PLEIADES Art Jewelry

“Good art is art that allows you to enter it from a

variety of angles and to emerge

with a variety of views.”

~Mary Schmich

Gayle Friedman

Before taking up jewelry, I danced a lot, mostly flamenco. I’m attracted to its joyful and intense emotions as well as the flamenco concept of duende: the notion of pushing oneself as close to the edge as possible, where one becomes uncertain of the outcome. This captures the way I like to make jewelry.

I’m interested in the stuff that flows in and out of our lives - a scrap of fur, a ceramic shard. These objects are often imbued with unexplored meaning and emotion. I’m drawn to relationships, and in making my jewelry, I get to explore the relationships that we have with these materials, where they come from and how they can be understood through the medium of jewelry.

Fragile Landscape

My work takes shape organically. I begin with a stone or some other found object and play with it until I am clear how to proceed. Sometimes this results in simple shapes and lines and other times pieces become more complex.

1. What led you to designing and creating jewelry?

Porcelain Pendant

​I was a ceramic sculptor for years before I even thought about jewelry. Over time, my sculptures grew smaller and smaller and were hung on the wall. Some of the pieces in my last show were only 3" tall. Then I stopped doing ceramics to help found an alternative school, where I spent 7 years. After I left the school I enrolled in a jewelry class and was immediately taken. It seemed so natural to make tiny things that hung vertically on the body.

2. Are you a full time artist and how did you make your way there?

Cocoa Pod Necklace

​Yes. I'm a full time artist, but I'm also the founder and director of Studio 4903, a working artist studio space that features jewelry. I'm fortunate to be able to sell out of the studio as well as around town and in some galleries throughout the country.​

3. Biggest challenge as an artist?

​​Marketing!

4. Describe your creative process?

​I'm very curious and drawn to many materials and processes. I find or buy or make things that interest and intrigue me. Then I sit with them, sketch a bit, sometimes working on pieces for months. I play with them, move them around, put them together and often take them apart and eventually I end up with a piece that feels right. ​

 5. What inspires you?

​Dirt/clay, negative spaces, hidden places, rocks that don't look precious, ​the stories behind things, "duende" or being on the edge and about to go over. Right now I'm really into a book I just got on wallpaper!

6. Tell me about the technical process you employ in your work.

​I mostly solder and pierce my work. Occasionally I'll cast pieces or carve in wax. I like using alternative materials, which constantly challenge me to come up with interesting and "right" ways of incorporating them. ​

7. How would you describe your artistic style and how has it changed over the years?

Clay Cup Earrings

​Eclectic. Somewhat funky. Far-flung. The bodies of work I've made have changed over the years, as I explore different themes and materials. I've been using some beads lately in my pieces, which I never would have thought I would have done when I first began making jewelry. ​

8. Any big plans for the future? Other shows, etc...

Fur Ring

​Studio 4903 will have its annual Holiday Show on December 14, from 1-5! Please come!

Oh, and a new website, which I'm working to develop! One where I can easily add new pieces I've made.​

9. If someone wants to purchase a piece from you (away from the show) what is the best way for them to contact you?

​e-mail: gaylefriedman1@gmail.com

​or cell: 202.641.4248​

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Courtney Gillen

Sterling silver set with sea glass, recycled glass and pearls. Designs are clean and simple, often taking inspiration from the glass itself. All work is done using traditional metalsmiting techniques.

I have been a full time jewelry maker for over 18 years, doing about 17 - 20 shows per year and selling to stores and galleries around the country. My specialty is sea glass.

I first discovered sea glass about twenty years ago when a family member moved to Hawaii and out of the blue sent me a box of sea glass with a note "this might make nice jewelry". At the time I was starting out and my work resembled an amalgamation of many different techniques. There was no cohesion. The sea glass brought it all together. I fell in love with it, its gorgeous subtle look, and the unique shapes and colors.

This material matched my metalsmithing style, which is organic in nature. I like to just jump in with my silver at my work bench. There are often no plans for the work day other than it’s an earring day. My sketch books are full of loosely drawn ideas, but often the designs are created in the moment at the bench. I have still not tired of this material even after all this time. It’s still a thrill to go though my vast collection of sea glass and wonder what its previous life was and how old it is.

The majority of my collection I have personally gathered, mostly from old dump sites on the western shores of Kauai, Hawaii. I also incorporate fresh water pearls and recycled glass in the work. All the work is a one of a kind due to the nature of the sea glass. That is what is so fun about this material; unlike calibrated stones each has a different shape. This also means this work cannot be mass produced. Much of the sea glass jewelry on the market today is wire wrapped or drilled, not my jewelry, my glass is bezel set in hand fabricated settings which are often inspired by the glass itself.

This material has become more scarce in recent years due to the use of plastic bottles and recycling. It is rapidly disappearing off North American beaches as people collect it. We no longer dump refuse into the ocean and we recycle glass. Now there are sea glass festivals, books, lectures, and even sea glass associations. Back twenty years ago when I started working with it many people thought I was crazy thinking anyone would buy it. At the time there were only a handful of jewelry artists using this material. There are many more now, my work stands out because of my many years of experience with it, and my love of metal working.

Courtney Gillen, Jeweler from Alexia Prichard on Vimeo.

http://www.courtneygillen.com/Site/home.html

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Sandra Zacharia

I use shell forming, fold forming and raising techniques to create graceful forms that follow the patterns of nature. Using silver, gold, copper and bronze, each piece is handcrafted in silver, gold or bronze with added textures and patina.

The clean lines in my jewelry reflect an endurance within nature, ...the beauty of seashells washed ashore a thousand times, ...the delicacy of veins outlining the leaf that has long since crumbled and blown away. It is this tension between the stamina and fragility in nature that infuses my work with a life of its own.

1. What led you to designing and creating jewelry? 

     

I like to see things in terms of the patterns they create. The ones presented to us in nature are fascinating because they are just there, and they’re always perfect. The ones that we create ourselves just by manipulating things are exciting. If you let yourself go, you never know where you’ll end up. Often, without planning to, I’ll find myself right back at nature. 

I love to work with metal. Before I made jewelry, I was a textile designer. For me it was essentially the same thing, only then, the patterns were two dimensional.

2. Are you a full time artist and how did you make your way there?

Jerusalem Studio

At this point, I make jewelry full time, but I didn’t always. I went to F.I.T. and started out as a textile designer. For years, while I was living in New York, I designed fabrics for the fashion industry. Later, I moved to Israel where I raised my two oldest children and studied jewelry design at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem.We left Israel and came to live in the DC area nine years ago. Soon after, I was able to begin making jewelry full time. I work in my home studio. I participate in several shows throughout the year, and I'm a member of 2 galleries, the Waverly Street Gallery in Bethesda and The Jerusalem House of Quality in Israel. All this keeps me pretty busy in my studio.

3. Biggest challenge as an artist?

Silver  Knot

I’ve worked hard to refine my work. Getting to the core, finding what really moves me in a piece, clearing distractions…

Knowing what I need to do and finding the discipline to do it, is a great challenge for me.

4. Describe your creative process? 

Work In Progress

I like to doodle through the creative process. I usually begin with copper or brass. I'll cut a piece in a shape that pleases me and then just start playing with it. I don't plan in the beginning. It's more a stream of consciousness type of thing. As I hammer and manipulate the metal I get inspired by what it's becoming.Most of my inspiration comes from the process of doing. Only then do I decide want it is. At that point I'll begin to adjust my work to make the pattern. I cut it from heavy card stock and then from metal. Once I have something that I like I play with different variations of it until the idea eventually morphs into something new.

6. Tell me about the technical process you employ in your work.

Sky Blue

I combine different forming techniques. Whatever I need to do to get the metal to flow. I primarily use fold forming, anticlastic raising and synclastic forming. 

7. How would you describe your artistic style and how has it changed over the years?

Metamorphosis Cuff

I like to think of my style as earthy yet clean. When I started out I didn’t use any forming techniques. Everything was fabricated, meaning I would cut and solder to create my pieces. Now my work flows. I hammer and form. Its very liberating.

9. If someone wants to purchase a piece from you (away from the show) what is the best way for them to contact you?

Ocean Blue

The best way to reach me is by email artjewelsz@gmail.com), throughout Facebook (www.facebook.com/artjewelsz) or my website (www.artjewelsz.com). My work can also be seen at the Waverly Street Gallery in Bethesda, MD.

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