If you all weren’t referring to SNAG by name, I’d have no idea that
you’re talking about the same organization that I’m a member of. I
don’t recognize it & I certainly wouldn’t characterize it as “dying”,
considering how many people show up at the conferences.
So far, I think the only real point that’s been made is that there’s
a lot of people on this list that don’t like conceptual art jewelery.
Which is fine- not everyone does (even in SNAG or the academic world,
believe it or not. I hated the piece on the cover of the 2008 EiP
that someone else mentioned. I kept wondering how the poor girl
trapped inside that giant condom could possibly breathe). However, I
think another major point has been very obviously missed, which is
that there’s more to metalsmithing than just jewelry. There’s also
functional hollow ware, flatware, small-scale and large-scale
sculpture, blacksmithing. etc., etc, etc.
That’s one a of the things that drew me to working with metal in the
first place-- you can take it in all kinds of directions from fine
art to fine craft from insane one-of-a-kind pieces to production work
& traditional fine jewelery and it’s all still metals. That’s
awesome. I had to laugh when someone in this thread commented that
academic metalsmiths don’t follow the steps of traditional
apprentices, especially not European ones.
I laughed because the first academic art metals programs actually
were modeled on traditional European methods, just not the ones in
jewelry shops. They were modeled after functional hollow ware
production-- raising vessels, forging flatware, etc. That’s one
reason why there’s so little gold work and gem-setting in academic
programs (the other being that most college students can’t afford to
buy gold. Nowdays, they can’t afford to buy silver, either.) If
you’re looking specifically for fine jewelry in a magazine titled
"Metalsmith" whose stated mission is to promote “jewelry and
metalsmithing” (emphasis added), you might be looking at the wrong
magazine. It really sounds more like you want Metalsmith to be the
MJSA Journal, which begs the question, why? Why not just get MJSA? If
you’re looking for technical stuff, that’s in the SNAG newsletter,
which has gone all-electronic these days, & those articles can all be
found on the SNAG website. The most recent was on swaging by Borris
Bally, & talks about using a forging technique in jewelery to connect
pin stems to metals that can’t be soldered/welded/etc. (primarily
aluminum).
So, looking through a recent Metalsmith I happen to have lying
around (this years Spring edition- the others are at my studio),
we’ve got the usual 4 main articles-- one on a German metalsmith who
makes some wearable jewelery & a lot of functional hollowware using a
unique casting process, a sculptor who builds mechanized sculptures
with all manner of gears and movements, another on jewelers who make
jewelry for rock stars (including Wayne Werner, who taught workshops
on goldwork & gem setting that I took a few years back & is
definitely not an academic but a successful independent jeweler),
and (yet another) article on William Harper, who I will totally grant
is the poster boy for pretentious art jewelers, but an art jeweler
who makes a lot of beautiful and wearable jewelry. So, 1
conceptualist out of 4. Not exactly an overwhelming percentage.
Given all of this, I’m kinda wondering why exactly you think SNAG
should be catering to fine jewelers 24/7? Particularly when so many
of you seem vested in insulting and belittling the work of the people
already involved in the organization?
Out of curiosity, do you also lament the fact that painting &
drawing students aren’t taught to paint houses? Or that engineering
students aren’t taught to fix appliances? Because you keep comparing
apples to oranges in the sense that you’ve confused a university
education with a job-training program and they aren’t the same thing.
There are trade schools that teach bench jewelery work- Revere
Academy, Bennett Street School, etc. That’s what they’re designed to
do & they do it well. University art programs have entirely different
educational goals, although both of the universities I’ve been at had
no problem encouraging students to do a semester as an intern at a
local jewelery shop so they could learn the benchwork side of the
metals realm & a number of students did just that.
Yes, we can make teapots-- metalsmiths traditionally have made
teapots & a whole host of other tableware. It takes a lot of skill to
make a teapot- just as much skill as it takes to repair a ring. Just
because something is out of your own range of experience doesn’t mean
it isn’t valuable- just different. You don’t need teapot-guy; someone
else may have people bringing in their grandmother’s silver tea sets
for repair & teapot guy is exactly who they need. And yes, people can
& do make a living doing art. Some also teach, some have day jobs
while they build up their customer base but nobody is surviving on
grants any more & haven’t been since the conservative culture wars of
the 80’s --if they ever were in the first place, which is doubtful.
Sharon,
artist, metalsmith, chaos magnet