Jewellery art is a small but easily discernible voice amid the great choir that is the art scene. It has been the impetus for innovation and a seismograph for current discourse within the applied arts for several decades. Now, for the first time, the GRASSI Museum of Applied Arts is presenting its holdings of modern jewellery, ranging from the mid-twentieth century to the present day. Analysed and assembled, it provides insights into the multifaceted oeuvres of around 180 jewellery artists from around the world. The collection is broadly representative of the international developments in jewellery art and as such it especially grants a special view of the approaches from GDR before the unification. Images by 11 photographers from Leipzig show just how varied and versatile the perception of jewellery on a person can be. Text in English and German.

Alongside artistically experimental aspects of education, the ThinkingJewellery 'trademark' stands as a contextual leitmotif throughout the gemstones and jewellery study programme at Trier University/Idar-Oberstein campus. The aims of ThinkingJewellery comprise scientifically oriented research as well as discourse on the historical and societal interconnection of jewellery. Highlights are the ThinkingJewellery symposia, which are now accompanied by a series of periodicals. The new series discusses contributions to a contemporary theory of jewellery beyond disciplinary boundaries or typical categories. The texts envisioned for ThinkingJewellery 2 include 'On the Cultural History of the Gemstone', 'Goethe on Colour' and 'Cold Shine - Empty Glamour, on Jeff Koons's Celebration Series', which are based on lectures from the 2017 symposium.

The traditional Japanese art of cord braiding--known as kumihimo-- has been around for centuries. The technique, which uses a loom and several strands of silk thread, was once used to create the strong, slender cords that reinforced samurai warrior armor. Today, it is primarily used to make beautiful, color-drenched cords for jewelry and other decorative items. In "Twist, Turn, & Tie 50 Japanese Kumihimo Braids," readers will get everything they need to get started in this ancient craft, including a mini braiding loom They'll also find:

• An overview of tools and materials from looms to bobbins to glues to beads
• Step-by-step instructions for basic loom braiding, handling threads, beads, and more
• 50 gorgeous projects from simple beginner braids to complex beaded cords
• 400 full-color photographs for inspirations and instruction
  With details on kumihimo terminology, starting and finishing braids, and calculating thread and bead counts, this book is an ideal guide for new braiders.

This volume, the second catalogue of the Wyvern Collection, celebrates an outstanding group of medieval ivory carvings and small sculpture, the finest assemblage of its kind in private hands. The book has pieces from every period of the Middle Ages, including rare examples from the Early Christian era; spectacular panels from the workshops of tenth-century Constantinople; objects produced by the celebrated carvers active in south Italy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries; and several important pieces from the Romanesque period. At the heart of the collection is an outstanding group of Gothic ivories whose highlights include one of the most important secular medieval ivories discovered in recent years. The collection also features a number of small amber, hardstone, jet, wood and mother-of-pearl carvings. In addition to their virtuoso craftsmanship, many of these objects have illustrious histories as part of famous aristocratic or ecclesiastical collections. This is a precious opportunity to study these miniature masterpieces.

Chunghi Choo (b. 1938 in South Korea) is a world-renowned metalsmith and jewellery artist who is best known for her works that incorporate such techniques as electroforming and electro-applique. Choo's artwork is represented in major museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (US), the Victoria and Albert Museum (UK) and the Musee des Arts decoratifs (FR). In addition, she is professor emeritus of the University of Iowa (US), where she established a metals programme, which she brought to international prominence during her more than thirty years of service. Many of her students have since become critically acclaimed artists in the fields of fine arts, jewellery, textiles, metalsmithing and sculpture. This volume reviews Choo's remarkable career, showing selected pieces from the last six decades of extraordinary craftsmanship that earned her status as Elected Fellow of the American Craft Council. Works by thirty former students reveal Choo's influence on a subsequent generation.

The intention of Reinhold Ziegler's jewellery objects is to move the attention of the wearer or onlooker from themselves onto something greater - a radical strategy within a field that is strongly occupied with emphasising the individuality of the wearer. Ziegler's art is influenced by the French philosopher Georges Bataille, who in his work Eroticism identifies a strong dilemma in humanity in which, on one hand, we want to fight for our individuality yet, at the same time, have a strong desire to be united with what he calls 'everything that is'. In this book, Ziegler deals with this topic from many angles - gravitation, vibration, meteorites, fossils, and general aspects of humanity such as tools (from the Stone Age), talismans, spirituality, and consciousness.

Despite being one of the most influential - and indeed most eccentric - of the American modernist jewellers, Sam Kramer (1913-1964) has received little recognition. His expressive, organic work and surreal workshop, located on West 8th Street in New York's Greenwich Village, paved the way for other mid-twentieth century metalsmiths, and for many more working today. Sam Kramer: Jeweler on the Edge investigates Kramer as both a seminal artist and a cult personality. Through lavish colour photographs of rarely seen works as well as newly discovered archival material, the story of this unique individual is told against a backdrop of post-Second World War America, from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. Mirroring both the existential angst and quirky humour of the Beat Generation, Sam Kramer embodied the iconoclastic spirit of his era.

Why spend hundreds of dollars stocking up on expensive manufactured clasps, jump rings, ear wires, bails, and much more when you can get exactly what you need for a fraction of the cost? With Handcrafted Wire Findings you can learn how to make all of these things and more with your choice of materials. From sterling silver, fine silver, and German silver to copper, brass, and artistic wire you can use whatever material fits your budget to make just the custom components you want. Who wouldn't want to have fun making jewelry AND save money at the same time? Included are over 30 projects for making many different and useful custom wire findings. Starting off for fundamental skills for beginners then progressing for more ambitious and sophisticated designs, Handcrafted Wire Findings offers great projects for crafters and jewelry makers of all skill levels. A variety of techniques are also highlighted, including basic wirework, texturizing, silver fusing, adding patina, and traditional finishes. With all of these possibilities, there is no limit to what you can create with your own money-saving hand-made jewelry components.

An accessible and easy-to-use guide to the principles and elements of jewelry design, this resource helps jewelry makers of all skill levels take their designs from good to great. Instructor and expert Loretta Lam offers guidance on working with a wide array of materials, along with exercises to help you explore new design concepts before applying them to your work directly. Dozens of stunning examples from designers around the world help inspire anyone looking for a new source of creativity. Learn how to discover your personal inspiration and process, master the use of the design elements and principles, establish a design hierarchy and find your voice, draw on the inestimable value of critique, and more. You will keep this book close at hand and pick it up time and again for inspiration and as an essential reference.

Kumihimo is a popular jewellery-making technique with origins in Japanese tradition. This colourful and informative beginner's guide to the craft explains how to use a circular kumihimo disc and a variety of braids and beads to create 12 stunning pieces of jewellery, plus colour and style variations, for any occasion. Kumihimo is a transportable craft so once you have mastered the basics of placing your braids over the disc in different formations to make a variety of patterns and motifs, you can create kumihimo jewellery wherever you go.

From the author of Women from the Ankle Down comes a lively cultural biography of diamonds, which explores our society's obsession with the world's most brilliant gemstone and the real-world characters who make them shine. "A diamond is forever." Who among us doesn't recognize this phrase and, with it, the fascination that these shiny gemstones hold in our collective imagination as symbols of royalty, stars, and eternal love? But who gave us this catchphrase? Where do these gemstones and their colorful legacies originate? How did they become our culture's symbol of engagement and marriage? Why have they retained their coveted status throughout the centuries? Rachelle Bergstein's cultural biography of the diamond illuminates the enticing, often surprising story of our society's enduring obsession with the hardest gemstone-and the people who have worked tirelessly to ensure its continued allure. From the South African mines where most diamonds have been sourced since the late 1890s to the companies who have fought to monopolize them; from the stars who have dazzled in them to the people behind the scenes who have carefully crafted our understanding of their value-Brilliance and Fire offers a glittering history of the world's most coveted gemstone and its greatest champions and most colorful enthusiasts. Brilliance and Fire is illustrated with 16 pages of color photographs.

Whilst many jewellers and designers are working with plastics these days, there is very little information available about the methods and techniques required to manipulate them for jewellery-making purposes. This book includes instructions and advice on marking out and cutting, joining, laser and water-jet cutting, welding, curling, heating and colouring. Various methods for finishing plastic professionally are also explored, and the book features an inspirational gallery of works by contemporary artists, showcasing a fantastic range of results. With clear, step-by-step instructions, and full-colour images throughout, "Precious ""Jewellery from Plastics" requires no previous knowledge and covers everything you need to know about working with plastics, including polypropylene, acrylic, nylon, polystyrene and PVC."Precious "Jewellery from "Plastics" is a comprehensive guide to working with plastic for those who are keen to experiment with the medium for the first time, or even those with more experience who would like to expand their repertoire of skills.

From the author of Women from the Ankle Down comes a lively cultural biography of diamonds, which explores our society's obsession with the world's most brilliant gemstone and the real-world characters who make them shine. "A diamond is forever." Who among us doesn't recognize this phrase and, with it, the fascination that these shiny gemstones hold in our collective imagination as symbols of royalty, stars, and eternal love? But who gave us this catchphrase? Where do these gemstones and their colorful legacies originate? How did they become our culture's symbol of engagement and marriage? Why have they retained their coveted status throughout the centuries? Rachelle Bergstein's cultural biography of the diamond illuminates the enticing, often surprising story of our society's enduring obsession with the hardest gemstone-and the people who have worked tirelessly to ensure its continued allure. From the South African mines where most diamonds have been sourced since the late 1890s to the companies who have fought to monopolize them; from the stars who have dazzled in them to the people behind the scenes who have carefully crafted our understanding of their value-Brilliance and Fire offers a glittering history of the world's most coveted gemstone and its greatest champions and most colorful enthusiasts. Brilliance and Fire is illustrated with 16 pages of color photographs.

The Wellby Bequest, received by the Ashmolean Museum in 2013, consists of some 500 precious and exotic objects, mainly from Continental Europe, from the late medieval to the rococo, and is the most remarkable accession of this kind of material to any museum in the UK since the bequest of Ferdinand de Rothschild to the British Museum in 1898 (the Waddesdon Bequest). The collection was assembled by three generations of the Wellby family with an intention that it should reflect the great princely treasure chambers (Kunstkammer) preserved in Dresden, Vienna, Innsbruck, and elsewhere. Many of these objects have never been previously published. This beautiful and accessible book introduces over sixty of the prime pieces from this astonishing addition to the Ashmolean, presenting material of the type incomparably superior to anything in other UK museums outside London. Both authors are specialists in European decorative arts of the Renaissance and later periods.

Gisbert Stach's (b. 1963) monograph Jewellery and Experiment presents a multifaceted opus from twenty-five years of gold- and silversmithing. In his oeuvre the primarily conceptual artist combines jewellery with video, photography and performance. One focus of his work deals with processes of transformation and experiment - pieces disappear through chemical dissolution, and form is determined by agencies of growth in nature. Stach works with means of alienation and irritation. Ground amber serves as pigment, which he works into jewellery pieces in the form of fish fingers, sliced bread or schnitzel. A further characteristic of his work is the performative act, for example when brooches are pelted with knives. Gisbert Stach is represented in numerous museums and collections, including Die Neue Sammlung - The Design Museum, Munich (DE); Fondazione Cominelli, Brescia (IT); Museo de Arte Moderno, Tarragona (ES); Museum of Arts & Crafts, Itami (JP); Gallery of Art, Legnica (PL); Museum of Bohemian Paradise, Turnov (CZ); Amber Museum, Gdansk (PL). Published to accompany exhibitions at Arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart (DE), 9-11 November 2018, and Bayerischer Kunstgewerbeverein (BKV), Munich (DE) 28 February-24 March 2019. Text in English and German.

Whether you are an experienced jewellery-maker looking to move up to the next level, or a complete beginner, The Encyclopedia of Wire Jewellery Making Techniques is an invaluable resource. Using this book you can: Learn how to manipulate wire to create elegant structural designs for earrings, rings, pendants, necklaces, tiaras and brooches with clear, illustrated instructions Combine wire with beads and stones through threading and wrapping for an intricately embellished look Have fun experimenting with different types of wire, from precious metal to electrical and recycled wires Progress from basic wire-working skills to more advanced techniques, such as making linked jump-ring chains, simple soldering, and using chemicals to alter the wire finish.

Since ancient times, fashion jewellery in Italy has been, and still is, an important component of clothing. The history of fashion cannot be written without mentioning its jewels. This book presents 200 Italian fashion jewels that, spanning from the era of La Dolce Vita to the Pret a Porter of the Eighties, from '90s Minimalism to the Neo Baroque of the new millennium, define the aesthetic mirror of society and show the transformation of styles and customs, ambitions and conquests of women, the evolution of shapes and innovations of materials and new technologies. DIVA! Italian Glamor in Fashion Jewellery tells about fashion jewellery in its creative intersections with Italian excellence: craftsmanship, design and fashion. It is a typically Italian story based on the ability to combine creativity, manufacturing and industry, art and technology, beauty and innovation. The masters of costume jewellery enter a dialogue with the great stylists and the talents of design, three heterogeneous visions with a single great protagonist: the Italian fashion jewel. Text in English and Italian.

A stunning new volume which presents 120 pieces by 50 leading jewellery designers from the 1960s and '70s, including works by John Donald, Arthur King, Andrew Grima and Gilbert Albert. Simply Brilliant presents 120 pieces by 50 leading makers of jewellery in the 1960s and '70s, drawn from the Klosterman collection in Cincinnati. Most, if not all, of the individual makers of this era thought of themselves as artists first, jewellers second, and this magnificent new volume is full of stunning one of a kind pieces which reflect the inventive, ground-breaking attitudes of the era. The book explores the 1961 Goldsmiths Hall exhibition in London and its influence on contemporary jewellery designers such as John Donald, Arthur King, Andrew Grima and Gilbert Albert. The 1961 exhibition brought a new direction in jewellery design to the fore, influencing others - including the major jewellery houses such as Cartier, Bulgari, Chopard and Van Cleef and Arpels - paving the way for an international movement in fashion and design. These jewellery designers created unique pieces, often for individual clients, using non-traditional materials and unusual forms. AUTHOR: Cynthia Amneus is chief curator and curator of Fashion Arts and Textiles at Cincinnati Art Museum. 207 colour illustrations

This first book in the new series will get readers started in making beaded jewellery, similar to the hugely popular absolute beginner's course that Carolyn teaches. It introduces people who have no experience whatsoever, and who may never even have tried a craft before, to the basic techniques, tools and materials involved through simple, inspiring projects. It includes a pictorial 'Jargon buster' glossary of the essential tools and materials used (with both UK and US terms); an index; and 12 step-by-step projects through which people can learn the basic techniques while creating beautiful pieces of jewellery they would want to wear. Clear instructions, step-by-step photography and diagrams where necessary create a user-friendly guide. Projects will take no more than a couple of hours, making them achievable in an evening. Learn how to use memory wire, beading wire, stretchy cord, chain and jump rings to make desirable jewellery pieces. Design tips throughout will encourage beginners to get creative and become jewellery designers in their own right.

This book contains over 100 fabulous step-by-step jewellery projects, including necklaces, pendants, bracelets, earrings, brooches, pins and hair-slides. It takes you from novice to expert, covering all aspects from bead purchase and storage to jewellery making and even display and selling. It features beads and components from worldwide sources in a dazzling variety of styles, colours, sizes and shapes. Easy-to-follow instructions cover a huge range of techniques from simple and traditional to modern and innovative. Extensive suppliers list ensures the reader has the pick of the best beads available.