Topaz Gallery - Atlanta

Along with a visit to the Atlanta Contemporary Jewelry Show, I had the opportunity to duck into some local galleries. Topaz Gallery specializes in jewelry, representing over 100 artists from the area and around the country. Several of the artists exhibiting at the jewelry show also had work in the gallery. The owner, Peter Embarrato, is very engaging and totally knowledgeable about every piece of work in the shop.

Molly Dingledine
Mixed Daisy Bracelet
silver, vermeil & pearls

Molly Dingledine exhibited her delicate floral jewelry at both the show and the gallery. Her typical work is marked by repetition of petals and pearls.

Ben Dyer
Sky & Water Through the Branches Pendant
18k and 14k golds, lapis, opal, diamonds

Ben Dyer was another artist represented by both locations. I'm quite taken with his work that combines gold leaves with gorgeous stones.

Janis Kerman
18k gold, tourmaline, garnet, lemon citrine

Janice Kerman is an artist whose earrings keep appearing in my Pinterest boards. Her tag line is "it's the balance, and not symmetry" which totally explains my attraction to her mismatched earrings.

Conni Mainne
18k gold, blue moonstones & diamonds

Conni Mainne is an artist from Mendocino that I was unfamiliar with prior to seeing her work at Topaz. Peter brought her work to my attention as someone working with Platinaire, a new alloy combining silver with platinum, created as a lower cost alternative to white gold that resists tarnishing and is harder than sterling. We chatted about comparisons with the Argentium silver that I've been working with lately.  Conni had some beautiful cast jewelry with leaf motifs, one of my favorite, often set with her trademark blue moonstones.

Jayne Redmond
Chinese Lantern Earrings
sterling silver + 24k gold

Jayne Redman jewelry has long been included in my inspiration files. Her combinations of gold and silver remind me to give that a higher priority in my experimentation schedule. Recently she has been oxidizing the silver heavily black, which makes it contrast more, a look which I really like.

It was great to get an impression of the wide range from one of a kind to production of each artist by visiting both venues.

Kathleen Sommers Bracelet Show 2012

I'm delighted to participate in my very first Bracelet Show at Kathleen Sommers in San Antonio. This is the fourth annual collective show with an ever growing following that showcases the work of a diverse range of artists from across the country as well as a lot of local designers. You're sure to recognize some of the names on the long list on this postcard announcing the show. If you're in the neighborhood, don't miss the opening reception on December 6, which I plan to attend.

I've been wanting to work up a new bracelet in Argentium and fine silver, so this was the perfect opportunity to duck into the studio for some intensive work. Of course, deadlines always bring roadblocks, but perseverance brings rewards.

Five Moons bracelet
 ©2012 Vickie Hallmark
Argentium sterling silver, fine silver clay
fused, fabricated

More Artists from ACJS

Yesterday, I detailed my three favorite artists from the Atlanta Contemporary Artist Show, but there were several other artists whose work made an impression upon me. So today, my next three favorites.

Tai and Tiara Kim

Tai and Tiara Kim had a gorgeous booth with red hard walls in the background that made it really pop into my attention from across the room. Their gorgeous organic jewelry featuring a dusting of gold over black oxidized sterling was elegantly displayed with lots of room around each piece. They also had single pieces mounted in frame-like displays on those red walls. Just beautiful...every single little detail.

Barbara Minor and Chris Hentz

Barbara Minor and Chris Hentz

Barbara Minor and Chris Hentz were there with their full booth display, showing the gorgeous enamels that we've all see in publications. It was so fun to see the sunflower earrings and brooch above together, because the images fool the eye into thinking they are similar in scale, but of course they are not. The brooch is large, probably 4 to 5 inches tall. Just as remarkable in person as expected.

Tom Herman

Tom Herman, of Seven Fingers Jewelers, had a deluxe display for his formidable gold and stone jewelry. One of the things I really love about his brooches is how he inverts the roles of stone and metal. A large stone provides the body of the brooch, and then delicate gold accents it with botanical form.

I'm still trying to understand this show in terms of its very limited size and attendance. I assume that the organizers are trying to jumpstart another big show, one dedicated to jewelry, but I can't help but wonder how this plays out in the growing years. This is the sixth year, so it will be interesting to watch to see if the show gains momentum in the future.

Atlanta Contemporary Jewelry Show

The first weekend in November usually finds me in Chicago exploring the high end galleries who gather to present their artists in SOFA, the Sculpture, Objects and Functional Art  expo. I've gone for several years now, meeting distant friends who share my love of art. This year, I would have been solo, so I decided to take the opportunity to visit a much smaller show that meets during the same time frame, the Atlanta Contemporary Jewelry Show.

Featuring twenty-eight invited jewelry artists, the show occupies two awkward rooms at a small conference center in NW Atlanta. Several of the artists are local and bring their full booths to set up, while other artists come by plane and bring only work to display in the basic low glass cabinets the show must provide.  In all cases, jewelry was the focus.

Carolyn Morris Bach

Perhaps my favorite jewelry artist, Carolyn Morris Bach, offered her incredible talismanic jewelry on plain white paper in two bare cases. A very minimalist display actually seemed to accent the work nicely. Seeing the collection laid out with groupings of earrings, brooch/pendants, boxes and brushes was just gorgeous. The pair of earrings with black birds that I coveted on the first visit were missing when I returned, perhaps as well for my pocketbook. I wish I had dared to ask to take a photo of her display, as there was something very artistic about the arrangement in places.

Sydney Lynch

Another of my favorites, Sydney Lynch, brought a streamlined booth evidently designed for travel to display her refined wares. I waffled over cluster necklaces and earrings that I've admired online. It was so wonderful to have the work at waist level right out in the open to be touched, rather than hidden away behind low glass. Since the clusters are very mobile, getting to pick a necklace up and examine each component individually is very rewarding.

Patricia Tschetter

My third top choice of artists from this selection is Patricia Tschetter, whose delicate granulation work particularly impresses me now that I've tried this for myself. We chatted about granulation, about Ronda Coryell's amazing teaching talents, and about the miracles of Argentium sterling silver. Although I resisted these diamond and gold granulated daisy earrings that called my name, I did feel I'd made an artist friend.

Back home after the getaway weekend, I'm analyzing what draws me to the work of certain artists. One thing that all three of these artists have in common is stones. Both Sydney and Carolyn work with exquisite large stones, while Patricia uses small diamonds. Gold also figures noticeably in their work, although combined with oxidized silver. I've been recently purchasing more stones to incorporate into my own work, and I've added tiny touches of gold, but I'm going to explore more seriously both of these directions.