my work back from the Minimal Bling exhibition that was at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston last month. I was extremely pleased that they used my Maharajah’s 6th LEGO necklace in the promotional materials, including the gorgeous postcard. While I was at SNAG Philly last May I had the pleasure of reconnecting with the Director, Beth Ann Gerstein, and Exhibitions Director, Fabio Fernandez. SAC had first shown my work way back in 2003 when I was doing the Truth tiara series.

For Minimal Bling I made 2 new mid-range pieces to accompany this neckpiece and the Duchess neckpiece (these latter 2 are now at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft‘s Transmutations show).

Pas de trois is a necklace that riffs off my recent Cygne Noir reinterpretation of Lalique’s Women with Black Swans enamel necklace. The pendant has 3 components, the bottom 2 of which are interchangeable.

Twilight is my latest Limited Edition bracelet, which I was compelled to make way before I got sucked into the black hole obsession of a series that obliterated my month of January (hence the lack of posts since early december; I’m 10 pages away from finishing the last book, thank god!). I must say it does justice to books; what would Stephenie Meyer say?

Most of the non-CA shows that my work is in I don’t get the chance to see, but my pal Shana swung by and shot these pics of the gallery entrance, where lo and behold, my Luke and Darth Vader earrings are HUGE on the banner! No wonder those earrings sold!

Well that’s it on my end blogging for the American Craft Council 2009 Conference, Creating A New Craft Council. Much thanks to SNAG for trusting Harriete Estel Berman and I in reporting via blog fashion for the SNAG membership and community at large. Also thanks to Object Fetish for promoting our endeavors.

TIP: Listen to interview with SNAG’s Executive Director, Dana Singer on blogtalkradio.com TODAY, Thursday Oct 22 @ 3pm.

Quote by Faythe Levine

This was an energized crowd that has a lot more to talk about now! I urge all attendees to bring these conversations home to your own communities, physical and virtual,  and continue the dialogue about Craft in the 21st century. Ask the hard questions, practice Tough Love.

What do you want to see happen in Craft’s near future?
What actions can we start to take to affect change?

PSST…Want to get in on the conference buzz? Wait no longer and sign up for SNAG’s 2010 Conference, Going to Extremes, March 10-13 in Houston TX.

Friday Schedule

DAY 1
7:45 AM Friday: The early bird catches the worm and a whole lot of presentations here in the Radisson Plaza Hotel, Minneapolis MN. Arrived LATE last night (my need to take public transit everywhere) and signed in way too early this morning, thermos in hand. Harriete Estel Berman and I are Ready for action, and it didn’t take long for the atrium to be buzzing with anticipation (for the Thursday tours and pre-conference scoop, check  out Harriete’s blog). Used to the cattle rush of SNAG conferences, it is refreshing to be a part of a smaller group here at this conference (imagine half as many or less); surprising, actually since Craft embodies so many more fields of interest than just metals. Perhaps it’s the recession, time of year, or location, but I have a feeling that after people hear about this year’s conference, the next one will have a much larger attendance. (Yes, that is an img of today’s schedule: 9+ events, not including the evening craft tours!)

Many familiar faces in the crowd, many from the Philadelphia SNAG conference that for a moment I forgot what conference I was really at, and as Harriete and I were mentally preparing ourselves, a few stopped by to say hi and wish us luck: Sienna Patti, Namita Gupta Wiggers (who will be presenting a panel tomorrow about internet marketing for which I’m SO excited), and Lena Vigna (she co-authored with Namita the recent Metalsmith article, Ornamentalism Revisited, and is curating an upcoming exhibition with a similiar feel at Miami University Art Museum).
Lena tells me that she was part of one of 7 Convenings dialogues, small gatherings of specialized groups such as curators, educators, writers, of which the participants were specially invited by ACC. Forums for people to get to know one another and begin to raise questions. This arose due to feedback from the 2006 ACC Conference. Some of the issues that came out of Lena’s curators’ forum:
-What happens when artists don’t identify themselves as craftspeople?
-Recognizing that 20th Century Craft should be regarded as a Historical movement (and move forward with 21st Century craft as a new one).

8:30 AM: ACC Board Chair, Leilani Lattin Duke, opened this years conference speaking of the themes to Creating a Craft Culture:
-Thinking about Craft and the Individual, the Community, and the Marketplace
-The Idea of Making: how it address the rapidly changing world and Crafts place in it

Dr. Richard Sennet, Keynote

8:45 AM: Keynote Speaker: Dr. Richard Sennett. A little background: Sociologist and writer,  the most recently published book is The Craftsman. He founded, with Susan Sontag and Joseph Brodsky, The New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University, was an advisor to UNESCO & president of the American Council on Work; teaches at New York University and the London School of Economics.
The Craftsman argues that the craftsman’s realm is far broader than skilled manual labor; the computer programmer, the doctor, the parent, and the citizen need to learn the values of good craftsmanship today.

OK, enough background, let’s get down to it–I was glad the Dr. prefaced his talk with “You’ll have to excuse me, but I’m a Night Person” (so am I, Richard; trying to speak before 10 am IS challenging)–so I forgave him for the sluggish, somewhat philosophical sputterings at the beginning, comparing computer engineers to craftsmen, and Linux as public craft. I mean, I get it since my fiancé is a techie, but many artists glaze over after more than a few minutes of techie speak.

The question of the hour (and theme for the day) is: Why is it that Mediocracy tends to dominate over Quality in our society? In the modern workplace, delivering Quality is regarded/rewarded less than delivering Results. Thus we don’t reward craftsmanship since we don’t reward quality. How do we maintain the balance of Quality and Democracy?

Craft is exploratory; in craftsmen, there is a deep relationship between problem solving and problem finding–good craftsmen want to see what opens up when solving problems. It’s about the craftsmanship in learning, in stopping to dwell on things and find out what’s interesting and possible.  Unfortunately our society doesn’t look kindly upon learning at this pace.

What’s the solution?–Remove craftsmen from the need to produce Products and return importance to Process.

See what Harriete has to say on her blog here.