Arts and crafts tradition in silver jewelry

Jewelry Discussion
21

Hi

Your clients, our generation, may well be your favorite customers
but as they age and pass on they will leave behind children with no
sense of appreciation for art or fine things for their own sake.

LOL BIG TIME

Sophisticated and intelligent parents produce like minded children.
As the internet exposes more and more people to rubbish it also
exposes them to quality and sophistication. The choice will be theirs
to buy rubbish or quality.

I can understand why it costs so much, it’s a wonderful substance to
play with: you can make it as hard or as soft as you want.

Silver is not expensive, remember jewellery is a luxury item. The
silver rings I make have less than $15 worth of silver, an
insignificant cost compared to the labour cost.

pay close attention andrew:

if you can work in silver 18kt yellow gold is easy!!!

Luck has nothing to do with skill level. You have shown us on Orchid
your effort and determination

you will make progress to the level you are confident to work in
gold.

As for silver look at Georg Jensen

Do not under estimate your potential, to quote Laozi:

“Care from beginning to end, success.”

All the best Andrew, a future goldsmith.

Richard
Xtines Jewels

22 
Here in Scotland and most other parts of the UK there are still
lots of jewellers still making one off silver jewellery.

A lot of this is all about perception and labels. I had a guest
jeweler from Scotland here for a Celtic Festival some years back. I
had to tell him that calling himself a “manufacturing jeweler” was
going to make the American audience think he had a factory. He
actually was a one-man-shop, exactly like what an
Arts-and-Crafts/designer-craftsman ought to be.

“Arts and Crafts” is sort of a failure as a “brand”. Unfortunately
the general public thinks “hobby” when they hear it. I am finding
this discussion very interesting as I have just been researching
about the Irish Arts and Crafts Society in the early 20th century and
how they impacted the development of modern Celtic jewelry.

Stephen Walker

23 
"Designer craftsmen" is too erroneously gender-specific for me to
want to use to describe myself. "Designer jeweler" might work for
me.

“Designer Craftsmen” was a term that came into use in the 1950s,
used by the American Crafts Council to distinguish work designed by
an individual and made under the direction of that artist. It
reflected the development of the studio movement such as glass
blowers and ceramists. It was used to separate out work that was not
folk art or culturally derivative or factory produced. This was
before the 60s and the women’s movement and the alteration of words
to denote gender, and does not need to be changed for political
statements. RM

24

I’d like to see one of the metal refiners or tool suppliers create a
write-in project to name the current style.

Anyone involved in making it could suggest a name for the style.

The first three/ten/fifty craftspeople to send in the name that ends
up most popular would win metal/tools etc.

Maybe the schools could establish a scholarship in that name too.

From what I’ve read, all the past styles get named by
non-craftspeople, long after the period has passed. I’d like to see
the people who make the pieces name the style.

25 
"Designer craftsmen" is too erroneously gender-specific What's
erroneous is your interpretation of "craftsman" as
gender-specific.

I do get tired of this nonsense.

Al Balmer
Pine City, NY

26

Thanks you guys for this discussion. I’ve been doing one of a kind
pieces for quite a while. Its hard to make a living do so, but it
did allow me to be a stay at home mother while raising my children
and running a small, one of a kind shop in a resort area on Lake
Michigan. I’ve loved my life doing so, and have met nice people
along the way. I can call my customers my friends. I’m backing off
from the public now to concentrate on jewelry making.

27

I get what you’re saying, Andrew, but i hit the mental brakes at “off
shoring to Native America”. First, I don’t really think you can
compare Arts and crafts movement with Native American jewelry- two
different beasts. Second, how exactly are Native AMERICAN workshops
‘off shoring’? Isn’t that as American as it gets? Yes, sovereign
nation, but still part of the American economy.

Blessings,
Sam Kaffine
Www.sterlinbliss.com

28

Your research into the Irish Arts and Crafts 20th C. intrigues me.
Activated in England, often mentioned along with William Morris, that
influence became strong in USA after 1900. The label referred to
anti-industrial/factory productions and attempted to revive handmade
skills. Weaving, for instance, was almost totally lost until a few
handweavers revived patterns, equipment and skills. Appalachia and
New England became centers for this revival as well as spots
throughout the US. In the 1930s, moving away from folk styles,
individual artists began to exert other influences and the studio
movement grew. These are historical terms, Arts and Crafts first,
Designer Craftsman second. Occasionally they acquire political
overtones, and the discussions are repeated by each generation. The
studio artists in all media have greatly influenced contemporary
corporate mass production, such as the raiding of boutique style
merchandizing by the department stores after the 60s.

29 
...might work for me...

And there you have it folks. everyone describes what they do in
their own way. To fill out a form that has limited choices
‘manufacturing jeweler’ is an option I often have to choose for
lack of anything remotely close to what I do. I fabricate, I
manufacture, I design, I am a jewellery designer. As regards my
connection to the arts and Crafts movement, or style- my work is
definitely rooted there-stylistically.

Sometimes my designs look more modernistic, though not Euro-modern,
or 60’s space race related motifs that would make someone
think"modern", but its all idiosyncratic, no one else makes original
pieces that are exactly like my work. I may channel set a ring or a
bar of gold and stick a bail on the top, but the addition of
piercings on the sides of the bar, or scroll work or whatever harkens
back to the arts and crafts school.

I am a designer craftsman too. I am a craftsman, a craftsperson is
just not a term I like: it’s just over the edge of too politically
correct. I’d rather anarchy! I am a jeweller. I am a designer too.
On one of my cards it says “Custom Made Classic and Contemporary
Heirloom Jewellery”, and in the area by my name and contact info it
says “Goldsmith”, on another it says "Metalsmith"and yet another
says " Design Fabrication Consulting “. I have letterhead that says
Jewelry Design Fabrication and Custom Coloured Gold Alloys”…so any
of them communicate basically the same things- its handmade by a
person working in metals and stones- and that they can contact me by
“x” methods. I use the different words depending on who I’m giving
them to as much as what I happen to have in my card case at a given
time, as i’ve had cards printed for years with different designs on
them…

In New Orleans Newcomb College existed. It was “ground zero” for the
Arts and Crafts movement at the turn of the century and the style of
Newcomb Pottery oozes " arts and crafts"stylistically :I’m betting
anyone could recognize it just about anywhere that offered students
arts education, or that had a a museum with a decorative arts
exhibit that examined the 19th and 20th centuries no matter where on
the planet. Many homes in the city are Arts and Crafts style- mine is
exemplary, built in the 1860’s with decorative dark wood and
interesting features on a hand finished stucco like ground. The
peaks and gables on and around the roof are gold leafed ( yep, 23K
patent leafed…).

It is a common style in a city this old. Jewelery designers in this
city though demonstrate the vast and idiosyncratic styles of the
individual. that’s the point of all of this- the individual can
define himself or herself in whatever terms are comfortable to the
individual as they relate to their client=ele or marketing bent. I am
seeing designers that were great jeweler’s rely more and more on
their CAD/CAM systems, and I don’t like the look- its obvious to me,
looks computer done and is apparently what is bringing people into
their shops seeking luxury goods because their customers feel they
can look at - yet another screen- and be “part” of the “design”
process. I wouldn’t say it’s that participative but the masses think
so and they are spending the money (though primarily bridal or
anniversary, or commemorative of some life event and in white metal
with diamonds!!).

People that come to my studio have a completely different experience
from the lower lighting save for the wood and glass cases,
comfortable seating, wood desks for consultations and visible
jeweller’s benches towards the rear of the space. My cases have
samples of metals and coloured golds they can actually handle and
select from to arrays of coloured stones that don’t look like most
that the average consumer would be familiar with. There aren’t
display posters from vendors with white metal CAD designed jewellery
on the walls. There isn’t a bridal display case filled with samples
of available mountings (though there is a bookcase with catalogues
beaucoup in case that’s what they want- in triple key style), but
there are a few displays around the room of one-off pieces of
jewellery and even some raku work, enamelling and other handmade
items that I have done specifically to display the jewellery( though
I’ll take commissions on raku work too!)- it’s designed to
communicate the arts and crafts sensibility and reflect the
surroundings which are arts and crafts architecture, and because I
don’t want my studio to look like everyone else’s or modern. I want
to be comfortable, i want clients to be comfortable and I am farthest
from a hard sell as one can get. though i do have strategies for
limiting time spent with a customer. because there is a fine line
between cultivating a relationship with a client and getting things
done which is why the benches are in plain view and lit. I may agree
to do a repair job while someone waits occasionally but they aren’t
free to walk out with a strip of metal or stones because the
practical side of me has mounted a small discreet camera in the area
of the open displays so I can glance at a split screen view of the
entire studio when alone in the studio and at the bench…(rare)…

All in all I try to set what I do apart from the crowd. I define
what I do as is necessary. As I mentioned some forms for different
business related things have limitations and I must use their terms.
I have no problem with gender unspecific descriptors. Anyone that
walks into a studio should expect to see a craftsman at work making
jewlery. and that’s what they see. At least. I think so !..rer

30 
"Designer craftsmen" is too erroneously gender-specific I do get
tired of this nonsense.

Me too!

I promote myself as a Silversmith, Goldsmith and Designer.

Gets the message across, and can be used by men and women.

My signage reads “Goldsmiths work in 18kt, 22kt and 24kt gold they
do not work in 9kt as it is only 37.5% gold”

I do get the odd pretentious idiot, usually men, ask me what can you
make in 24kt

“For you sir I can make a whisky/whiskey shot glass for your single
malt.”

The reaction from people who have been sold 9kt as high quality
metal has been distressing. They get very upset when they find out
what.375 means.

And will NEVER GO BACK to that jeweller. As I sell 18kt for LESS
than the price most NON-MANUFACTURERS charge for 9kt about $150 a
gram. I sell my 18kt at $110 a gram.

On this point if 9kt white gold is mostly silver why is it called
gold?

I am considering running jewellery education courses in the elite
private schools here in Australia. Young ladies whose parents pay
$20,000 a year upwards for

schooling are likely to be buying and receiving expensive jewellery
during their life time.

So if they know what to look for they will make educated purchases.
And will appreciate the nuances of HAND MADE QUALITY as opposed to
mass produced items.

Richard
Xtines Jewels

31 
Second, how exactly are Native AMERICAN workshops 'off shoring'?
Isn't that as American as it gets? Yes, sovereign nation, but still
part of the American economy.

Some time ago I purchased a statuette of raven, carved from wood, in
Montreal. The shop was specialized in Native Americans arts and
crafts. Couple of years later, in Berlin, I came across small shop
selling animal wood sculpture, and they had the same exactly
statuette of raven, for less than 1/10 of what I paid. I struck a
conversation with owner wondering why it is so inexpensive. He told
me that he gets it from Thailand, where they really mastered the art
of ultrasonic cutters. So here we are.

Leonid Surpin

32 
The studio artists in all media have greatly influenced
contemporary corporate mass production, such as the raiding of
boutique style merchandizing by the department stores after the
60s.

Even before the 1960s! Liberty and Co. in 1899 London hired
Archibald Knox as a designer and they made a lot of very nice things
in an Arts and Crafts/ Art Nouveau/ neo-Celtic style.

But what also tends to happen is that successful A&C enterprises
don’t always stick to the idealistic program. They follow their own
decisions about what makes the most sense to make their own lives
better. The purists get all indignant about “selling out” but the A&C
business model isn’t really very competitive when it comes to making
a living. Alexander and Euphemia Ritchie, working on the Scottish
Isle of Iona were pioneers of individuals as Celtic jeweler
craftsmen, not a big city manufacturing firm like those that
dominated Celtic Revival jewelry since the 1840s.

They were educated at the Glasgow School of Art at the time those
values were at their peak. But the Ritchies (Iona Celtic Art)
outsourced much of their production to Chester and Birmingham. They
really lived a beautiful life doing what they loved in a beautiful
place they loved. But nothing I have read about them indicates any of
the sort of utopian philosophy that so often goes hand-in-hand with
the Arts and Crafts Movement.

In Celtic jewelry, done in modern times, there are a few players
that are certainly true believers in A&C values. Irish metalworker
Mia Cranwill (1880-1972)would be the best example, but there are
others.

In my own business the sort of thing I am doing very much has its
roots in an A&C style and approach, but I am using gold and precious
stones. I have two kids in college, no trust fund and getting older.
As much as I like doing A&C silver jewelry, I really love it in fact,
I also like what I am doing instead. I am running a business with
both family and employees depending on me. I admire the A&C pioneers,
but they are not on my “board of directors”.

Artists are more likely than most people to be rugged
individualists. The A&C philosophy sets some narrow boundaries, so it
should be no surprise that so few creative jewelers, especially the
real professionals, have stayed on the reservation.

Stephen Walker