American Craft Council

I've finally been accepted into an American Craft Council show! Well the Hip Pop show, I had applied last year and wasn't accepted and this year that changed.  I'll be participating in the Atlanta show in March.

When I first began working and learning about the jewelry field back in 2004 when I lived outside of Washington, D.C. I worked at the American Craft Council show for several jewelry artists, such as Valerie Hector and Biba Schutz.  It was such an invaluable experience, learning the behind the scenes hard work of doing such large shows.  I recall telling myself that I wouldn't participate in them due to the immense about of preparation and how draining it can often be, as you can imagine my mind has changed a bit.

The ACC shows are the top tier of craft shows, they only select the best artists in the country, so it is essentially a stamp of approval when an artist participates.  Granted, I will say that when I worked at the previous shows (roughly 8 years ago!), the clientele is a bit older and not necessarily my demographic.  That has changed, ACC has done such an amazing job reworking their image and inviting a younger audience to the shows as well as engaging emerging artists.  The Hip Pop shows allow emerging artists like myself to participate and show our work without breaking the bank.  I'm incredibly grateful for this opportunity and so looking forward to meeting the other artists as well as established ones.

Hopefully I will see you there in Hot-lanta!
Thanks for reading.
Lisette
Pin It

book of the month: Fashion Jewellery: Catwalk and Couture

I've been wanting this book for awhile, and I finally broke down and bought it...I probably shouldn't have considering the spending I've been doing this holiday season, but oh well!

I highly recommend this book, if you love fashion and jewelry. What I especially like about the book is the interviews with the artist and learning how they got into the business. And how they relax as well...

David & Martin interview, Q & A.
And how do you relax?
Martin: Hunting, riding my motorbike, diving
David: Spending time in the forest, sauna, sex.
*So classic I had to post it.

This book features jewelry artists that have collaborated with major fashion designers, such as Lanvin, Marc Jacobs, Commes de Garcones, Alexander McQueen and more.

Here is a quote that I find interesting, from Ludovik Colpaert of Atelier 11 " 'Too many people still think of jewellery in terms of gold, silver, pearls and diamonds, We try to show them that contemporary jewellery can also be fun and what's more that it's entirely possible to be experimental and still be commercial."

You can see photos from the book on Coolhunting's website, they did a great review.
If you want to purchase the book, I'd get it from Amazon.

I'm still devouring this book. Jewellery books are my new obsession so...if you have any interesting, good jewelry book recommendations, let me know!

As always, thank you for reading. Pin It

Justin Giunta and Subversive Jewelry

Another video for ya'll, but great along with the others I've posted.

Justin talks about his arrival in NYC and how he got started in the jewelry business. I definitely think Justin was right on the cusp of when the public (ie famous stars etc.) began to fall in love with semi-precious jewelry.

Jewelry that isn't traditional but funky and unique.

American by Design - Justin Giunta from Edward Bishop on Vimeo.

Pin It

Jewelry of the Day: Drown

I just found Drown jewelry via Worn online magazine, via Fashion Hayley (it's amazing what you find once you stumble on a blog to another blog).

Drown jewelry is a side project of Drink Me, Alice, by Australian jewelry designer Alicia. I especially love her Nebula collection made of acrylic, resin, onyx and oxidized metal. I myself have been quite inspired by nebula photographs and beautiful starry photos via National Geographic.

Enjoy!

Pin It

print resources

I recently received my issue of Lapidary Journal's Jewelry Artist and it's a really good issue.

It has an article on pricing jewelry; which I'm currently reading and one on how to sandcast a belt buckle in addition to an article on new stones. I always get excited when I get Jewelry Artist.

Which leads me to a discussion we had at the metal topics symposium at ECU. I've noticed that on most jewelry blogs artists primarily reference other artists and blogs (or any other topic) and don't often cite or discuss print materials. When I first came into jewelry I didn't have a formal teacher and when I made pieces I took advice from the projects in my print materials. They are invaluable resource to me. And they're getting better!

I'd like to reference this one memory I have of Metalsmith magazine, that I think is ironic. I was at my local Golds Gym searching for magazines to read on the elliptical and I came across Metalsmith and I thought, "uh, I should be reading this and why am I finding it at the gym?". Complete moment of destiny.

I found new artists and concepts, techniques I hadn't thought of as well as schools to look into and apply.

Ever since I've been a subscriber to Metalsmith and Jewelry Artist. I've also come to the conclusion that it's incredibly important, as metalsmiths and jewelers to support this organizations and materials. They keep the tradition alive. Pin It