Equinox Gallery - San Antonio

On the day following the opening of the Bracelet Show at Kathleen Sommers, I took the opportunity to visit Equinox Gallery. This contemporary jewelry gallery is located in a tiny shop in La Villita, a village of historic homes along the Riverwalk, now converted to art shops.

The highest lure was the opportunity to see the exhibition of Marlene True's sculptural jewelry made from recycled tin cans and black steel. It was delightful to inspect the intricacies of the work and to see that the neckpiece shown here is indeed a locket made from a tiny tin that opens.

Several sculptural pieces by Sarah Roberts were still displayed in the gallery, including this bust in powder coated metal.

Caitie Sellers

Along with a selection of smaller wearable pieces, Caitie Sellers showed a couple of larger sculptures with detachable jewelry (the balcony here is a pendant). I love jewelry with integral displays like this! The black wire and sterling silver sculptures throw gorgeous shadows on the wall. Check out the video on her website to see the three dimensional pieces from all angles.

Signature Contemporary Craft - Atlanta

Another gallery that I visited in Atlanta at the beginning of November is Signature Contemporary Craft, which carries sculpture, objects and jewelry. They were just installing a new show of bird sculpture, which of course totally captivated my interest. Along with ceramics, glass, furniture, sculpture and fiber, there were lovely drawers full of jewelry by some of my favorite artists.

Angela Bubash

Angela Bubash constructs intriguing 3D forms from simple fins of black oxidized silver accented with stones.

Todd Reed

Todd Reed has become well known and quite fashionable, especially for his bridal jewelry, made from elegantly set raw and unusual colored diamonds. 

Kristin Lora

Kristin Lora

Kristin Lora's whimsical jewelry often includes plastic toy animals or silver casts of such, sure to bring a smile. They are a natural expression of her original career interests in zoology.

Other jewelry artists from my favorites that are carried by the shop include Petra Class, Karen Gilbert, and Joanna Gollberg. Definitely a place to stop by when visiting Atlanta.

Echt Gallery - Chicago

Last week I had the opportunity to visit a few galleries in Chicago. By far my favorite was Echt Gallery, which specializes in glass art.

Janusz Walentynowicz
Raised Still Life with Two Decanters & Vase

Peering in the front windows, I found mysterious dark gallery walls with large white cast glass sculptures by Janusz Walentynowicz spotlighted elegantly on pedestals around the room.  The sculptures fell into two general categories. Still life pieces featured low reliefs on the thin pedestals and foreshortened 3D vases or decanters on top, while the other pieces imitated intertwining pipe and fittings. Although I loved the white pieces, I was captivated by the single black still life which showed the relief carvings much more clearly. Obviously I wasn't the only one enamored with it, as it was sold.

Toots Zynsky
Riposo

I wandered around the studio admiring the marks on white Chihuly cylinders and the hair thin glass threads and elegant form of a subtle white Toots Zynsky vessel (such a change from her earlier vivid colors).

Shayna Leib
Malvinas

As usual, I was thrilled by the complex cane work of Shayna Leib's reef inspired works.

Christina Bothwell
Nest

But by far the most compelling work in the gallery for me that day was the mixed media sculpture of Christina Bothwell, who combines complex cast glass with raku clay and found objects. It's hard to convey the depth and subtlety of these pieces onscreen. Buried deep within the glass are other sculptures, dimly seen, and the surface itself has been painted with oils to add even more layers, and the raku clay seamlessly melds with the glass. Completely captivating.

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.

Gallery Update

I just returned from the PMC Conference (so inspirational!), and I'm restarting my thinking about making new work and placing it in more galleries. To show off at the conference, I collected a few of the larger pieces I had placed at the Gallery Shop at the Southwest School of Art in San Antonio, and left a collection of other pieces in their place.

While there, I snapped this quick photo of the display (but caught a bad window reflection in the bright natural light of the gallery). Nice, yes? I felt so thrilled to have my jewelry placed in the same case with that of Ananda Khalsa and fellow Austinite, Lisa Crowder. Artists in nearby cases include Lorena Angulo, Kristina Kada, and Eric Silva.

If you're near San Antonio, please stop by the gallery to see all the treasures they carry, from ceramics to metal, fiber to glass. All sales benefit the non-profit art school.

Signature Artwork

In art, signature artwork refers to works by popular and well-established artists that are easily recognized as theirs because of unique characteristics in style, medium, or subject matter.^[1][2] A parallel to the recognition of a person's signature on a work is drawn indicating that the work itself may serve the same purpose to declare the creator because of unique characteristics. The existence of a body of works that demonstrate the characteristics identified as a signature artwork is necessary for the application of the term, and art critics focus upon the development of such "styles" as important for determining the significance of an artist's work. -- Wikipedia

Flock Necklace
©2012 Vickie Hallmark
sterling silver

I'm so thrilled to show the most involved piece of jewelry I've ever made. Those who know my jewelry will instantly recognize it. It's currently headlining my new collection available at the Gallery Shop at the Southwest School of Art in San Antonio.


It was a huge labor of love, and I am ready to make another as soon as I can clear out a few other pressing commitments. So many ideas...so little time.