JEWELRY IS A BRIDGE

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SMCK MAGAZINE CATALOGUE - PART I

Jewelry is one of the oldest forms of art, and is far more than ornamentation. The catalogue Jewelry Is A Bridge is the meeting point of the huge tradition manifest in all civilizations and historical eras with new trends and definitions of beauty, values, skills, social prestige, and magic.

Jewelry Is A Bridge is divided into three chapters: Magic, Life Milestones, Social Values. The three separate chapters reflect jewelry's rich cultural and spiritual history, and spot the changes that shape its future functions and perception. The chapters facilitate readers to gain insight into the makers' work and to picture it in the context of jewelry's conceptual, economic or emotional role in human societies.
Works by selected jewelry artists, and exhibits from the collections of major cultural institutions and renowned galleries tell of jewelry's past and future. Scheduled international jewelry events are also included in the catalogue that serves as a 2024 Jewelry Calendar.Jewelry is one of the oldest forms of art, and is far more than ornamentation. The catalogue Jewelry Is A Bridge is the meeting point of the huge tradition manifest in all civilizations and historical eras with new trends and definitions of beauty, values, skills, social prestige, and magic.

Jewelry Is A Bridge is divided into three chapters: Magic, Life Milestones, Social Values. The three separate chapters reflect jewelry's rich cultural and spiritual history, and spot the changes that shape its future functions and perception. The chapters facilitate readers to gain insight into the makers' work and to picture it in the context of jewelry's conceptual, economic or emotional role in human societies.

Title. Photo: Chr. Ziegler.

Numerous jewels from different eras and cultures show that in archaic societies jewelry was believed to have powers that protected the wearer from evil. Motifs such as knots, eyes, chess patterns or materials such as blue stones or gold reflect concepts of omnipotent jewelry.

The transformation of materials or the change of their substance, colors, shape, or the introduction of movement or capturing and reflection of light, pays tribute to the alchemists' heritage.

The ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras called the universe the cosmos (after the Greek cosmos for jewelry) to describe the beauty of the stars shining like diamonds through the holes of the black velvet textile with which Gods covered the sun!
Jewelry can be seen as a tiny piece, a particle of the cosmos we carry with us; this cosmos is represented by the stones, metals, and other materials, as well as by the elements of wood, fire, wind, water used to make jewelry.

Metals' qualities such as their color, change thus linking silver to the moon since early antiquity, while gold's unfading color connected it to the everlasting warmth and brightness of the sun. Other qualities, like the diamond's strength and durability, are said to reflect on the wearer's character thus helping us understand the use of specific materials in royal jewelry.

Nowadays, magic is honored when an artist turns an object of death, a bullet or a projectile, into a symbol of beauty and resurrection.

Works by:

Donald Friedlich • Sigurd Bronger • Danner Foundation / Eija Mustonen • Carolina Gomes • Stanislav Drokin • Linnea Montvilla • Francisco Guevara • Grassimuseum / Jacqueline Ryan • Nicola Heidemann • Katie Kameen • Veronica Cheann.

"Lumina Series Brooch", 2021. Glass coated with vaporized quartz and metallic oxides, borosilicate glass, 14k gold. Photo: Sanders Visual Images.


DONALD FRIEDLICH

"My work highlights qualities unique to jewellery as a medium, particularly the fact that when worn, jewellery is viewed in motion. My Lumina Series designs comment on this movement by appearing to dramatically shift in color when viewed at different angles. While two colors usually dominate, many different colors magically dance through my designs. Even in modest ambient light, they sparkle and appear lit from within.

I'm also playing with qualities inherent to both glass and polished gems, such as the color changes of an alexandrite or chatoyance of a star sapphire."


www.donaldfriedlich.com   |   @donfriedlich

"Sustainable construction nr.2", brooch, 2022. Oxidized silver, cotton tread, steel, brass, paint old cardboard box. Photo: S. Bronger.


SIGURD BRONGER

"A box without a content triggers my curiosity to look for a new function and bring it into a new context.
I want to visualise the void of the box and imagine its size, weight and shape. I sometimes allow myself to cut and change the shape of the given box so the void will evoke a light transparent space. I can also add colour to the shape, to give extra attention to the form.

By emphasizing a spring-loaded construction for the fastening mechanism, the shape and the size of the piece will often appear in some peculiar way, but at the same time it will highlight the function of the piece as an object to wear."


www.la-joaillerie-par-mazlo.fr   |   @brongersigurd

Eija Mustonen, "Apron & Mittens", body jewelry, 2014/15. Nickel-plated silver, copper. Courtesy of Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum. Permanent Loan of the Danner Foundation. Photo: A. Laurenzo.


DANNER FOUNDATION / EIJA MUSTONEN

Eija Mustonen's artistic language is closely interwoven with Finnish culture. Her exceptional work broadens the definition of jewelry and places it more strongly in the context of art.
  "The Apron and Mittens  protect their user...while shoveling, harvesting, hammering, gardening, cooking. These...apron and mittens are made by using my early skills, as I was educated as a silversmith thirty years ago. Hammering metal with a hammer and anvil fascinates me, how two-dimensional metal plates can be formed into a three-dimensional form. With these pieces of work, I want to honor craft and especially smithing." (Eija Mustonen Interview, AJF 2016)

The jewelry collection of Danner Foundation was set up forty years ago with the aim of presenting a wide range of jewelry. The Danner Rotunde opened at Pinakothek der Moderne in 2004. Pinakothek der Moderne is currently the only art museum with a wing solely dedicated to modern jewelry. In the Danner Rotunde, Danner Foundation and Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum present their collections together.


www.danner-stiftung.de   |   @dannerstiftung

"Skins", necklace, 2023. Polymer clay, resin, pigments, steel chain, steel wire, glass ball, water, glass beads. Photo: C. Gomes.


CAROLINA GOMES

Garden of Tears, Carolina Gomes' latest series, intertwines emotions, transformation, and embodiment. Each piece, a protective talisman, encourages self-expression. At the heart of this series lies the celebration of hybridity, blending natural with synthetic, ancestral with futuristic, sacred with profane, challenging traditional norms. This fusion represents human identity's fluidity and complexity, transcending conventional boundaries.

Diverse materials and techniques mirror our multifaceted identities, their intersecting layers shaping our experiences. Emphasizing the body as a site for resistance, healing, and artistic expression, the series engages the senses and encourages the exploration of consciousness and soul.


www.carolinagomesjewelry.com   |   @carolinagomes.jewelry

Brooch (131-04072022), Forget Me Not collection, 2022. Russian projectile, oxidized blue titanium, neodymium magnet. Photo: Stanislav Drokin.


STANISLAV DROKIN

The collection Forget Me Not preserves the memory of the events of each day of Russia's war: the memory of the courage of the defenders, of the destruction of the cultural, historical, scientific heritage of Ukraine by the Russians, and of the people who lost their lives. The brooch is also a symbol of gratitude for the international legal, humanitarian, medical and military assistance to Ukraine. It also symbolizes the resurrection of life from the ruins of the tragedy.

The collection was launched during the war in Kharkiv. Each piece is a unique and handmade from a steel fragment of a Russian projectile. Seven stylized forget-me-not flowers, made of oxidized blue titanium, are randomly arranged on the front plane of the brooch.
One of the Forget Me Not brooches was created for Dr. Jill Biden, First Lady of The United States.


www.stanislavdrokin.com   |   @stanislavdrokin

Safety Pin Brooch, Found Objects collection, 2023. Nail, safety pin, bronze. Photo: L. Montvila.


LINNEA MONTVILLA

Found objects is a collection based on nails found whilst renovating an old house. Textile plays a significant role in the design, offering a contrast to the rigidity of metal.
This collection celebrates life's continuous journey, paying tribute to the past and the beauty of transformation. It's about giving new meaning to objects that have served their purpose, allowing them to shine yet again in a different form.


www.inonesprime.com   |   @inonesprime

"Much Amusement in This Tour", pendant, 2022. Rainbow obsidian mirror on cast sterling silver, encrusted with antique rubies and sapphires. Photo: F. Guevara.


FRANCISCO GUEVARA

"I have delved into the subject of your research and think I have found a good analogy with a work. The object Rotating Square (2020) from four antique door handles definitely has a metaphysical background. The symbol of the sun is also emphasized by the golden color of brass. The rotation without beginning and end. The doorknobs that reach out to each other. The reference to the human function as door opener and door closer."


www.franciscoguevara.art   |   @fguevararobles

Jacqueline Ryan, Oval brooch, 1999. Gold, enamel. © Courtesy of Grassi Museum Leipzig. Photo: Felix Bielmeier.


GRASSIMUSEUM / JAQUELINE RYAN

The small plates covered with white enamel move like blossom leaves blown by the wind. They are supported by a circular, turned inwards background made of gold, that makes the play between light and shadow on this tiny space more impressive.
The brooch by Jacqueline Ryan was donated to Grassimuseum by Peter Nickl and his wife Binette Schroeder a few years ago.

GRASSI Museum for Applied Arts in Leipzig is celebrating its 150 anniversary this year.


www.grassimak.de   |   @grassimak

"A mossy stroll", bracelet, 2022. Forged, heat colored, lacquered titanium. Photo: N. Heidemann.


NICOLA HEIDEMANN

A walk through moss and lichen.
The beauty of the small shape.
A green that seems to have algae growing on it.
Shapes like granite boulders in the forest.

My starting material is titanium, sheet and wire.
The shapes and the surfaces arise through forging.


www.nicolaheidemann.de   |   @nicolaheidemann

"Outdoor Play", necklace, 2022. Found plastic objects. Photo: K. Kameen.




"My work is influenced by personal experiences, translated through the formal qualities of mass-produced items. I form post-consumer plastics into new compositions that combine elements of self-portraiture with the stories already embedded in the found objects.
From broad recollections of a separation or union, to specific childhood memories, my abstractions represent our continuous process of acclimation and growth.

The unquestionable environmental impact, combined with our universal and life-long familiarity with the material, allows me to speak about a wide range of emotional and social issues."


www.katiekameen.com   |   @katiekameen

"Skin viewer", ring series, 2024. Silver, bronze, bass, copper. Photo: V. Cheann.


VERONICA CHEANN

"My works focus on the emotional experience with materials, the perceptual discrepancy between the visual and the tactile.
Skin Viewer belongs to a ring series where the making of jewelry does not see the body as an object, but focuses on the void - the negative spaces around and between our fingers.

In my work, spaces are being rediscovered, constructed, framed and viewed through the eyes of various sized needles that serve as windows. Light is being captured, redirected, and radiated back where we started, namely our body."


www.cheann.com   |   @vcheann