Category: Travel

How travel impacts my design work

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Join me at the Smithsonian Craft Show

The Smithsonian Craft show is online this year and that means you can see all the incredible juried work without a trip to Washington DC. We are thrilled to be part of the show this year and don’t want our community to miss out on this opportunity.

My online “booth” will feature a number of one-of-a-kind pieces as well as both Ripples, Ships and New Energy Ripples pieces. Get yours before they are gone.

Join us online!

I hope to see you there!
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SNAG Loop – Chicago May 2019

Each year I try to attend the annual conference of the Society of North American Goldsmiths aka SNAG.  Since the first time I joined this group, I’ve felt like they are my art jewelry tribe and each year my friendships there deepen. This was my fifth time, so I did a few Instagram posts to cover the highlights, follow the links in the images to see more.

I’m really excited looking forward to next year when the SNAG conference will be taking place here in Philadelphia!

 

 

 

 

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Navicella Fibulae at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

It’s no secret I’m a boat geek. I admire the lines of a well-designed vessel from ancient times to the present. Center of Effort vs Center of Lateral Resistance is the naval architecture jargon for it, however such a techy phrase translates to the graceful movement of a boat harnessing one natural force- the wind to move through another natural force- a body of water.

Of course it was inevitable that my Masters of Fine Art Thesisexplored the idea of vessels becoming wearable by interacting with the human body and I have continued this work in recent pieces as well, such as the Viking Ship penannular pin. I constantly find connections between jewelry and boat design. So naturally I’m delighted when I find more of these connections.

Medusa
Tiny Pendant in the form of a gorgoneion from Cyrpus 450 BC

Yesterday I found myself at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. My best friend, Patty and I try to go on an immersive “artist date” at least once a year. The Met is one of our favorite venues and we both have enjoyed looking at the images of Medusa in art history together so we decided to make sure to see the special exhibit Dangerous Beauty: Medusa in Classical Art. It was a small exhibit, but we enjoyed it.

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The Anti-Aggressor Battle Fan 3000

This past Fall I tried something different to market my work and exhibited at a boat show.  It seemed like a good fit and that experience itself will be the subject of its own blog post later, but part of the experience helped launch a different project.

Coriander Woodruff is an artist, photographer and the daughter of my best friend, Patricia Woodruff. She was helping me out at the boat show, along with my good friend Anita, former proprietor of Sparkle’s Jewelry of West Melbourne, FL. We are three people experienced in sales of this kind, yet it was astounding to us the amount of “free advice” we gals received from the male businessmen whose booths surrounded us.

The interior of the vending tents was stifling for October. Coriander carried a metal framed martial arts fan that we all shared at times. First it just seemed like a sturdy accessory that helped to cool us, but then we realized that it could act as a barrier and deterrent to the “man-splaining” we were finding ourselves subject to hearing.

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Jewelry of Ideas

Lovely awning detail at the entrance to the Cooper Hewitt.

About 4 years ago when I returned from a study abroad program in the UK, I realized that part of what made that trip such an amazing experience was the fact that where ever we went, we found jewelry to look at. In galleries, museums, schools and artist studios. I missed that and, upon my return, suddenly realized that it didn’t take a lot of effort to continue that experience here in my own country.  Since then, I’ve tried to make an effort that whenever I travel, I look for museum exhibits and galleries that feature art jewelry, innovative craft and opportunities to connect with other jewelry artists.

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