Salt Medal and Off-White Gems

A few more new pieces:

Diamond Pillow

This is a new brooch I made with copper, enamel, acrylic, and silver. Ashley and I took the picture, and we think we've got that "glow" downpat!

Jewelry Pics with Ashley Vick

A few weekends ago, I tagged along with Ashley Vick to the gem show in Marlboro. We waded through crowds of middle aged, bead frenzied women, and Ash was able to find these raw gems that were cut into cabichons. A week later, she came up with this beautiful jewelry. Since she wanted pictures of the jewelry before her craft show at Worcester Center for Crafts, and didn't have the time and money to blow on a professional photographer, I told her I'd give her a hand. We were pretty pleased with the outcome- It's amazing what you can do with rice paper, lots of tape, black plexiglass, a blue light, and a Canon Powershot point and shoot (and beautiful jewelry, of course!!!!!). You can visit her website and purchase her jewelry online at: www.filomenademarcojewelry.com, or you can see her in person at the Sowa Open Market on June 20. Check her website for upcoming shows, stores, and news.

Here are the pics:

Transmutations

Transmutations opens today at Facere Jewelry Art Gallery in Seattle! The lecture is today at 4pm, and the reception is at 5pm. To see the show and buy pieces online, click here.

Elissa Paquette

Calico at Heir


Elissa


Heir

Elissa Paquette- fashion extraordinaire in New Bedford, and now in Providence! Elissa's fabulous shop, Calico, which carries hand-picked vintage and designer goods, is located at 173 Union st. in New Bedford. If you can't make it to New Bedford, try Providence! She has just aquired a space in the antique store Heir, calling it a "micro-boutique". I can't wait to see it next time I visit Providence! Heir is located at 231 Westminster st. in Providence, RI. Oooo, and for some fashion insight, visit Elissa's blog.

EXTREME BEAUTY

"Extreme Beauty," a show curated by Kim Cridler, will be opening on March 5 for the 2010 SNAG conference, "Going to Extremes". I am so excited to be a part of this show- the artists participating are some of my all-time favorite metalsmiths. I nearly died when I saw the artist list. Kim Cridler did a fabulous job choosing metalsmiths whose work I wholly admire. The show represents 23 artists from 8 countries, showcasing work that questions and interprets beauty. Here are some of my favorite artists participating:



Lauren Kalman



Karl Fritsch



Andrea Wagner



Anya Kivarkis



Exhibition blurb by Kim Cridler:
Extreme Beauty features contemporary makers who pursue beauty and adornment through metalsmithing, jewelry and site-specific body works. The quest for beauty involves complimentary and contradictory approaches: dogged compulsion, alchemic-like processes, curiosity, joyfulness, and the simple desire to honor. But beauty is also at times bizarre, shrouded in our anxieties about the deceitful, and at times so longed for that it mutates into the grotesque. Works included in this exhibition engage a range of approaches from the devotional act of replication, to works that assume a critical or historical assessment of the problematic nature of beauty.

TRANSMUTATIONS: Material Reborn

This week, Transmutations: Material Reborn, curated by Susan Kasson-Sloan, opens at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. The opening is January 15, and the show will be on view until March 21. I am really excited to be a part of this show, and I hope to catch it when it comes to Gallery Loupe.
Here are a few images from some of my favorite artists participating:


Jantje Fleischhut (please check out her website- her work and the photography is incredible)


Masumi Kataoka


Rebecca Hannon.

After Houston, Transmutations will travel to Facere Jewelry Art Gallery in Seattle, WA. Dates: May 5-May 24.
After Facere, the show will travel to Gallery Loupe, in Montclair, NJ.