Romantic Projects

Claire and Georg, celebrating their engagement

I am often incredibly touched by the stories that accompany the gifts of jewelry that I make. Sometimes, the jewelry is a physical aspect of the most beautiful aspects of being human. It was my honor to be part of one of those very special stories this spring.

Claire is a friend from way back. In fact my parents have been friends with her parents since we were infants. Claire and I became close in high school, when a year in between grades becomes a little bit less significant. We often spent time together watching movies followed by eating diner sundaes. After I moved to New York, I was delighted when Claire followed a few years later, becoming a teacher in the NYC school district. We now live a ten minute walk from each other in Brooklyn.

Besides being a very dedicated teacher, Claire is also a very talented photographer, with a specialty in street photography. Her portfolio is on flickr, and she has some amazing photos there. Really, check out her photos.

Through the photography community, Claire had the good fortune to meet Georg, another talented photographer. After admiring each others' photos, it came to be that Claire and Georg met, when he visited NY from Germany, and they also fell in love with each other! This is such a wonderful turn of events, that I get watery-eyed even writing about it.

I was so honored and delighted when I received a message that they had become engaged, with a request for me to make a suitable engagement ring. I immediately thought of the ring shown above, mostly due to a ring that Claire loves to wear, passed down to her by her mother, and this ring leads to yet another layer of this family story.

Claire's mother, Paula is from Portugal, and her father is from Germany. They met while studying English in London. After meeting, Paula left to work in Mozambique, and Claire's ring is a memento of her mother's time in Africa. While she was in Africa, she was writing to Paul, and they had their own long-distance love story. Eventually, they were reunited, married and moved to my hometown of Racine, WI.

Paula is possession of gold British imperial coins, which were passed down to her by her relatives, so I was requested to make the ring the ring out of this gold and I readily agreed. As the coins very high karat gold, when I made the recipe for the gold for Claire's ring, I had the choice to make a redder color of gold, matching the color of the ring from Mozambique.

With all of these various strands coming together, as they do for all couples, making wedding bands is a wonderful things indeed!

Next Stop, Laguna Beach

Turquoise Ring with Filigree,
Blackened silver and Persian Turquoise

Next week, I am heading to S. California to show off some of my latest pieces. Nearly a year ago, my friend and jeweler colleague Karin Wordin opened her gallery in Laguna Beach, CA. Fortunately, I was in L.A. at the time and was able to join her for the opening party. This year, she is hosting me for an exclusive trunk show. I will have a big collection of work with me, including the ring above and the earrings below, that I have just finished.

Rutilated Drop Earrings
Rutilated quartz and blackened silver

In the gallery, we will also have a really fantastic selection of colored gems. Visitors to the gallery can spend some time with me, designing a custom piece with one of these delicious gems. A sampling of these gems can be seen in the photo below.

Here are the details for the show:
Thursday April 7th 6-9pm-reception during Artwalk
Saturday April 9th 4-7pm-jewelry and cocktails!
Appointments are available on Thursday, Friday and Saturday

Silver, Blue and Gold Gallery
1492 S. Coast Hwy.
Laguna Beach, CA

949-715-3000

Looking forward to seeing everyone in Laguna Beach!

In Sarasota

Yesterday I arrived in Sarasota Florida and I am going to spend the weekend showing my work at the two beautiful galleries owned by Nikki Sedacca. During the day, I will be at the Palm Avenue location, shown above. In the evenings, I will be at the 530 Burns Gallery. Here are the addresses:

Nikki Sedacca-the Art of Jewelry
49 South Palm Ave.
Sarasota

530 Burns Gallery
530 Burns Court
Sarasota

There are a lot of things going on this weekend, so I am excited to be the guest artist of Nikki and her wonderful team!

NY Jewelry Shows

Set in Style: the Jewelry of Van Cleef and Arpels
at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum
until June 5th

Jewelry from one of the great European jewelry houses. I love to see the ingenious way that the jewelry is put together. I saw the Cartier exhibit last year in San Francisco, and while I did get overwhelmed by the diamonds at times, the jewelry always displayed the highest level of craftsmanship. My only wish...as a jeweler, I have such a strong desire to check out the back, which I couldn't always do!

Celestial Gold- Fine Jewelry from the Himalayas
at Tibet House, opens March 17th

I lived in Nepal for two years, and Himalayan jewelry is a love of mine. The Tibetan amulet boxes, called gau, were the starting point for me when I began making lockets. When travelling in remote Himalayan villages, it is very common to see women wearing their gold and turquiose jewelry, or oxblood coral, which can scarcely be found nowadays.

I looks like with the coming of spring, I have good reason to get out of the studio and see some amazing jewelry pieces.

Fresh Off the Bench

Yesterday, I finished a couple of new pieces. I am excited to start adding color back into my collection. For a couple of years, I have been very focused on the black silver with just gold accents and some orange sapphires sprinkled in. Now, I have some rainbow moonstones (with mostly blue flashes), and some tourmalines to work with.

Early indications are that thee rings are going to be very popular. I made them in the late fall as new samples, and I have had quite a lot of interest already. I tend to test out a new direction with a one or a few pieces in that theme. I wear it myself and see how I feel about the piece day to day. If I get a strong response, I go forward and make a collection around that theme.

I haven't done anything "branchy", in a long time, but I have a had a wire mockup of a branchy ring on my bench for a long time. Finally, the idea was ripe after I put this rosecut tourmaline on my bench next to the mockup.

Stay tuned for more!

Giving Myself Permission

A view of my street in Brooklyn today

Since 2004, I have been attending craft-oriented trade shows in February. Sometimes one, sometimes the other, and for a few years, both of them, back to back. At first, it was great, giving me really great exposure and lots of orders. There was even one year that I ran out of pages in my order book.

However, times change, and even though I and many others have had great success at these shows, it seems like the time for me to try something new came a while ago. Even so, I was on the verge of doing another show this winter. When it came time to pay off the rest of the booth fee, I realized, I just didn't want to go this year. I want to stay home, avoid driving a truck in a blizzard, make new work, finish some commissions, make a new website, and the list goes on.

Even though I catch myself getting nervous about how I am going to generate new business, I know that even if I had shown up, I am probably not going to miss out on a full order book. Instead, I am going to keep traveling to new places where my work is not represented, and make sure that all of my fabulous stores and galleries have the very best possible work from me. If that strategy leads me to Puerto Rico or Florida in March, so be it!

That being said, I have some jewelry-oriented shows later in the year, but that just gives all the more time to make sure that I have some really wonderful new things to show.

New Year, Looking Back

I am now looking forward to 2011, but I do want to look back briefly to the year that has passed. For my business, this year has brought so many new opportunities. My store line-up has changed considerably, with many new galleries and jewelry stores featuring my work.

For example, at the beginning of the year, I had no California galleries or stores representing me! What a difference a year makes. Now my work is available at:

Manika Jewelry, San Francisco

DeNovo, Palo Alto

Silver, Blue and Gold, Laguna Beach

Stuart Benjamin, San Diego

In Colorado, I have new galleries as well:

Telluride Gallery of Fine Art, Telluride

J. Cotter Gallery, Beaver Creek and Vail

On the Emerald Coast in Florida:

Fusion Art Glass, Seaside

In Georgia:

Pia, Atlanta

In Pennsylvania

Aurum, State College

I have been included in the re-launch of the legendary NY retailer, Fortunoff's. Now online only, they will be launching stores in the near future:

Fortunoff Jewelry

Last but not least, I am now represented by a store in my hometown of Racine, WI:

Art Metals Studio, Racine

I have so much gratitude to all of these stores and galleries for deciding to represent me. I look forward to what the next year will bring.

Happy New Year!

JCK

Let me blow the cobwebs out of here for a moment...
In one month, I took two trips to the west, both of which brought new partners to work with, mostly in California. I will be announcing some exciting news about stores that I will be working with soon.

I had my first trip to Vegas during the annual gathering called "Jewelry Week". There is a huge show, called JCK, which has every stripe of jewelry vendor you can imagine. Another show, called Couture, is where you will find the most established designer collections, mostly high end. I opted to show my work with a new show, NICHE: the show, produced by the same people that I exhibit with in Philadelphia every year.

As the upstart show, we were uncertain how the attendence will be, and also whether the attendees are the appropriate audience. Well, the first day of the show, there was a tidal wave of people coming down the aisle. That day, I was constantly talking to people that were interested in my work. Over the course of three days, the number of people at the show came in waves, but I was pretty consistently talking to buyers that were seriously considering representing my work. As a show that was representing only N. American handmade jewelry and other crafts, this was a good place for me to make my Vegas debut.



Recently, some of my jewelry was also featured in the JCK magazine, in a fashion shoot put together by Jennifer Heebner. My bracelet and rings can be seen on the model in this photo.

NYC Event

Since hosting an open studio last year in the spring, I haven't had an event in NYC. This weekend, I will be participating in a show with four other jewelers at a loft on 24th street. I am looking forward to re-connecting with the New York audience!
Here are the details:

Gemstone Jewels

I recently received a copy of the book 500 Gemstone Jewels, by Lark Books, which includes two of my pieces. The book, juried by Cindy Edelstein, presents an amazing array of what is being done with gems today. It ranges from very dazzling pieces with rare gemstones by well-known designers, to very experimental pieces which combine gems with non-traditional materials. I found that this book brings together high-end jewelry design and art jewelry in a way that that rarely happens.

Here are the pages featuring my work:

Traditional Asian Jewelry

Natasha Wozniak with Akim Funk Buddha at BAM in November

I love traditional jewelry from many places in Asia, including India, Nepal, Tibet, Thailand and Indonesia. Before I became proficient in metalsmithing, the intricacy of these pieces seemed magical and mysterious to me. Since then, I have used my fascination with these styles of jewelry to drive me to master techniques like filigree and repousse. I have always had the urge to make a reproduction of an antique piece for myself, but never had a specific reason to do so. With so many things to do all of the time, I never fit it into the schedule.

Some readers of my blog may know that in addition to being a jeweler and metalsmith, I am a dancer. One of the dance styles that I am regularly asked to perform is traditional Balinese dance. Most of the costume pieces from Bali are made of leather with gold paint or gold leaf, which is pierced. I have most of the costume pieces that I purchased in Bali, but I lacked a neck piece. When my friend Akim Funk Buddha, asked me to perform with him at his show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, last November, I decided that this was the occasion for which I would make a piece of traditional jewelry from Asia, in this case, Bali.

preliminary sketches for my Balinese collar

In a previous blog, I mentioned that I was using a book called Jewelry of Southeast Asia and a starting point for the design. I then made sketches that combined some elements of the 19th century Balinese pieces pictured in the book.
Top: metal being worked from the back
Below: metal being worked from the front

I decided to use copper with gold leaf applied to the surface with lacquer. Copper has the best working qualities for the predominant process of repousse that I used. The vines and leaves are worked from the back with shaped and rounded tools and then the everything is defined from the front with sharper liner tools.

Balinese Collar, copper, gold leaf, tourmaline, chrysoprase, moonstone
by Natasha Wozniak, modeled after antique Balinese jewelry

As with many jewelers, I have a stash of stones in my studio and from those, I picked out these carved tourmalines, chrysoprase, and moonstone to add color to the piece.

It was a really nice moment when I got into my costume and put on my handmade collar, which is actually nicer than the neck pieces currently used in Bali. As with most things, I am sure this project will work itself into something in my regular jewelry collection. Moreover, I thought it was a great way to bring together my dance and my jewelry careers.

Wall Piece #2

The next wall piece that I want to share has a motif from my brocade jewelry collection rendered large and in color. I have been using a design that is inspired by chinese textiles, with a very extravagant version of the curls that exist throughout my work. Here is a sample of the jewelry inspired by this design motif:
Brocade Panel Pendant
18K and blackened silver

Here is the piece in which I enlarged the pattern, made it red and added branches with buds.

Different Tempers

Yesterday, I received this invitation card in the mail. That, of course, is my bracelet on the front, right next to the work of master blacksmith Albert Paley!

Here is the text from the back of the card:
"Curated by Suzanne Ramljak

While jewelry and blacksmithing are both grounded in metal, there is a curious gulf between the two fields. Just as George Bernard Shaw quipped that England and America "are two distant cousins separated by the same language", jewelers and blacksmiths can seem like distant cousins. Different Tempers will explore these two realms of metalsmithing to highlight their distinct properties as well as their commonalities.

Curated by Suzanne Ramljak, editor of Metalsmith magazine, the exhibition will showcase the work of fourteen prominent and emerging artists. The works of these selected jewelers and blacksmiths epitomize their respective fields, and are also in critical dialogue with their own traditions and materials. A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition."

Artists in the exhibition:
Jewelers
Melanie Bilenker
Lola Brooks
Pat Flynn
Sergey Jivetin
Mary Preston
Sondra Sherman
Natasha Wozniak

Blacksmiths
David Clemons
Maegan Crowley
Lu Heintz
Tom Joyce
Brent Kington
Marc Maiorana
Albert Paley

I am so honored to be part of this exhibition. As can be seen in the list above, it is quite an impressive group of artists in the show. While the show includes a whole continuum of work from the delicacy of Melanie Bilenker's hair portraits to the solidity and mass of Tom Joyce's sculptures, with my work falling in the middle. Wrought iron is the main inspiration, while the material and function fall on the side of jewelry.

This show will travel to the National Ornamental Metal Museum in 2010. In addition to my work being on the postcard, I have heard that it will be on the cover of the exhibition catalog as well!

More Filigree

Student work from my filigree class at the Newark Museum

In July, I taught a class at the Newark Museum, and it was very enjoyable for the students and for me. Filigree is a such a low tech technique for making jewelry, we were able to sit together at a large table and make intricate jewelry, just using a few sets of pliers. In the beginning the students felt that filigree was probably too labor-intensive to use as a production technique, however, after a few days of bending, it became clear that filigree can be used to make repeating elements. It can also be used to make very lightweight gold pieces, which is important in these days of high gold prices.

Bali and Filigree

Although I didn't have enough time in Bali to really get connected with the local jewelry makers (and my focus for the trip was the performance arts), I did get to visit some jewelry workshops. I have been using the techniques of filigree and chasing repousse in my work quite a lot in the last couple of years, techniques that can be found in places such as Bali, where the amount of tools and equipment available are minimal. In fact, the woman shown below has just one pair of pliers to work with to create the filigree for the earrings she is working on.
A closeup of the earring. She had a number of finished ones in the drawer below her bench.I recycle gold scraps in my studio as it is more economical to make new wire with the scraps than to send it in to be refined and get fresh wire in its place. However, in Bali, they go through the trouble of making their own silver wire. Almost nobody does that in the US as it is too much trouble with silver. It tends to crack as you are reducing the size of the ingot through rolling. Here is an image of a brick that has been carved to serve as a mold for the molten metal to be poured into.A torch in Bali. I am not clear about which fuel they were using in it, combined with a foot bellows to add air to the mixture.
The point of this post being, there can be some fantastic jewelry made without the benefit of elaborate tools. Here is a tray full of some earrings that one of the jewelers was working on.Here he is at the bench.

The Latest

I just got back from the latest show. This one was for gallery owners scouting for new work. While the show exceeded my own expectation, it is true that we are in the thick of some really unexpected realities. As the Chinese proverb says, "may you live in interesting times".

Well, as we all hold on and see how things will shake out with these interesting times, I have been in the studio, yes, making new work. I have been adding new pieces in the Wrought Inlay Collection. I also started playing around with some paisley-shaped cabochon peridot and rhodolite garnet that I have had in the studio for some time.

I have some big news about a trip I am taking this spring, but I am just going to save that for another post. In the meantime, the bracelet above is a new addition to my Brocade Garland Series. It has some repousse 18K gold, combined with blackened silver.

A Nice Surprise

As I was riding the subway, I opened the latest issue of American Craft and found this! A very nice surprise indeed.

The Latest

My work is on the move again. Both in the physical sense of being sent to various galleries, and in regards to artistic innovation. I have expanded on the series that I am calling "Wrought Inlay", begun this summer. I haven't really found the reason within, but I have been in mood for vast expanses of very black metal lately. Punctuated, of course, by continuing obsession with undulating curls.

Some of this new work has gone off to the show "Small Treasures", at Ironwood Gallery in Ridgefield, CT. Other pieces have gone to 3rd Ward Jewelry in Milwaukee.

I have also sent off some very special packages with other collections of work to:
Perlow Stevens Gallery in Columbia, MO
and
Max's in St. Louis Park, MN

My Hometown and Craft

Hello! I'm back!

Although I live in Brooklyn now, my hometown is Racine, Wisconsin. I grew up there and made the decision to be a metalsmith while still in high school. It was very many years later that I realized that my town has had an enormous impact on the crafts movement of the United States. There is a very lovely article in the latest issue of American Craft that mentions the collector Karen Johnson Boyd, of the Johnson Wax family (in print only). This family was responsible for the influential Crafts USA exhibition of 1969, introducing handmade objects to thousands of Americans.

Personally, I was able to benefit from the fact that Racine high schools actually offered metal art classes. I grew up two blocks from some famous Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, and I took in the offerings at the Wustum Art Museum, now expanded into the Racine Art Museum. It is hard to know, but there was clearly a spark of connection there somewhere in my young mind.

Preoccupied??

I know I have certainly been preoccupied lately. Some watch sports teams and the post-game analysis, I love to watch debates and the post-debate analysis. Between that and all of the other shocking news lately, I have been distracted to say the least.

In the meantime, I have been watching the orders for a couple of my rings flowing in. The biggest hit by far has been my Bold Wrought Ring, pictured at top. It is blackened silver with a bit of 18K and an enhanced color sapphire. I went through a large stash of the sapphires already and I just picked up another few dozen. Once this latest group of stones is finished, there is no guarantee that I will be able to get more. So, click here to order while they last. I may change to another stone going forward, but the orange sapphire is really great with the black..

I am off to New Orleans for a wedding. I expect to see a lot of very interesting architecture and wrought iron while there. I just got a smaller camera, so that should be more conducive to a more visually rich blog. I am also proud to note that I made the rings that will be exchanged. That moment in the ceremony always stands out for me.