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Jewelry Conversations

The Dynamic Design of Art Smith

The Dynamic Design of Art Smith

Last week I came across an American modernist jewelry designer that I had not previously known, Art Smith (1917 - 1982).  I had seen his name in passing, but had thought it was a business or website name.  Several of his pieces are familiar to me from photographs of that era, but I knew nothing about him.  And surprisingly, most of the jewelry lovers I know also knew nothing about him.  But really, everyone should know his work.  It is superb. He had had a store in the village in New York until a little before his death in the...

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The Twisted Path to a Design

The Twisted Path to a Design

Apparently for me, the shortest path from the beginning of an idea to the final creation is not a straight line, but a twisted maze of experiments, variations, and new ideas.  I do get to the final destination, but it often has no resemblance to my original idea.    Case in point was my bracelet project yesterday.   I had decided that I wanted to make myself a bracelet, something that I could wear most of the time, that would remind me to stay centered on the crux of issues, not get swept away by interesting technique.  As always, my...

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Windy Troy

Windy Troy

Every act of creativity has a spark from something, maybe an idea, something you see, hear, feel, something that strikes your imagination in just the right way.  In many ways, the original spark for me with jewelry was a book I read as teenager, “The Walls of Windy Troy” by Marjorie Braymer.  It’s a biography of Heinrich Schliemann, a successful businessman who in 1860 decided at age 37 to put his resources to finding the lost city of Troy by following clues in the classics by Homer and other ancient Greek writers.  And amazingly Schliemann does in fact find Troy...

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Jorma Laine

Jorma Laine

Recently I have been working in bronze, and have been wanting to do some cast pieces, which is new for me.  Bronze is a fairly hard metal, and can be difficult to work with, but you can’t beat it for creating beautiful curves in cast pieces. So for inspiration, I am looking to one of my favorite designers, Jorma Laine.  I first came across his work through a friend who collected Danish Modern silver, and fell instantly in love with his work. Laine (1930- 2002) was a prominent Finnish designer in the Scandinavian Modernist Jewelry movement during the 1960s and...

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