Every day, people surround us wearing art, history, and culture, but we usually don't pay attention. Most people think about jewelry as an afterthought or accessory. But jewelry can tell a larger story, one reflecting the connection between contemporary culture and that of yesteryear.
Is jewelry clothing, art, status symbol, or something more? The jewelry world seems to be hidden in plain sight and little understood. The Jewelry Journey podcast explores the many aspects of jewelry and its status as art. We talk with those who live and breathe this form of adornment: makers, dealers, gallerists, academics collectors and more. The goal is to elevate the conversation beyond Etsy or big diamonds and see jewelry in a new light, so that we can appreciate the little pieces of wonder that float by each day.
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Episode 224 Part 2: How Jennifer Merchant Continues the Tradition of Op Art in her Jewelry
Episode 224
Friday, June 7, 2024 • Duration 20:35
What you'll learn in this episode:
Jennifer's unique process of layering acrylic and art images, and how she discovered her signature technique.
Why the most important thing a young artist can do is find their voice.
Why Jennifer rarely uses images her customers request in her jewelry.
How Jennifer's work ties into the history of pop and op art.
Why Jennifer sees other art jewelers as inspiration, not competition.
About Jennifer Merchant:
Jennifer Merchant is a studio t based in Minneapolis, MN. She graduated with a BFA in Metals and Jewelry from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She is a full-time artist showcasing her work in galleries, museums and exhibitions. Her work has been published in several national magazines such as American Craft, Ornament and Delta Sky Magazine.
Merchant is best known for her innovative layered acrylic process in which images and prints are layered between solid acrylic. Her work is graphic with clean lines and modern aesthetic. Pieces confound viewers, appearing transparent from one angle of view while showcasing bold patterns and colors from another.
Like the op and pop art that inspires it, Jennifer Merchant's jewelry challenges your eye. Clear from some angles and bold and colorful from others, the jewelry is created by layering acrylic with images from art books. Jennifer joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about how she developed her technique; how she chooses the images in her jewelry; and why art jewelers need to work together to push the discipline forward. Read the episode transcript here.
Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the second part of a two-part episode. If you haven't heard part one, please head to TheJewelryJourney.com.
Today, my guest is Jennifer Merchant. Jennifer was also a guest several years ago. She thought she would be a metalsmith but segued to acrylic jewelry, which is what she has become known for: creative and innovative acrylic jewelry such as necklaces, bracelets, earrings and brooches. They have eye-catching graphics embedded in them. I was also surprised to learn that hand carving is sometimes involved. Welcome back.
When you left college, did you know you were going to have your own business?
Jennifer: Not right away. I think it took me about five years to really get the confidence together to start my own business. I definitely spent that first five years after graduation very lost and not really sure what in the heck I was going to do with my jewelry degree, especially because I went to school in Savannah, Georgia. That's where I made all my art connections and jewelry connections. Moving back to Minneapolis, I was off on my own. I didn't have a community at that point. It definitely was a number of years of wondering, "How am I going to end up using this degree that cost me so much money?"
I had been waiting tables and was increasingly unhappy because I knew I had something different to offer the world. I ended up getting fired from a job. I had been speaking with a friend at work who had another friend that was putting on an art show. She had told me about it because she knew I was an artist. I remember getting fired from the job and calling her up right away, like, "I think I want to do that art show because I need to try to make some money." It went okay, and it inspired me to say, "Jewelry is something you can do and make a living with. Let's give this a shot."
I had to move back home with my mom for a couple of years and cut my expenses way down, because I wasn't going to take out another loan to start a business. I built it very small, very scrappy. I had a second bedroom in my mom's house where I had my workshop, and I started from there doing little local events. That's where it all started.
Sharon: Wow. What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to somebody who's just starting out?
Jennifer: I would say when you're just starting out, really try to find your voice.
Sharon: What do you do? What does one do when they find their voice? For instance, some people have found the voice, but they're homemakers or they work in an office. What do you do when you find your voice?
Jennifer: I think once you know what you want to say, the next step is finding out who wants to hear it. And that is a very hard step, finding your niche and finding your people that resonate with your voice. I think the only way to really do that is to get yourself out there, get your work out there.
I think with the Internet now and how accessible online stuff is, it might be a little easier to get yourself out there through social media, through the Internet, than maybe it was years ago when you had to have a physical presence out in the world. People can start by getting their work out there online and hopefully seeing who is interested, who connects with it, and then finding places in the real, outside world to continue that process and eventually find your market.
Sharon: Do you have people who come to you with the image they want to include already?
Jennifer: Not very often. I've had people ask me about that, but I think ultimately, I have to be drawn to the image specifically in order to be able to incorporate it in a piece. I did have a client that had a specific art piece she wanted in a bracelet for her daughter. That I was able to do because I resonated with the work and it was something that worked well within the form of jewelry.
I've also had requests where someone wants family mementos or something encased in the acrylic. That's a very cool, sentimental thing, but visually, it doesn't really work with my aesthetic as well. I'm not going to do something just because I get asked for it. I also have to be drawn to it enough in order to go through with it, because it is a labor-intensive process and it is an art of passion. If I'm not super excited about the thing I'm making, it's probably not going to turn out that great either.
I have tried to do things early on in my career specifically for a client that just didn't quite work out. We weren't on the same page. I think as you get more into it, you figure out the types of things you can push the boundaries on and the types of things that you can't. When someone's request is something that you can do and make them happy with, and when it's just not something that'll work out, you know.
Sharon: That's interesting. So if somebody brought you their wedding photo, it depends on whether you like the wedding dress or something like that.
Jennifer: Or if it has enough visual interest. I think the thing that makes my work successful is the images that I do use are interesting within a small scale of jewelry, and not all images can do that. I work with a lot of op art and pop art, and there's a lot of visual interest going on in a small space. With a photograph or something more sentimental, that's not always the case. It just wouldn't look as cool as they think it's going to.
Sharon: I've seen comic books used in your work. How did you come to that?
Jennifer: All of the things in my work that look like comic books are actually Roy Lichtenstein pieces. His pop art was inspired by comics, and he reimagined them into huge canvases and paintings. My jewelry does something similar, where I take Roy Lichtenstein's work and images and collect tons of books and rip out those pages and put that in my jewelry. It feels kind of meta. I've actually met some of his descendants and collectors and friends over the years, and a lot of them assure me that he would really appreciate what I'm doing with his work. It's a very similar idea as to how he repurposed art and things that he saw into something new and different.
Sharon: That's interesting. I didn't know that. Did you study art history in college as you were studying jewelry and metal and all that?
Jennifer: Yeah, art history is definitely part of your Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. It wasn't always my favorite class because the art history classes were about art that was ancient and a lot of religious art and that sort of thing. I think I had one class where it was modern art in the 20th century, which, of course, is the most interesting to me.
But that art history background definitely sparked some interest in different art movements and art periods. Art Deco is a very favorite design motif of mine. As I was talking about earlier, I'm very inspired by pop art and op art. I think art history plays a huge role. I never thought at the time when I was in school that I would end up studying more about art history and specific artists and doing that kind of research, but it is really important to my work now.
Sharon: Can you explain what the difference between pop art and op art is?
Jennifer: Sure. With pop art, everyone knows Roy Lichtenstein and Warhol. They took popular things or everyday objects like a soup can and made them stylized and put them in the context of fine art as this kind of ridiculous thing. Op art deals with optical properties. A lot of op art is very linear. It kind of tricks your eye. It looks like it's moving, but it's a static image.
Funny enough, when I started working with op art, I was actually collecting those optical illusions books for kids. There'd be very few usable images in there, but there'd be a few black and white, scintillating-looking, squiggly-lined spirals or something like that. That sparked my interest in optical art and looking it up outside of the context of those silly books for kids. I found out this is a whole art movement, and there are artists like Richard Anuszkiewicz and Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley that pioneered this in the 60s, when it really became a thing. I just find it so fascinating. But it's kind of funny that my two art movements that I use a lot in my work are pop and op. Like, who knew?
Sharon: Do you ever use any other kind besides those? You say you like Art Deco. I don't know what you'd use for an image, but I guess you could use an Art Deco image.
Jennifer: I think with Art Deco I am more inspired by the overall forms of pieces or the shapes. I like the ideas. I like the repetitive nature of Art Deco. They went from Art Nouveau, where it was all crazy and ornate, and then Art Deco kind of simplified things. It was a little more streamlined. I really like that. I think I carry those design principles through my work, not as much the direct visuals. Although if I could find great books with Art Deco prints of patterns or wallpapers or whatever, I'd love to use those. I just haven't quite found the right image sources yet for that.
Finding pop art and op art books has been pretty easy for me, and the images are just so striking, so that's why I've gravitated towards those. I'm open to other types of art and other artists. I just haven't moved on yet from the things I am working on. I can only focus on so many things at a time, but I could see myself doing some collections using Rothko paintings or Gerhard Richter with those interesting images, Jackson Pollock with the splashes. Those kinds of things I could see being very interesting within the context of layered acrylic. It just depends on where my book collection takes me.
Sharon: So, if we're looking at used books at a used bookstore, we should keep our eyes open for interesting things that could be used as interesting prints.
Jennifer: Yeah. I actually buy so many of my books online because physical shops only have so many things, and what I'm looking for is so specific. The art sections are usually kind of small, so I've ended up finding a lot of online retailers. I've gotten pretty good at being able to figure out whether a book is going to be visually interesting based on the online listing. I will even look at the size of the book, if they list dimensions, to give me ideas. If it seems like a good coffee table art book with lots of pictures, that's what I'm trying to find. Something with lots of great images.
Sharon: It sounds like people would be very interested in your leftovers.
Jennifer: I have a whole shelf of these books that are like little skeletons. You can see the sections where I've really gone to town ripping pages out, and then other sections that are left. There's plenty of things I leave in the book that I think are amazing, but they just aren't going to work for jewelry. Yeah, I've got a lot of skeleton books on my shelf. I keep them. I can't get rid of them.
Sharon: I like that, skeleton books. Once again, it's a Herculean task, the whole thing of starting your own business. Would you say that there is somebody that inspired you and keeps inspiring you?
Jennifer: I wouldn't say it's a specific person. I think after that initial, tiny show that I did trying to sell my work, I think the most inspiring thing was seeing the other artists and seeing people that were making a living doing their work. I think that's what's really inspiring to me, finally meeting other people that were already doing what I wanted to do and realizing, "Wow, this is a viable career path."
There's not a lot of artists in my family, so no one really had any advice to give me back in the day. They weren't necessarily unsupportive, but they didn't really know how to encourage my art, either. It's been very helpful getting out there and seeing people that are doing things and just being inspired. Different artists and different people inspire me for very different reasons. Some artists, their work is the thing that inspires you, and other artists have such a great work ethic or a really creative way of marketing. I try to keep my eyes and ears open all the time, and I let inspirations muddle around in my brain. And then one day some other thing will trigger an idea. You just never know. I try to always be open.
Sharon: I'm surprised; I usually see you at shows where there are a lot of other art jewelers, which is what I categorize you as. I see art jewelers, makers a lot. I'm thinking of New York City Jewelry Week, which is where I saw you once or twice. The last time I saw you, I wasn't able to say hello. I would think you'd be more—well, maybe it's the way I am, but I'd be more envious or competitive seeing all the other art jewelers, as opposed to finding inspiration.
Jennifer: I don't know. I don't think of it as a competition in any way. I think it helps me a lot because my work is so different from everyone else's, so there isn't a super direct comparison. I think maybe for some other types of jewelers it might be a little different because there is more of a direct comparison with their aesthetic or their materials. In that respect, there isn't really competition.
I used to be a lot more of a competitive person, but as I've gotten older and been in the business long enough and met all different artists, you just see that it's so much more about passion and drive. You can be successful doing just about anything if you're willing to put the work in.
I've met so many different people with so many different types of jewelry and art, and they're successful in radically different ways. Even if some other artist is successful in a way that will never work for me, I still love learning about what they're doing. Even if it doesn't directly apply to me, there's something in that lesson, in listening to them and their story that might click something for me in an indirect manner. So, I really do try to be open and inspired by everyone, and I definitely don't see it as competition.
I think it's great seeing more and more art jewelers getting work out there, making things that are big and bold and wild and weird materials. The more of it that's out there, the better for all of us, because then the consumer or the client is seeing more of it out in the world. Then when they come across my work, it might not seem as weird or as off putting. They might get it a little bit faster and a little bit easier because of all the other people that came before me and all the people that are alongside me. I think working together as a community, being inspired by each other, helping each other be successful, that can only help all of us.
Sharon: Do you think when people first see your art, they don't think of it as jewelry because it doesn't have diamonds or emeralds? Do they think of it as a throw away, in a way?
Jennifer: Oh, yeah. I've had the gamut of reactions to my work, and it really depends on the setting it's in as well as how people respond to it. There are definitely people out there that, to them, jewelry is diamonds and gold, and that's fine. I might not be able to change their mind. Other people see the work and, right away, think it looks cool. Maybe they didn't even know it was a bracelet, but they were drawn to it. Then when they find out it's an actual wearable piece, they're even more blown away. You never know what kind of reaction you're going to get from people.
I've definitely had to do a lot of educating on my process and the materials because when someone sees a plastic necklace that costs $2,000, they kind of scratch their heads, like, "What is going on here?" And then I tell them all about the process and all the different steps and all the different things that went into it. Sometimes you win people over, and sometimes they're like, "Why bother?" I just try to pay more attention to the people that are won over and interested. If they're not, that's fine. I know my work is not for everyone, and I'm okay with that.
Sharon: That's an interesting philosophy. You've given me a different perspective as well on your jewelry. Thank you for being here today, Jennifer.
Jennifer: Yes. Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.
We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out.
Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a rating and review so we can help others start their own jewelry journey.
Episode 224 Part 1: How Jennifer Merchant Continues the Tradition of Op Art in her Jewelry
Episode 224
Wednesday, June 5, 2024 • Duration 22:31
What you'll learn in this episode:
Jennifer's unique process of layering acrylic and art images, and how she discovered her signature technique.
Why the most important thing a young artist can do is find their voice.
Why Jennifer rarely uses images her customers request in her jewelry.
How Jennifer's work ties into the history of pop and op art.
Why Jennifer sees other art jewelers as inspiration, not competition.
About Jennifer Merchant:
Jennifer Merchant is a studio t based in Minneapolis, MN. She graduated with a BFA in Metals and Jewelry from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She is a full-time artist showcasing her work in galleries, museums and exhibitions. Her work has been published in several national magazines such as American Craft, Ornament and Delta Sky Magazine.
Merchant is best known for her innovative layered acrylic process in which images and prints are layered between solid acrylic. Her work is graphic with clean lines and modern aesthetic. Pieces confound viewers, appearing transparent from one angle of view while showcasing bold patterns and colors from another.
Like the op and pop art that inspires it, Jennifer Merchant's jewelry challenges your eye. Clear from some angles and bold and colorful from others, the jewelry is created by layering acrylic with images from art books. Jennifer joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about how she developed her technique; how she chooses the images in her jewelry; and why art jewelers need to work together to push the discipline forward. Read the episode transcript here.
Episode 219 Part 2: Power, Politics and Jewelry: Marta Costa Reis on the Second Lisbon Contemporary Jewelry Biennial
Episode 219
Friday, March 15, 2024 • Duration 23:30
What you'll learn in this episode:
What to expect at the second Lisbon Contemporary Jewelry Biennial and tips for attending.
How Portugal's 48-year authoritarian regime and the Carnation Revolution continue to influence Portuguese artists and jewelers today.
Why jewelry is so closely linked to power and politics.
How artists can use masterclasses and workshops to refocus their work.
How Marta is working to promote Portugal's art jewelry scene.
About Marta Costa Reis
Marta Costa Reis started studying jewelry in 2004, as a hobby, in parallel with other professional activities. She dedicated herself fully to this work in 2014. Costa Reis completed the jewelry course at Ar.Co – Centro de Arte e Comunicacção Visual, in Lisbon, and the Advanced Visual Arts Course at the same school, in addition to workshops with renowned teachers including Iris Eichenberg, Ruudt Peters, Lisa Walker, and Eija Mustonen, among others. In addition to being a jewelry artist, Costa Reis teaches jewelry history at Ar.Co, writes about jewelry, and curates exhibitions. She also serves as artistic director of the Lisbon Contemporary Jewelry Biennial and as a board member of Art Jewelry Forum.
How does jewelry symbolize power, and where do jewelry and politics intersect? That's the central question that Marta Costa Reis and her fellow curators, artists and speakers will explore at this year's Lisbon Contemporary Jewelry Biennial. Marta joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about why this year's theme is so timely; how Portugal's turbulent political history influences jewelry today; and how to plan your trip to make the most of the biennial. Read the episode transcript here.
Episode 177 Part 2: History at Your Fingertips: How Beatriz Chadour-Sampson Catalogued 2,600 Historic Rings
Episode 177
Friday, December 23, 2022 • Duration 35:37
What you'll learn in this episode:
How Beatriz discovered and catalogued the 2,600 rings in the Alice and Louis Koch Ring Collection at the Swiss National Museum
How Covid lockdown changed how people wear jewelry
Beatriz's tricks for making a jewelry exhibit more engaging
What it's like to work with jewels uncovered from shipwrecks
How global trade has influenced how jewelry is designed and made
About Beatriz Chadour-Sampson
Beatriz Chadour-Sampson studied art history, classical archaeology and Italian philology at the University of East Anglia, and at the University of Münster, Germany. Her doctoral thesis was on the Italian Renaissance goldsmith Antonio Gentili da Faenza. In 1985 she published the jewelry collection of the Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Cologne. Since 1988 she has worked freelance as a jewelry historian, curator of exhibitions and academic writer in Britain. Her numerous publications on jewelry, ranging from antiquity to the present day, include the The Gold Treasure from the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción (1991), and 2000 Finger Rings from the Alice and Louis Koch Collection, Switzerland (1994). She was the consultant curator in the re-designing of the William and Judith Bollinger Jewelry Gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum (opened in 2008), London and was guest curator of the 'Pearl' exhibition (2013-14). She is an Associate Member of the Goldsmiths' Company, London.
Today Beatriz Chadour-Sampson works as a freelance international and jewelry historian and scholarly author. Her extensive publications range from Antiquity to the present day.
Episode 177 Part 1: History at Your Fingertips: How Beatriz Chadour-Sampson Catalogued 2,600 Historic Rings
Episode 177
Wednesday, December 21, 2022 • Duration 33:22
What you'll learn in this episode:
How Beatriz discovered and catalogued the 2,600 rings in the Alice and Louis Koch Ring Collection at the Swiss National Museum
How Covid lockdown changed how people wear jewelry
Beatriz's tricks for making a jewelry exhibit more engaging
What it's like to work with jewels uncovered from shipwrecks
How global trade has influenced how jewelry is designed and made
About Beatriz Chadour-Sampson
Beatriz Chadour-Sampson studied art history, classical archaeology and Italian philology at the University of East Anglia, and at the University of Münster, Germany. Her doctoral thesis was on the Italian Renaissance goldsmith Antonio Gentili da Faenza. In 1985 she published the jewelry collection of the Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Cologne. Since 1988 she has worked freelance as a jewelry historian, curator of exhibitions and academic writer in Britain. Her numerous publications on jewelry, ranging from antiquity to the present day, include the The Gold Treasure from the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción (1991), and 2000 Finger Rings from the Alice and Louis Koch Collection, Switzerland (1994). She was the consultant curator in the re-designing of the William and Judith Bollinger Jewelry Gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum (opened in 2008), London and was guest curator of the 'Pearl' exhibition (2013-14). She is an Associate Member of the Goldsmiths' Company, London.
Today Beatriz Chadour-Sampson works as a freelance international and jewelry historian and scholarly author. Her extensive publications range from Antiquity to the present day.
Episode 176 Part 2: How Linda Orlick Helped Put the Jewelry Industry on the Map
Episode 176
Wednesday, December 14, 2022 • Duration 19:27
What you'll learn in this episode:
How the jewelry industry has changed over the last 50 years
How the Women's Jewelry Association helped women jewelry professionals get the recognition they deserved
What it was like to work with Elizabeth Taylor and Hilary Clinton to design iconic jewels for them
Linda's advice for young jewelry designers
About Linda Orlick
Linda Orlick is a longtime public relations expert in the jewelry industry as well as an accomplished business executive with experience branding high-end products, people and companies. She is co-founder of the influential Women's Jewelry Association, a volunteer organization founded in 1984 that began with 10 women in an apartment in Manhattan and blossomed to become a formidable entity and powerful voice for women in the jewelry industry worldwide. Linda served as its President for a four- year term.
Linda Orlick entered the jewelry industry when gold was $35 an ounce and jewelry designers were unknowns who worked behind the scenes. Due in no small part to Linda's passion for the industry and her work to brand and promote emerging designers, retailers and shows, jewelry is now a respected part of the American fashion scene. She joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about the history of the Women's Jewelry Association; why it's so hard for people to leave the jewelry industry once they enter it; and how she helped facilitate the design of the 4.25 carat canary yellow diamond ring Hilary Clinton wore to the 1993 inauguration. Read the episode transcript here.
: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the second part of a two-part episode. If you haven't heard part one, please head to TheJewelryJourney.com. My guest is Linda Orlick. Linda has spent her whole career in jewelry. She has been very successful as a retailer and a consultant to retailers. She's one of the cofounders of the Women's Jewelry Association, and she helped build it into a powerhouse. Welcome back.
Episode 176 Part 1: How Linda Orlick Helped Put the Jewelry Industry on the Map
Episode 176
Monday, December 12, 2022 • Duration 13:25
What you'll learn in this episode:
How the jewelry industry has changed over the last 50 years
How the Women's Jewelry Association helped women jewelry professionals get the recognition they deserved
What it was like to work with Elizabeth Taylor and Hilary Clinton to design iconic jewels for them
Linda's advice for young jewelry designers
About Linda Orlick
Linda Orlick is a longtime public relations expert in the jewelry industry as well as an accomplished business executive with experience branding high-end products, people and companies. She is co-founder of the influential Women's Jewelry Association, a volunteer organization founded in 1984 that began with 10 women in an apartment in Manhattan and blossomed to become a formidable entity and powerful voice for women in the jewelry industry worldwide. Linda served as its President for a four- year term.
Linda Orlick entered the jewelry industry when gold was $35 an ounce and jewelry designers were unknowns who worked behind the scenes. Due in no small part to Linda's passion for the industry and her work to brand and promote emerging designers, retailers and shows, jewelry is now a respected part of the American fashion scene. She joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about the history of the Women's Jewelry Association; why it's so hard for people to leave the jewelry industry once they enter it; and how she helped facilitate the design of the 4.25 carat canary yellow diamond ring Hilary Clinton wore to the 1993 inauguration. Read the episode transcript here.
: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the first part of a two-part episode. Please make sure you subscribe so you can hear part two as soon as it's released later this week.
Episode 175 Part 2: The Link Between Jewelry and Architecture with Eva Eisler Head of Jewelry Department of the Academy of Arts in Prague
Episode 175
Wednesday, December 7, 2022 • Duration 22:09
What you'll learn in this episode:
Why sacred geometry is the underlying link between Eva's work in jewelry, architecture and design
How growing up in an isolated Soviet Bloc country influenced Eva's creative expression
Why jewelry is one of the most communicative art forms
How Eva evaluates jewelry as a frequent jewelry show judge
Why good design should help people discover new ideas and apply them in other places
About Eva Eisler
A star of the Prague art world, Eva Eisler is an internationally recognized sculptor, furniture/product designer, and jeweler. Rooted in constructivist theory, her structurally-based objects project a unique spirituality by nature of their investment with "sacred geometry." The current series of necklaces and brooches, fabricated from stainless steel, are exemplars of this aesthetic. In 2003, she developed a line of sleek, stainless steel tabletop objects for mono cimetric design in Germany.
Eisler is also a respected curator and educator. She is chairman of the Metal and Jewelry Department at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, where she heads the award-winning K.O.V. (concept-object-meaning) studio. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum and Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Canada; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; and Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague, among others.
Eva Eisler is the rare designer who works on projects as small as a ring and as large as a building. What connects her impressive portfolio of work? An interest in sacred geometry and a desire to discover new ideas that can be applied in multiple ways. She joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about how she communicates a message through jewelry; why jewelry students should avoid learning traditional techniques too early; and her thoughts on good design. Read the episode transcript here.
Episode 175 Part 1: The Link Between Jewelry and Architecture with Eva Eisler Head of Jewelry Department of the Academy of Arts in Prague
Episode 175
Tuesday, December 6, 2022 • Duration 20:55
What you'll learn in this episode:
Why sacred geometry is the underlying link between Eva's work in jewelry, architecture and design
How growing up in an isolated Soviet Bloc country influenced Eva's creative expression
Why jewelry is one of the most communicative art forms
How Eva evaluates jewelry as a frequent jewelry show judge
Why good design should help people discover new ideas and apply them in other places
About Eva Eisler
A star of the Prague art world, Eva Eisler is an internationally recognized sculptor, furniture/product designer, and jeweler. Rooted in constructivist theory, her structurally-based objects project a unique spirituality by nature of their investment with "sacred geometry." The current series of necklaces and brooches, fabricated from stainless steel, are exemplars of this aesthetic. In 2003, she developed a line of sleek, stainless steel tabletop objects for mono cimetric design in Germany.
Eisler is also a respected curator and educator. She is chairman of the Metal and Jewelry Department at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, where she heads the award-winning K.O.V. (concept-object-meaning) studio. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum and Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Canada; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; and Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague, among others.
Eva Eisler is the rare designer who works on projects as small as a ring and as large as a building. What connects her impressive portfolio of work? An interest in sacred geometry and a desire to discover new ideas that can be applied in multiple ways. She joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about how she communicates a message through jewelry; why jewelry students should avoid learning traditional techniques too early; and her thoughts on good design. Read the episode transcript here.
Episode 174 Part 2: What's Next in Artist-Jeweler William Harper's 50+ Year Career
Episode 174
Wednesday, November 30, 2022 • Duration 26:13
What you'll learn in this episode:
How synesthesia—the ability to hear colors and see music—has impacted William's work
Inside William's creative process, and why he never uses sketches or finishes a piece in one sitting
Why jewelry artists should never scrap a piece, even if they don't like it in the moment
The benefits of being a self-taught artist, and why art teachers should never aim to impart their style onto their students
How a wearer's body becomes like a gallery wall for jewelry
About William Harper
Born in Ohio and currently working in New York City, William Harper is considered one of the most significant jewelers of the 20th century. After studying advanced enameling techniques at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Harper began his career as an abstract painter but transitioned to enameling and studio craft jewelry in the 1960s. He is known for creating esoteric works rooted in mythology and art history, often using unexpected objects such as bone, nails, and plastic beads in addition to traditional enamel, pearls, and precious metals and stones.
His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum Craft+ Design, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Philadelphia, the Hermitage Museum, totaling over 35 museums worldwide. A retrospective of his work, William Harper: The Beautiful & the Grotesque, was exhibited at the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2019.
Rather than stifle his creativity, the constraints of quarantine lockdown and physical health issues helped artist-jeweler William Harper create a series of intricate jewels and paintings imbued with meaning. After 50+ years as an enamellist, educator and artist in a variety of media, he continues to find new ways to capture and share his ideas. He joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about his creative process; why he didn't want his art students to copy his style; and why he never throws a piece in progress away, even if he doesn't like it. Read the episode transcript here.
Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the first part of a two-part episode. Please make sure you subscribe so you can hear part two as soon as it's released later this week.
Today, my guest is Jennifer Merchant. Jennifer was also a guest several years ago. She thought she would be a metalsmith but segued to acrylic jewelry, which is what she has become known for: creative and innovative acrylic jewelry such as necklaces, bracelets, earrings and brooches. They have eye-catching graphics embedded in them. I was also surprised to learn that hand carving is sometimes involved.
Jennifer exhibits all over the country. She's been an active member of SNAG, the Society of North American Goldsmiths. She is also a member of other major jewelry organizations. Jennifer is going to tell us all about why she has chosen this route and her process in general. Jennifer, welcome to the program.
Jennifer: Thank you so much for having me, Sharon.
Sharon: I'm glad to have you. Why did you start working with acrylics?
Jennifer: I actually started working with acrylic while I was still in college at the Savannah College of Art and Design studying metalsmithing and jewelry. Our professor gave us little chunks of acrylic one day, probably with the thought of using it for die forms. But I decided, "Hey, you can cut and sculpt this very similarly to working with waxes for lost wax casting." I liked the immediacy of the acrylic, that once you carved it and sculpted it and polished it, it was a finished piece. It had a lot of really cool optical properties. So, I always kept it on the back burner as an interesting material.
Then when I graduated from college and I moved back to my hometown of Minneapolis, I didn't have the tools and equipment to keep working with metal. So, I kind of fell into, "Hey, there was that acrylic I worked with a couple of times in school. It was very interesting. Let's see what we can do with that," because it was cheap, and I could cut it with simple tools. I started experimenting with it from there.
Sharon: And you make all sorts of jewelry with it. Do you know when you start out that you'll be making a necklace or a bracelet with the pieces you have, or do they talk to you as you put them together?
Jennifer: I make pieces both ways. Sometimes I'll design a piece very specifically and have an idea and a picture in my mind of what I'm making. But then there's other times, especially when I'm working with the scraps that are left over from pieces that I've made in the past. A lot of those scraps are still very interesting, and they'll be in weird shapes. Those will speak to me, and I'll create something new and different with some of those. I kind of work both ways.
Sharon: I know you're in a lot of stores and galleries. Do stores tell you what to do, or do you just say, "Here it is, do you like it"?
Jennifer: I'm more of a, "Here's what I've been making. Let me know which ones you like." I think sometimes it's important to follow your own inspirations. People tend to be drawn to the things that I'm most excited to make.
That being said, some galleries have different clientele bases with different price points, so they'll tell me, "Hey, these pieces were working really well." I'll take some feedback. But ultimately, I focus on making the things that I'm drawn to.
Sharon: Do you have a studio inside your home or do you have a place that you go?
Jennifer: For years I did have a studio outside of my home that I really loved, but a few years ago my husband and I bought a home, and I decided to move my jewelry practice into my home. So, now I work from home. But who knows, maybe in the future I'll expand a little bit and have another space in addition outside the home. It can be kind of a challenge working at home sometimes, but I've done both. I like working both ways, so we'll see what the future has for me.
Sharon: Do you have assistants who work with you?
Jennifer: I've had assistants in the past. I don't anymore. I scaled my business way back during COVID and took a breather to reevaluate what I'm doing and where my motivations are. I'm only just beginning to build it back. At this point, I don't work with anyone, but hopefully in the future I can find someone to help out with some of the production.
It's a little challenging to find an assistant because my process is very unique. It's not something that people know how to do, so there's a lot of training involved. When I do work with people, it takes quite a while to get somebody that can help finish pieces to the quality standards that my galleries and clients expect.
Sharon: When you were reevaluating things, what did you decide? Did your method change during COVID?
Jennifer: I think things just slowed way down during COVID. 2020, honestly, it was going to be my year. I had a couple of really big events planned, one of which I got to do because it was in February, but the rest all moved online. There was such a lull in events and things to participate in. I had started questioning what my motivations are, because you really have to love what you're doing in order to be an artist as a profession. We had bought a house and were settling in. I've just been taking the last few years to figure out life so I can bring my A-game to my business again.
Sharon: Did you stop production because you were doing it yourself during COVID?
Jennifer: I did slow way down on production. If I had a client that was interested in something, or if I had an online event or that kind of thing, that would motivate me to produce some new pieces. But there were just fewer things going on to spark that creation.
I have a harder time making things just because. I like to have an outside influence, like a show that's coming up or events that are going to happen and people are going to see my pieces. When I don't know when those things are going on, I have a little bit of a harder time. I think that is why during COVID, everything slowed down for me especially.
But it also gave me a lot of time to think about what I want out of my business and where I want to go. And in May, I'll be launching my first web shop where you can actually buy my pieces directly from me.
Sharon: Wow. I know that's a Herculean task.
Jennifer: For me personally, the web shop is an extra big step because all of my pieces, even my production work, is one of a kind because of the images I'm using within my jewelry. They're all found images from art books and other sources. So, even if it's the same shape, like the marquee hoop earring, no two are going to be the exact same. So, every time I list a piece online for sale, I have to photograph each and every single one of them.
It's taken a long time to get some of those things down where I could do it quickly enough and efficiently enough to be able to post all of these pieces with the right listings. It's a lot more work than having a design where you can put a picture of it and sell 25 of them. It's been a daunting thing to tackle.
Sharon: Did you have to wait until you were efficient at photographing and making them so you could just churn them out?
Jennifer: My work is very difficult to photograph because it is clear and transparent from some angles, and then it's bright and colorful from others. It's also very reflective. So, trying to photograph it cleanly and communicate the piece in a single image is very difficult. My work tends to resonate more from multiple angles. It has taken years to figure out the best way to represent these pieces in an image or two.
Sharon: The online shop, do you think it's your most valuable social media outlet? Is there one? What do you think that is?
Jennifer: For me, I'm not huge on social media. Instagram, I think, is the most fun. It's very image forward, which is something I really enjoy. Definitely, as I launch my website, I will be on social media a lot more to market. I think up until now I've mostly worked with galleries and shops or done specific events, so I haven't cultivated my online audience as much. I'm excited to explore that new chapter and get more into it and see what I can do from my home. That way in the future, when something happens where in-person events may not be happening as much, I can still have a connection to my audience.
I've been getting asked for years, "Where can I find your pieces?" Because everything is one of a kind, if it's at a gallery in California, someone in Georgia is going to have a hard time getting their hands on it. I think it'll be really nice having my own shop so that people can have one destination to go, as well as all of the others, to be able to have that access.
Sharon: How did you start getting galleries and stores interested in you?
Jennifer: I have been contacted by most of the places that I work with. Earlier in my career, I did a lot more events and shows and I was able to meet gallery owners. Also, early on in my career, I met some of the people that work for the American Craft Council, which is based in Minneapolis. When they saw a local Minneapolis artist at a show in Chicago and met me and thought my work was cool, they were like, "You're in our city. Let's invite her to some events." They really took me under their wing and wrote about my work and got me out there. I got a lot of contacts just from people seeing the articles that they had posted.
For me, it's been a lot of just doing what I do, and because my work is so unique and different, people that it resonates with will remember and contact me, like, "Hey, we've never seen anything like this. Let's try it out at our gallery." I've been very fortunate in that way, where I haven't really had to go out on my own, cold calling and trying to get appointments and that sort of thing. I just try to make really interesting work, get it out there as much as I can, and then hope that it snowballs from there. So far, that's been working for me.
Sharon: Wow. I think it's great that you didn't have to cold call and that people were interested in your stuff, which is very unusual. I don't know anybody who does anything like that. So, you're very lucky.
Jennifer: I'm very lucky that it worked out for me because I can be a little socially awkward with the cold calling and things like that. That was never my favorite part of the business. I am fortunate that my work speaks for itself. It's kind of a love it or hate it thing, which can be its own challenge, but it's definitely unique enough where when people see it, if they're interested, they will hunt me down and ask me about it. That's been very nice.
Sharon: If an outlet wants more than one, maybe they want five bracelets, do you tell them right away that you can make the five bracelets, but they'll all have different graphics?
Jennifer: Yeah. I did a couple wholesale shows a while ago where it was that challenge of, "Well, here's a design, but they're all going to be different, and you're not really going to know until you get them." I think most people that are interested in my work like that one-of-a-kind nature of it. That's part of the interest, so they trust me. If they get pieces that maybe that imagery doesn't speak to them or their clientele, we'll talk about it and I can swap it out, get them some prints and patterns that they like better. It's kind of a back-and-forth process. And the longer I work with a gallery or a person, the more I get to know what works there. Then I can tailor my offerings to them for what works.
Sharon: Where do you find your images and the pictures that you put in your jewelry?
Jennifer: When I first started, I was using magazines because they were readily available, fairly inexpensive, and that's how I started this whole process of layered acrylic. But the paper in those is not very good quality and the pictures fade. It's also a challenge to find enough usable content.
So, then I started purchasing art books. I would become interested in a specific artist and start collecting books about their work, and those books always had a lot of really amazing images. They're printed on really nice paper with good quality inks, and they're much more successful layering than magazines. Now I exclusively use books. I've become somewhat of a rare and vintage book collector. It's a really fun part of my job, hunting down these different books, figuring out artists that inspire me to start collecting things about their work and then finding really cool images.
If there's a particular book that has a lot of really great images that I like, I will start looking for other copies of it. There are certain books about Roy Lichtenstein's work. There's one about posters that has a catalog in the back with all these smaller thumbnail images, and they're so great for making earrings, things like that. I must've bought that book like 10 times. So, that's where I get my images. It's all purchased materials like books that I then rip up and cut up and put in between the acrylic.
Sharon: Well, you answered the question. I was going to ask you if you cut the books up or what you do. You also mentioned that magazines got you going with layered acrylic. Can you tell us about that?
Jennifer: When I was younger, I subscribed to all kinds of fashion magazines and fun things, and I would keep them after reading them. I had shelves and shelves of magazines. When I first started working with acrylic, I had this idea that acrylic has pretty cool visual properties, optical properties, and when you put images underneath it, it looks so interesting. That's when I started going through my fashion magazines, lots of issues of Vogue. I would see cool prints on dresses and things like that, and I would rip those pages out and try to fit the prints and things that were in there within my jewelry designs. That's how I got started with the whole thing. It was just cheap materials I already had.
Sharon: What are your sales policies? Do you accept returns? If I'm a client and you give me something and I say, "No, that's not what I want," do you accept returns? What do you do?
Jennifer: Yeah, I do accept returns. I think it depends. If it's a piece that already existed and they buy it and it just didn't work out, or it doesn't fit quite right or it wasn't what they were expecting, absolutely. It becomes a little more of a gray area when it's a custom piece, when someone wants specific imagery and this and that. That tends to be a little more delicate. That being said, I want people to keep my jewelry because they love it, not because they're trapped. So, even a custom order, if it doesn't come out quite as they were expecting, I try to work with people to either make it right or try something new.
Some of the events that I do, it's a museum show where they're handling the sales and they're getting a commission, I'm getting a commission from the sale. Even though I'm selling to the customer directly, because it goes through the museum, usually it's an all-sales-are-final type situation, just because of the nature of the commissions and if they've already paid me and then the person changes their mind. It depends on the venue through which I'm selling the work.
I would say most times, yes, returns are acceptable within a certain time frame, but there are certain instances where they are final sale. But even in that situation—I had a client come a couple of years later to a show, and she had this ring. I decided, "You know what? It's a really cool ring. Let's swap it out." She wanted a pendant. I like to be a little flexible. Like I said, I want people to have my jewelry because they love it, not because they're forced to keep it.
Sharon: I'm curious; in your studio, do you have pets that keep you company?
Jennifer: I do. I've got a dog and a cat. My cat, Shackleton, likes to work with me. I have two workspaces in my home. Downstairs is the shop, the studio, and then upstairs I have an office where I do the bonding and the image gathering and looking through layouts. The cat, Shackleton, likes to hang out upstairs in the office and sit on all my papers and be in the way, but be very cute. Then my dog, her name's Sophia. She tends to stay out of the studio because it's loud and dusty. She'll come in the office and hang out, too, sometimes. But I don't know. She kind of does her own thing. She lets me work.
Sharon: Well, it sounds like nice company. Do you make more than one piece at a time? All the pieces and extras, let's say, do you put them in a closet and then pull them out if somebody wants them? What do you do?
Jennifer: I definitely always have some inventory on hand. I think as far as when I'm making pieces, as I was saying earlier, I tend to make when I have an event or I'm preparing for something coming up. Then I'll usually go above and beyond and make extra just to have. Also, because my pieces are one of a kind and the imagery is different on each earring, each ring, each bracelet, I will make more than I know I'm going to need or sell at a specific time, mostly to have options for my clients, because all the pieces are different and have different images. You never know what someone's going to be drawn to.
It's especially difficult with things that have a size, like a ring or a bracelet. Then I make tons of them because you have to have lots of options. With those kinds of things, I'll take a lot more custom orders because someone will see something in person that they love, but it's not their size. I do my best to recreate things for people. I don't generally remake things with the exact same images because usually it's impossible, but I will do my best to get something with a similar aesthetic or feeling for people.
We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out. Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a rating and review so we can help others start their own jewelry journey.
Welcome to the Jewelry Journey, exploring the hidden world of art around you. Because every piece of art has a story, and jewelry is no exception.
Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the second part of a two-part episode. If you haven't heard part one, please head to TheJewelryJourney.com. Today, we're going to be talking about the Lisbon Contemporary Jewelry Biennial. I am talking with Marta Costa Reis, who is going to tell us all about it. Welcome back.
Sharon: Are you a maker?
Marta: I am a maker.
Sharon: Have you been developing jewelry that's linked to power?
Marta: Actually, not so much. My themes are a bit more, maybe spiritual is the word. I don't know. I'm interested in themes that revolve around time and our connection to time and what is behind us. It's quite different, but this was already the theme of the first biennial. We have to move on and have different themes. Of course, I couldn't do work myself for this biennial. I don't have the time or the mindset to be making at this time. I'm fully focused on the biennial.
Sharon: I was noticing you have several curators. How did you choose the curators of different seminars and exhibits? How did you choose them?
Marta: I can speak, for instance, about the main show that is called Madrugada, daybreak. The main title. I wanted someone that was not a Portuguese person so we don't stay too closed in our own bubble. I wanted someone from another country but who could understand what happened here. Mònica Gaspar is Spanish. Besides being an amazing intellectual and teacher and writer and very knowledgeable about jewelry and design, being Spanish, they had a similar process as ours. They also had a very long dictatorship, and at almost the same time as we did, they became a democracy. So, she could understand more or less the same events. That was important, to have someone with that experience of changing from the dictatorship into a democracy.
We spoke last year Schmuck in Munich about it, and she was interested, but she has a lot of work, so it took a little while to convince her. It's because we are a team and we can share the work that were able to do it and Mònica is able to do it. Patrícia Domingues is the other curator. She's Portuguese, but she's younger than we are.
Sharon: Who is that?
Marta: Patrícia Domingues. She recently had a show in Brooklyn. I can write it down for you later, maybe afterwards.
Sharon: Okay. Patrícia. How do you spell the last name?
Marta: Domingues, D-O-M-I-N-G-U-E-S. I think I got it right. I know how to spell it, but sometimes saying it in English is more difficult. She has been living abroad for a quite a long time, but she's Portuguese, so she has a perspective that is both an insider but also an outsider. I wanted that very much, someone that is not closed here in our little bubble. She's she recently finished a Ph.D. She's younger. She's very much in contact with everything that is being reflected about jewelry in the world right now.
I think they are amazing curators, and they bring a lot to the biennial and to the show. I am there as well not only because I enjoy it, but I wanted to help out with the work, sending the invitations and keeping track of everything so that everything goes smoothly. We are a very small organization, and we do a lot of it ourselves on a voluntary basis. We have to take different jobs in this process. But I'm happy they joined us, and I'm very happy to be working with them on this show.
Sharon: Are you the main curator? Is there a main curator who chose the other ones?
Marta: Yes, that is me. I am the main curator for the whole biennial. Then there is a team and we discuss. We basically invited Mònica and Patríciaand they agreed. The other shows, for instance, the tiara show is curated by Catarina Silva, who is also the head of thejewelry department at ARCO. I'm also taking care of, it's called Jewels for Democracy. That's the show that I mentioned about the women being honored. There's a lot of people involved, but it's quite smooth.
Sharon: Somebody has to keep everything moving and coordinate. How are you promoting the show in Portugal and in general? Anything?
Marta: We will start promoting now. We have the two shows in April. We did the launch last November for the whole biennial. We try to be active on Instagram. Not so much on Facebook, but mainly on Instagram. We will start a more intense campaign. We have a professional communications person that will take care of this. We will start a more intense communication campaign very soon. We have it in two parts, so we are focusing on April. Then we'll have the other show in May, and then it's the end of June. It will be in different parts.
We will also announce the masterclasses very soon. I haven't mentioned the masterclasses yet. That's what I was forgetting. There will be two masterclasses, one with Lin Cheung and one with Manuel Vilhena from the 22nd to 26th of June. We'll open the registrations very, very soon. This week we'll open the registration. You'll start seeing more about it, and we will promote it in different venues. I did an interview for SMCK Magazine, the European magazine about jewelry. It just came out in their last issue. I did it in October or at the end of September, but it just came out. So, we're doing a number of things, but it will become more intense at the end of this month, in February. We will reinforce the communication and the advertising.
Sharon: How long are the shows in the biennial? Does it go through the summer, or is there an ending point or beginning point?
Marta: The main thing is that in the last week of June, everything will be open. The shows in the Royal Treasure Museum, the shows at the Design Museum, the colloquium, the schools, the masterclasses, the students, the galleries. Everything will be open in that last week of June. That will be the right moment to come to Lisbon. That's when we are concentrating everything. On the30th of June, the two shows at the Royal Treasure Museum will close, but the show at MUDE, the Design Museum, will continue until the end of September, so it will go through the summer.
Sharon: Why do you call it a masterclass? Who's teaching it and what are they teaching?
Marta: It's Lin Cheung. She's from the UK. Manuel Vilhena is a quite well-known Portuguese artist and amazing teacher as well. It's five days. I'm not sure how to differentiate between a workshop and a masterclass, which I guess is a workshop with the masters, and they are masters. They are some of the top teachers I know. I did a small course with Manuel Vilhena a few years ago. Not yet with Lin,but I know they are amazing teachers. I'm sure everyone who comes will enjoy it.
Last biennial, we also had masterclasses, one with Caroline Broadheadand the other with Christoph Zellweger. They are very interesting moments of sharing and learning and deepening your understanding of your own work, not just for students but for artists in every moment of their careers. It's super interesting to be able to have these few days to stop and look at what you do, what you want to do next with very good teachers like they are. This can be a very special moment. For a long time, I did as many workshops and masterclasses as I could, and it was so great.
Sharon: The people who teach the classes, do they vet the people coming, or can anybody who wants to come into the class and take it?
Marta: There is a small vetting process, but basically you send a CV and your motivation, not even a letter, but a few words of why you want to do these classes. That will be the vetting process. But it's pretty much open to everyone in every stage of their education or career.
Sharon: The exhibits and going to galleries, are there charges? Are they free? What is the story with that?
Marta: To visit the galleries, some of the venues will be free. The museums have tickets, but most of the venues that are not museums are free.
Sharon: MUDE is the design museum that just opened.
Marta: Yes. It opened a while ago, but it was under renovation for a long time. It's the only museum in Portugal that has a contemporary jewelry collection. They have been building a collection, and hopefully it will grow. They also have lots of fashion and all kinds of product and graphic design. It's a very interesting collection, very interesting building. They haven't opened yet. We will be one of the first shows. The first temporary show after the renovation will be this one.
Sharon: Wow.
Marta: Yeah, it's exciting.
Sharon: Do you think there'll be a triennial?
Marta: Hopefully we'll do the next one. I have a few ideas. I cannot say yet, but yes. I like to start thinking about the next one while still doing this one. If the team wants to, if we get the support we need, for sure there will be another one.
Sharon: Now for somebody who wants—I started thinking of myself and other people, but members of the audience, if there somebody who wants to come alone, who wants to come to Portugal alone to see the exhibit, where do they stay? You said the end of June is the best time to come.
Marta: The last week of June, yes.
Sharon: Okay, and they stay at a hotel?
Marta: Lisbon is a wonderful, very safe and, I think, easy to navigate town. We don't have a special hotel to recommend, but you can reach out to us and we can help give some suggestions. Stay in a hotel, you will get your program, tell us you are coming. We will try as much as possible to help you out. If you want to organize a group, we can help organize the group as well. But it's easy. Uber goes everywhere, taxis go everywhere, you have the subway, you have buses, you can walk, bike. There are all kinds of ways to travel in town. It's not very big. We're not always able to do it, but many of the events, the venues, will be quite close. There will be a few groups in different locations, but you can visit a lot of things by foot that will be very close by. I think it will be very easy to come even if you're alone.
Sharon: Okay. As long as I have you, tell us about the market for art jewelry in Portugal. Has it grown? Do people care about it?
Marta: I think like almost everywhere else, it's a specialist market that certain people enjoy a lot. Actually, it's not very known by everyone. Most people, when you say jewelry, think about more traditional, more commercial jewelry. Like everywhere, there's a way to go, I think. But there is a group of interested people. There's certainly very interesting artists.
We've had contemporary jewelry, art jewelry being done and presented in shows here since the 60s. We've had a school, the specialized school in Lisbon, since the 70s. We have two galleries. One of them just turned 25. The other I think even more, maybe 30. So, we have had the market for a long time. Now, of course, it's a little bit slow, but I think that happened everywhere with the recent crisis. But it exists, and it's been here for over 40 years, 50 years now. Like everywhere else, it's a continuous work, but people love it. Many people love it. I think it will never stop being interesting and important to a number of us.
Sharon: Okay. Go ahead, if there's anything else you wanted to say.
Marta: About the market, that's basically it. It's an issue, and also what we wanted to promote. That's why we did the biennial, to help people see there's a lot more jewelry than the ones they're used to in the traditional way. That's part of the reason we're doing this, not just for ourselves or the ones who already know what jewelry content actually is all about, but for the ones who don't and might be interested in knowing. Getting the beautiful works that are done out there and reaching out to more people, that's it.
Sharon: Okay. I'm trying to read my handwriting here. I was reading your information last night again, but let's see. The cost, the people and most of the stuff is in English as well as Portuguese.
Marta: Yes, everything will be translated. The colloquium will be in English. Everyone will speak English at the colloquium, and in the museums you will have English. Everything will be translated. Our website is translated. Our Instagram, not all is translated, but because it translates automatically, it's not even an issue anymore, I think. But yes, usually you will always have Portuguese and English, except the colloquium that will be fully in English. It will be quite easy for everyone. English is indeed the common language for almost everything, so we just assume. In Portugal everyone speaks English more or less.
Sharon: Do they learn it in school?
Marta: Yes, yes. In school, movies. The movies are not dubbed. They are in the original English, so we are used to listening to English from when we are very young. It becomes a very common language.
Sharon: That's interesting. We'll have the Instagram and the website listed when we post this.
Marta: Okay, great. Going back, if people want to travel to Lisbon, if they by chance come before June, they will still have very interesting things to see besides the program of the biennial. There are the galleries that will have shows in Lisbon. There's Galeria Reverso and Galeria Tereza Seabra. They both will have shows as they usually have. In April and May, if you visit Portugal, come, because there will be jewelry to be seen. If you plan to come for the biennial, June is a very exciting month. The city is beautiful. It's when there are flowers, there's green, there's the sun. People are just happy in June, everywhere I guess.
Sharon: How is the weather then? Is it hot?
Marta: No, it's warm. June is still quite good. End of July, August is maybe a bit too much, but June usually is still quite good. I won't say the number because I would say it in Celsius so it doesn't mean anything, and I don't know how to say it in Fahrenheit. I won't say a number for the temperature, but it's really nice. The best thing is that the evenings are warm. That's the best, when in the evening it's still warm and it's nice outside. That's June.
Sharon: Are there a lot of people in the streets still when it's warm outside and warm in the evenings? I know you don't live in the center.
Marta: Yes, people will go out. As I said, in June you have traditional parties. The patron saint of Lisbon, his day is in June. From there, you have many, many parties. People go outside, they will eat outside. There will be concerts outside, there will be movies outside, everything will be outside and it will be very nice.
Sharon: I hope that we can all go. I have here the official name is the Second Lisbon Contemporary Jewelry Biennial, right?
Marta: Exactly.
Sharon: What is the theme once more again?
Marta: The theme is political jewelry and jewelry of power.
Sharon: Okay. And PIN is involved with this also? PIN is the art jewelry—
Marta: PIN is the Portuguese Contemporary Jewelry Association, and it's the organizer of the biennial.
Sharon: Reading through this information I was ready to book my flight. It looks wonderful.
Marta: Yes. I'm happy you come. But surely, if people want to come, reach out to us. If you write to us through Instagram, the website, it will be easy to reach out to us, and we will help in any way. If you want to come, we can help make it happen in the easiest way possible for you. We're happy to have you and everyone who wants to come.
Sharon: Well, thank you very much for telling us about it.
Marta: Thank you for having me and helping us tell our story.
Sharon: We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out.
Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a rating and review so we can help others start their own jewelry journey.
Working in jewelry sometimes means being a detective. As a freelance jewelry historian and curator of the Alice and Louis Koch Ring Collection at the Swiss National Museum, Beatriz Chadour-Sampson draws on her wealth of knowledge to find jewelry clues—even when a piece has no hallmark or known designer. She joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about how she creates jewelry exhibits that engage viewers; how she found her way into the niche of shipwreck jewelry; and what it was like to catalogue 2,600 rings. Read the episode transcript here.
Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the second part of a two-part episode. If you haven't heard part one, please head to TheJewelryJourney.com. My guest is Beatriz Chadour-Sampson. She's been the curator of the Alice and Louis Koch Ring Collection at the Swiss National Museum for almost 35 years. Welcome back.
Beatriz: You asked about the catalogue. We didn't know if the exhibition was going ahead at one point, but I was asked by V&A Publishing to do a book on pearls, which I did. So, yes, we did a book which was for sale during the exhibition. That was in 2013. We redesigned the jewelry gallery, and 2008 was the end of that. The pearls exhibition was in 2013, the beginning of 2014.
Sharon: Why was it redesigned, the gallery?
Beatriz: The jewelry gallery. With all galleries, there comes a point where they need to be refreshed and renewed, and the previous design needed it. You even had gates you had to get through, and if you weren't quite as slim as myself, you would have problems getting through the gates. When it was redesigned, it was a completely different aesthetic. As I said, the boards have to tell the story, so when the visitor walks in, they have to understand the story and go from one to the other. Some people say the gallery is very full, but it is a study collection. We asked the education department artists to do certain things.
I was very keen on going "from cradle to grave." The gallery is chronological, so you want a display before you start to know why you wear jewelry. A child wears jewelry or a mother wears jewelry to protect them at childbirth, or they wear it for status or religion or whatever it is. Jewelry is multitasking, multifunctional. Today we think of jewelry as decorative, but that is not the case. Jewelry was made for an occasion and a reason. With status, you always have the big diamonds and the big stones. That has always existed, in recently centuries definitely. But there are so many more reasons for jewelry, for mourning and birth and good luck. That sort of exists today, probably with charms. So, jewelry is multifunctional.
Then we have a screen with pictures from different centuries showing portraits because, at a jewelry gallery, you can't see the pieces on someone. They need the body, but they don't have the body. So, it's good to have a screen showing how the jewelry was worn through the centuries, which is very important. Also in the display, each board—let's say you had earrings, a necklace and a bracelet. The concept was that what you wear on the top of the head goes on top. What you wear around your neck comes next and then the base, so you have a feeling of an abstract body in a way. It's not always obvious, but I try to think of it logically.
Of course, with the contemporary, we couldn't do that. It is all chronological until you get to about the 1950s, and that's it. You have to find a completely different concept. So, we decided to do it by materials. Good chronology at the beginning, but then it comes into materials. Natural materials, new metals, techniques. You couldn't do decades. That couldn't work. So, we did it by materials, which is an interesting aspect because you have all the different materials they use in comparison to all the gold and silver you see throughout the gallery. Suddenly, you're seeing a whole wall of completely different materials.
Sharon: What is your role as co-curator? You're curator and co-curator of so many places. What's your role as a co-curator? What do you do? What do they call in you for?
Beatriz: It's an advisory role. The Victoria and Albert Museum is a bit more than just an advisory role. You're working with the team, with the architect. It's a team procedure, but as I say, everybody has their own role to play. It intermingles, of course.
Sharon: At other times, you've talked about a different museum in Switzerland where you came, and it looked just—was it at eye level? Was it low? Was it too high?
Beatriz: Oh, that one, no. You remembered that detail. The eye level, that was the Victoria and Albert Museum. That is in the center of the gallery because we did a display for a tourist who goes to the museum and only has 10 minutes to look at jewelry history. So, in the center you've got these curved glass cases. The jewelry is on special mounts. You remember that. I asked my colleagues of different heights, from four foot something to six foot something. In the storage room, we had glass doors where there was a lot of storage space with artifacts in it, and I used Post-it Notes to put the different heights of people to see what a good eye level is. So, if you're looking at a broach or a tiara or something, you want it on the level where you more or less visualize it on your body so you can see it well. So, yes, that's the Post-it Notes. I used not only double-sided tape and pieces of paper, but also Post-it Notes, trying to find the right height for the pieces.
Eye level is hugely important, but the other museum you're thinking of may be something I'm current advising on. This is really an advisory role. It is a museum that will open next year, the Dubedeen, a German museum. Of course, there are gemologists there that are very specialized, but their museum experience is missing. So, I'm giving a little bit of advice on the background of things. Don't put a plinth that you can fall over. Don't make drawers that a child can get their fingers caught in. You learn these things from places like the Victoria and Albert Museum. There's health and safety. There's also the height of displays, the attention span of visitors. Text shouldn't be too long. It's more of an advisory role than an active role.
Sharon: I'm thinking about attention span. You must have seen that really go down. It seems nobody has more than two seconds for attention anymore.
Beatriz: There is an element of that. I think the Koch Collection of rings in the Jewelry Gallery is one of the most visited in the England museums. When you get to sparkle and glitter, there's more attention span, but not so much on the text.
Sharon: Yeah, that's probably true. You've also done a lot of work on shipwrecks. That's very interesting.
Beatriz: That goes back to 1989. By sheer coincidence, I came to work on shipwrecks. I was in New York when I was working on the Concepción Collection. I met Priscilla Muller of the Hispanic Society of America in New York, and I helped her with some Spanish and Portuguese jewelry. When she was asked, she just didn't have the time to work on the shipwrecks. She thought with my Spanish and Portuguese knowledge, I would be suited for that, so I was asked by Pacific Sea Resources in 1989 to work on an incredible shipwreck called the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción from 1638 that sank. It was the usual thing, mutiny and the wrong person taking care of the ship. That's a private story, not a jewelry story, but the interesting thing is that the jewelry was basically made for Spaniards in the Philippines. The jewelry was made in the Philippines, the majority of it for Spaniards. It was a Spanish colony at the time.
When I was first went through it, I thought, "It looks quite European. It looks O.K." I signed the contract, and little did I know how much research was involved for the material, which I hardly knew. It was because of the influence. The Spaniards definitely had European design books they brought with them. By then, you had printed books with designs in them, and they must have had them there. Chinese craftsmen were working for them in the Philippines, and of course the Chinese had great skills with outside countries. Some of it looks very European, and some of it is Indian influences, Siamese influences, and influences from Java, Sumatra. The chains, heavy gold chains, were certainly Chinese filigree. In fact, I told the Ashmolean Museum it belonged to Sir Elias Ashmole, whose portrait and chains still exist in the Ashmolean Museum, and I told them that one of the gold chains he had was Chinese. It was given by the Kuffners from Brandenburg, and I happened to find out that the Kuffners from Brandenburg travelled to China. So, that all fit. That was a little like detective work. That was published in 1990.
I've recently been working again on shipwrecks, just a few pieces of absolutely fascinating jewelry found off the shore of the Bahamas, which has now been in the Maritime Museum on the Bahamas for only a few months. I also worked on the Atocha in Key West. I organized an exhibition in Hanover for them, where we did a display of the Atocha and Santa Margarita events. But what's so fascinating about shipwrecks is that we see so many portraits of beautiful jewelry from the Renaissance, the 16th, 17th centuries, where they really documented beautifully painted jewelry in paintings. Thanks to that we can study them in detail. All this jewelry doesn't exist anymore, especially gold chains, because gold chains were the easiest thing to melt and reuse for more modern jewelry. As I have said, I have a smile when somebody talks to me about recycled gold being something new. Well, it's nothing new. Recycling gold goes back centuries.
Sharon: I'm surprised because in the pictures, you always think it's a straightforward gold chain with no Chinese engraving or anything. You think of it as a gold chain.
Beatriz: Some of it is simple, what they called a P-chain. You saw loads of it, especially on Dutch paintings. But in the Atocha there was a spiral. You can see they're very tidy on the portraits, but it looks as if they had a spiral at the back holding the chain so they flowed down properly. Some of those chains we had were definitely Chinese filigree because those chains are filigree. In the 1655 shipwreck from the Bahamas, there's a chain like that, and that's mainly why they asked me to look at it. That certainly reminded me of some of the Concepción work, which was Chinese craftsmanship.
The trade was amazing. You had trade happening in the Philippines. Even the Dutch were trading with the Spaniards. The Dutch were trading silks and spices from China and so on. These big galleons went from the Philippines to Acapulco and Vera Cruz and then to Havana. They went on a route around South America, loading and offloading things from Europe. It's interesting because in Seville, there's the Archivo General de Indias, and there they have all the books on the shipping material. Like with the Atocha, they found out which ship it was because the gold bars have a text mark on them, and that coincided with the documents they have in Seville. It's fascinating. It's a fascinating field.
Sharon: It seems like it.
Beatriz: It's a mystery and it's global, of course. Made in Asia; there's nothing new. It's hundreds of years. There would not be any porcelain in 18th century Europe the other way around.
Sharon: Do you get to see the ship right away? When it comes up, do you see it when they pull it from the ocean?
Beatriz: No. When I was asked to work on the Concepción, I had to travel to Singapore where it was being cleaned and conserved. In one instance I had to say, "Stop cleaning because I think there's enamel underneath, black and white enamel. Stop." You have to be careful because you have to get rid of the marine dirt. No, I got to see it after it was cleaned or while it was being cleaned.
Sharon: Wow! And then what? It goes to the museum? What happens afterwards?
Beatriz: It nearly got split up and sold at auction. I'm glad it didn't because it's a historical find, but unfortunately you have to go the Mariana Islands to see it. You can't see it always. The material is put together, and it was published in a black and white archaeological report. It was published in 1990, so at least it's documented. National Geographic did a beautiful spread with color, so you know what it's like.
Sharon: What have you learned from parsing these shipwrecks, from researching the shipwrecks?
Beatriz: The extent of influence in Europe of some motifs and how far they went. It was made in the Philippines and sold in Europe because everything that was made and transported on this galleon, the Atocha, at some point went to Seville and then it was traded on. We definitely know that the emeralds the emperors were after came from Colombia and then went through Havana to Seville. It's a fascinating trade, but the trade is something we never think about. In Roman times, the Roman emperor wanted pearls, so they traveled to southern India to get pearls. History does amaze one.
Sharon: It does. You're working on many projects now. What can you tell us about some of them?
Beatriz: I can tell you what's half-finished and what's coming. I've had a year of three books. I co-edited a book with Sandra Hindman, founder of Les Enluminures. I need to add Les Enluminures because for many years, I've been their jewelry consultant. They're based in Chicago, New York and Paris and are specialized mainly in Medieval and Renaissance jewelry, but this has nothing to do with the book we did. It just happened to be that we worked together again. Sandra and myself did something called a liber amicorum in honor of Diana Scarisbrick, a leading jewelry historian. It was for her 94th birthday, and we kept it a secret until her birthday. It had 20 authors in three languages all writing in her honor. That has come out. It's now available. It was published by Paul Holberton. It's on varied topics, from archaeology to today, really. 20 authors contributed towards that.
Today I received my copy of a book I worked on for the Schmuckmuseum, so it's now published. The launch is on Sunday, but I won't be traveling to Germany for that, unfortunately. It has to be a Zoom celebration for me. It's to do with the humanist Johann Reuchlin. He was from Pforzheim. He lived in the late 15th to the 16th century, and it's about script and jewelry from varying periods. It's a lot of contemporary jewelry as well. The cover doesn't really tell you that because it was the 500th anniversary of, I think, his death date. So, he was honored in this book, which has just come out, with essays from many people. Lots and lots of jewelry. That was published by Arnoldsche, and it's called—I have to think of it—German sounds so much easier in this case. It means script and pictures worn on the finger. I worked on rings with script on them.
Sharon: With writing you mean?
Beatriz: Yeah, writing, that's it. There are a lot of other topics in the book as well, but jewelry is certainly the dominant. Yes, they are rings. Mary Queen of Scotts is somebody who wrote her inscription inside the ring and was loyal to the queen. Had that been seen, her head would have gone to the chop. It's rings with prayers on them or rings with some sort of amuletic inscriptions. It's all inscriptions on rings in my case, and it's about Josiah Wedgwood who gave this ring to John Flaxman. You've got a whole history behind it. It's rings with script on them, highly visible on the bezel, either visible on the bezel or inside the hoop.
Sharon: In English or German?
Beatriz: It's basically German, I'm afraid to say, but with lots of good pictures with excellent captions, which are international. I am bilingual in German and English, but I haven't written German for a long time.
I've actually written a third book that's coming out, but that won't come out until January. That was a huge task. It's on jewelry from Bossard from Lucerne. It started in the early 19th century, but the two I worked on were a father and son from 1869 until 1934. That was the period of historicism. It was also a time of fakes of Renaissance jewelry being made, because there were so many collectors who wanted Renaissance but couldn't afford the real Renaissance jewelry. So, it was very tempting for fakers to make fake jewelry. When I started, I didn't know what I was in for, but I have come to the conclusion that it's pure historicism, what Bossard made. I had very little jewelry to go on, just a few pieces in private hands, but I did find by sheer coincidence a drawing, and I found the bishop who it belonged to. You have a hundred drawings by the Bossard Company over this whole period, and it's very interesting material to see their designs they were making. In some instances, it's real Renaissance. I don't know if they were Renaissance or if it was actually made later. Then it gets critical. It's a very complex period, but a very interesting archive in the Swiss National Museum in Zurich.
Sharon: For next year, do you have other projects going on?
Beatriz: Yes, the coming projects. I mentioned the gem museum, which is opening next year. I'm in the midst of advising. I'm going to be working very shortly—I've already started a bit—on the jeweler Eileen Coyne from London. She's been working on jewelry since the 1970s and continues to make jewelry very, very different to anything I've worked on before. What I find so fascinating is that her imagination and inspiration come from the material. It comes with the material and the tools. She also uses interesting gemstones and beads that come from ethnic backgrounds. She uses the most amazing materials. Also jades, carnelians, all kinds of things. So, we're going to do a book. She had a shop in the 80s and into the 90s. Her jewelry was displayed in Harvey Nichols in London, and she had a shop where all the celebrities and royals went shopping. It was quite an interesting clientele. We'll see if we get photographs or if they allow us to show some of the things they bought. It's very much about discretion in such cases. So, that's interesting, a completely different type of jewelry.
I'm really excited about it, but at the same time, I've also been involved, and am more involved now, in an artificial intelligence project. That is a ring that has been designed by Sylvia Reidenbach and John Emeny in England. Sylvia Reidenbach is German, but she teaches in Glasgow and London and all over Europe as well. She has created, with John Emeny, a ring with artificial intelligence based on one or two rings from the archaeological museum in Munich, a few rings from the
Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremburg, and 150 rings from the Koch Collection. There's one design. The machine makes the design, mixes it all and combines it into one design. The ring is now being made. The stone is labradorite. It's been on display since Wednesday last week in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum but will be coming to Zurich afterwards. So, I'll be learning a lot about AI and design. That is completely different from anything. I like the natural materials and history, and then the contrast is the AI.
Sharon: The AI is the dimensions of all these hundreds of rings?
Beatriz: Yes, the images are put into the machine, the AI. Don't ask me the technology of it because I haven't got a clue about AI technology. I'm at the beginning of it all. I'm learning, but I have seen how it develops. The images are fed into the machine, like the 150 rings from the Koch Collection and the others, and the machine designs one ring out of that.
Sharon: Wow! So, it's already made and in the museum.
Beatriz: Only just now. It's hot off the press, but there's more to come on that. There will be more to come on that, yes.
Sharon: You've written several other books. You wrote "A Life in Jewels."
Beatriz: That is the book we did for Diana Scarisbrick, honoring her. I've written books since 1981, so it's added up quite a bit. Sometime I can give you a list.
Sharon: How about the influence of women on 20th century jewelry? Has it changed jewelry? Has it made it more feminine?
Beatriz: It's an extremely complex story, the role of women in design. You have to see it from the role of the woman in history. Just recently by coincidence, I've seen some material on women painters from the 16th and 17th centuries. In Bologna, for example, there were quite a few, and it's only now coming to the fore. You also have to see high jewelers' workshops in the field of jewelry. You don't have a Renaissance piece of jewelry and know, "So-and-so made it." That didn't exist. It's only in the 19th century that we start that. The hallmarking system in England goes back to the 13th century, but jewelry was considered smallware, so they didn't consider putting a hallmark on it.
That changed later on, the but the name of the designer is something that we very often don't know. The high jewelers of the 19th century, when you knew the name of who made it in Paris or New York, you never know the name of the designer. That is something that came in in the 20th century. You have some classical examples. With Cartier, it was Jeanne Toussaint. She designed some of the iconic pieces for Cartier and the Duchess of Windsor. She worked for I don't know how many decades designing jewelry. She was a very important female designer. Then you've got Coco Chanel. She designed jewelry, mostly costume jewelry, but she also designed diamond jewelry. Not that she wanted to, but it was for the nation and probably the economy that she did it. Elsa Schiaparelli, with her fantastic surrealist jewelry, made that incredible neckpiece with beetles in plastic. If you had to date that as a jewelry store and you didn't know the background, you'd easily say 1970s or 80s. It's so amazing. In that period, you also had Suzanne Belperron with her really unique designs in jewelry.
Of course, the role of the woman changed after the First World War. You had millions of widows, and they had to work. The whole society was changing. After the Second World War, it became even more evident that women were working. I was very cheeky. I did a lecture. It was in the British Museum, and I was talking about the changing role of men and women buying jewelry. You can imagine the shock of some of them. I said, "Women go out and buy their own jewelry." Before it was classical: the husband bought the jewelry for the wife. They were the earners, so they bought it. There were a few examples in the early 1900s, like the Duchess of Manchester, whose tiaras are in the Victoria and Albert Museum. She was one of these Dollar Princesses and quite a character. She liked smoking cigars and all. She went off with the family diamonds to Cartier and said, "Make me a tiara, and use up the garments." You have Lady Mountbatten, who, after the birth of her daughter, Pamela, decided to go to Cartier and buy herself a nice bracelet that she could also wear in her hair in the 1920s.
There are a few examples. On the whole, it was always the husband buying the jewelry, but past that, you have women earning money and buying their own jewelry. The 60s sets off in that direction, and then it becomes jewelry that's more affordable. Jewelry has never been so diverse as in the last decades. It's never been so diverse in all its history. If you look at the Royal College of Art, I think you'll find that, in general, there are a lot more women in training to become jewelers. You find so many names of women designers, now one doesn't even talk about it. Whether it's a man or a woman, it's just become a norm.
Sharon: That's interesting. If you stop to think about it, I don't even know if there are that many male designers. I'm thinking about when I go to studios. You see more women than you do men.
Beatriz: It's more and more, yes. There are more and more women, absolutely.
Sharon: What would you advise? What piece of advice would you give emerging jewelers or people who want to follow in your steps?
Beatriz: Remember that if you're a jewelry historian, you're an academic. Remember that. You have to really enjoy what you're doing. In my case, I was very lucky. I've worked for so many different projects and so many different jewelers internationally. I've specialized in that, but it's very difficult. Maybe, depending on the economic situation, people can volunteer in a museum to learn the trade. I think what you really have to know is do you want to work in a gallery, or do you want to work in an auction? Do you want to work in a museum? They don't always mingle, so you have to learn where you want to go. It depends on what your interests are. If you have anybody, send them to me privately. I'm happy to talk it through.
Sharon: Thank you for being with us.
Beatriz: My pleasure.
Sharon: Well will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out.
Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a rating and review so we can help others start their own jewelry journey.
Working in jewelry sometimes means being a detective. As a freelance jewelry historian and curator of the Alice and Louis Koch Ring Collection at the Swiss National Museum, Beatriz Chadour-Sampson draws on her wealth of knowledge to find jewelry clues—even when a piece has no hallmark or known designer. She joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about how she creates jewelry exhibits that engage viewers; how she found her way into the niche of shipwreck jewelry; and what it was like to catalogue 2,600 rings. Read the episode transcript here.
Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the first part of a two-part episode. Please make sure you subscribe so you can hear part two as soon as it's released later this week. My guest today is Beatriz Chadour-Sampson. She's been the curator of the Alice and Louis Koch Ring Collection at the Swiss National Museum for almost 35 years. She's also a jewelry historian, art historian, educator, author and a whole bunch of other things I'm sure I'm missing out on, but she'll fill us in today. Beatriz, welcome to the program.
Beatriz: Thank you very much for your invitation.
Sharon: Can you tell us about your jewelry journey? It's been quite a journey.
Beatriz: Yes, the journey starts many years ago when I was a small child, in fact. I'm not a young chick at the moment, but I started off in my childhood with jewelry. I have to tell you a little bit of the family history. I was born in Cuba. My father was Russian and my mother was British. There's a whole story of European history, including being five times refugees from Europe within Europe. That's the aside, but my father learned how to cut and polish diamonds during the war in Cuba. After the war, he opened an import/export business for gemstones. It's not unknown. You'll probably find on the internet a picture of me, age three, sorting stones in his office in Cuba. We left Cuba during the Cuban Revolution. I was a Cuban subject as well as my father, but we left and never returned.
He opened a business called Chadour Charms, Inc. in New York. I always spent my holidays in New York. My mother was working in a company where I couldn't tag along. I spent most of my free time as a child on 47th Street, which was called the gold and diamond alley at the time. My father designed charms. He had the gold cast and then set the stones himself. On 47th Street we had many friends we visited. One had a refinery for gold and silver; the other one sold supplies for goldsmiths, which was quite exciting. I encountered pearls, corals, diamonds and all sorts of jewelry experiences.
That was from three years to early childhood. It was about three years altogether in New York. Then my father was offered a job in Frankfurt am Main in Germany. He spoke fluent German. It was an American company building a pearl business in Frankfurt. That's when I got even deeper into jewelry. Of course, there was also the trade. You can call it child labor today. In those days maybe it was seen slightly differently, but I did my homework with the secretaries. After that, I was stringing pearls, writing invoices and doing all kinds of things with pearls. When I was slightly older, I was allowed to make pearl pairs. Don't think that a pearl is white. It's nowhere near white. There are so many different colors and lusters that come in the pearl. So, I was setting pearls, hundreds of pearls, sorting them by a quarter of a millimeter, and then pairing them for earrings and matching the pearls in their luster so they could be worn as earrings.
From there we went on to jewelry, so stones and charms. Something interesting with the charms—I have a little anecdote. I was researching a book, "The Power of Love," which came out in 2019, and I was looking in an auction catalogue for a famous love ring that Sir Laurence Olivier gave to the actress Vivian Leigh. Late at night, as I do very often, I was searching on the internet for the auction catalogue, and suddenly I see a charm bracelet. I couldn't believe my eyes. One of the charms she had on the bracelet was designed by my father. I can prove that because I have the same charm on my charm bracelet. It was a ship in the sunset, as you see in the background. So, that was going down memory lane.
When I reached the age of 18, I said, "I don't want to have anything to do with jewelry ever again." I had enough. I grew up in the jewelry trade. It was all trade. Lo and behold, I then decided to study art history in Germany and England, but I did my thesis in Germany at the University of Münster. My subject at the end of this was Antonio Gentili, a Renaissance goldsmith. He came from Faenza. He worked for the Medici and the Farnese families, two very high families. He also did works for the Vatican. I remember in my early years after my dissertation, I used to see the Easter Mass on television in Germany. I was looking to see if the cross and candlesticks I worked on were on the show on the altar, which most years they were.
I then got into goldsmiths' work. It's through my jewelry background and my thesis on Renaissance goldsmiths' work that I was awarded a scholarship to write the catalogue of 900 pieces of jewelry for what is now called the Museum for Applied Arts, the Museum für Angewandte Kunst. The collection covers 5,000 years of jewelry history. I was really plunged into the deep history of jewelry. There weren't so many books at the time. They were more archaeology books. This explosion of jewelry books is something that came after I had finished the catalogue. There was a lot of research that was quite complex, but I enjoyed it. It was wonderful to gain that experience and knowledge of a wide part of jewelry history. That was in 1981. I finished the catalogue. It was published. That was also my first experience doing an exhibition because when the catalogue was launched, we had an exhibition with the jewelry. More recently I've been with the Cologne Museum since 1981. It was the first time. They're now doing a new display of the jewelry. They're still planning it. I think it's due to come out next year, so there will be a new display of the jewelry I catalogued.
Then I was offered a job in Hanau, Germany. Many will not realize that Hanau has a history in jewelry that goes back to the 17th century. Up to the First World War, it was a center for producing hand-manufactured jewelry. Today, they have an academy where you can learn how to make jewelry. That goes back to 1772. So, it's a city of great tradition of jewelry. I was Managing Director of the Gesellschaft für Goldschmiedekunst. I was organizing exhibitions and competitions and catalogues, and it was all contemporary jewelry. When I was working in Cologne, that was my first encounter with contemporary jewelry. I met people who I became great friends with. I also took part in the many events of the Forum für Schmuck und Design, which still exists. So, those were my early experiences with contemporary jewelry, but when I got to Hanau, I was plunged right into it. I had all kinds of jobs to do, as I said, exhibitions, catalogues and competitions.
I stayed there for about three and a half years. In 1988, I was asked if I would catalogue the Alice and Louis Koch Collection. Louis Koch was a very famous jeweler in Frankfurt au Main, Germany, and he and his wife collected rings, among many other collections. It was a family of collections. By 1904, they had about 1,700 rings. There are over 2,600 rings now. I was asked to catalogue the 1,700 rings, which took me quite a long time, but I was doing all kinds of other projects in between. The collector allowed me to do that, which was great fun. In 1994, the historical collection was catalogued fully. It's like an encyclopedia of rings from ancient Egypt on. It covers 4,000 years of jewelry history.
In about 1993, just before we finished the catalogue—and there are a few contemporary rings in the 1994 publication. I believe this collection from Louis Koch in 1904 went to a second and a third generation after he died in 1930. The fourth generation, we discussed it, and we came to the conclusion that they should make it their own and continue where their great-grandfather had finished. Now, their great-grandfather was, as I said, a very famous family jeweler in Frankfurt. The shop was called the Cartier of Germany, so you can imagine royalty wearing it and the national business. He was a quite a jeweler. They also expanded to Baden-Baden. He was a very fashionable jeweler, and he was a contemporary of René Lalique. He didn't buy rings from any other contemporaries, but he bought a ring by René Lalique, so he must have realized there was something very contemporary about Lalique. He was the modernizer of French jewelry at the time, using glass and gold that was unthinkable.
So, we went on this venture from 1993 until the publication in 2019. We amassed a collection of 610 rings from the 20th and 21st century, which are all catalogued. Then the collection went into the Swiss National Museum. There was a small exhibition, but since 2019, there's a permanent display of 1,700 rings. May I add that the 610 contemporary rings are all on display, so we reduced repetitions within the historical part of the collection. Interestingly, this room's showcase is also round like a ring. With 1,700 rings, it's not an easy task because you have to go in a circle. We had big, brown panels of paper and played around with the rings. It starts with themes and then goes on chronologically to the contemporary. You couldn't make a mistake because once you got to ring 200, you couldn't go back to number 50. You can imagine going up to 1,700. I can say there are two rings that are not in the right place, but that's not too bad with 1,700 rings.
Sharon: Did you have to photograph them?
Beatriz: I'm very lucky to finish up on the Koch Collection. I'm now consultant curator to the Swiss National Museum in Zurich. I was responsible for the display there together with my colleagues in the museum. That was quite an experience. It's wonderful after 35 years to still be able to do this. I think they were a bit concerned about my babies and that I would want to run away from it, but that isn't the case. I really enjoy working with them. It's a pleasure. It's so rewarding, after 35 years, to see the collection on display, which was always in private hands from the 1900s onward.
I've just written six blogs for the Swiss National Museum. One is on the Napoleonic Wars, and the stories are all told by the rings. The next one coming out in November is on Josiah Wedgwood and his sculptor, John Flaxman. Rings tell lots of stories.
Sharon: Are the blogs in English?
Beatriz: Everything in the Swiss National Museum is English, German, French and Italian. So, you take your pick which one you want.
Sharon: Did you have to photograph everything? When you say you catalogued them, I think of a catalogue being a photograph and description.
Beatriz: Oh, no. The photographs of the historical collection were all done by a photographer. It's very difficult because we had to choose one background for all. That was complex. It's pre-1994, so it's sort of an old, pale, gray blue. One color fits all because it was the encyclopedic nature of the books.
With the 2019 book, I was working with the photographer in Zurich. I spent many weeks and months in Zurich sitting next to the photographer and choosing which angle because contemporary rings don't just have a hoop and a bezel. It's a piece of sculpture, so you have to know exactly which angle to take the photograph to show as much as you can of the ring. I was actually working together with the photographer. You learn a lot with such jobs.
Sharon: Wow! Today there are all kinds of degrees you can get with exhibitions. Was it something you learned hands on or learned by doing?
Beatriz: I was working at the practice in my second home of the Victoria and Albert Museum, because I was consultant curator to the William and Judith Bollinger Jewelry Gallery. I worked there for four and a half years on the displays. When you see the displays in the gallery, the concept was from me. I had little black and white photographs of the old gallery, nothing in color. It didn't matter that I knew the pieces by heart and each piece of jewelry was about the size of a small fingernail, and I got a damp hand from cutting out 4,000 images of 4,000 pieces of jewelry, very high-tech, of course. I had my pieces of paper, and I started thinking that every board has to tell a story. For me with an exhibition, the exhibit has to tell the story, and the text below on the captions really helps you understand it. Visually, I think it's very important that the pieces also talk. So, yes, I started before the architect was allocated and we worked together with 4,000 pieces. My colleague, Richard H. Cumber, worked on the watches, but otherwise all the jewelry is designed on black and white photographs on white sheets of paper with double-sided tape.
Sharon: Do you have thoughts about why you got so immersed in jewelry? You said you didn't want anything to do with jewelry, but here you are immersed in it. What were your thoughts?
Beatriz: You mean deep diving in it?
Sharon: Yes.
Beatriz: I grew up in the jewelry trade and experienced the Cuban Revolution and hardships, being refugees in New York and so on and then moving again to another country. It was complex. As a child, it wasn't quite easy. It didn't do me any harm. I've survived, but it was a really hard trade. What I was doing later, and still do now, is historical jewelry. It's a very different thing. I think I've gotten my love of jewelry back, yes, but I'm very keen on the wide picture of jewelry covering thousands of years.
In fact, I've been doing courses for the Victoria and Albert Museum since 2008. When I do the "Bedazzled" one, which is a history of jewelry, I start with 150,000 B.C. I jump off it pretty quickly, but for me, it's so important for people to go back to that time to understand what jewelry was about. To me, it was certainly more amuletic rather than status. It was status as well probably. We can't follow that, but certainly I think amuletic to protect from the dangers. They lived in a very natural world, so the dangers were much worse than we could imagine. I think it's fascinating to see what was in other periods of jewelry history. It makes it much more exciting to understand what's happening now.
Sharon: When you came to contemporary jewelry—it seems that you're pretty immersed in that also—what stood out to you? What made a piece different or jump out at you? There seems to be so much copycatting in many ways.
Beatriz: Definitely, a lot of copycatting. I've worked on a collection of 450 pieces of, and I can tell you that's one of the most copied ones. On Instagram, I have to be careful that I don't get nasty remarks because I do point out, "Yes, we've seen that before. He was ahead of his time, but his style is still modern today." When we were putting the Koch Collection together with the 610 rings, 20 from the 21st century, the individual l idea was very important for me. It has to be innovative; the idea has to be new; it has to be interesting. For the materials, it should be an experiment with new materials; different materials; materials you wouldn't use for jewelry. We talk about sustainable jewelry. Pre-1994 we have two rings in the collection made of washing-up bottles. We were way ahead of the times. Of course, Peter Chang used recycled materials, and we commissioned a ring from him. We did commission people that never made rings before just to put them to the test. It was very interesting.
Sharon: I didn't know that Peter Chang was recycled.
Beatriz: The materials are all recycled materials, yes. That is the amazing part, the recycled materials. These two crazy rings we bought from a German jeweler, it's just washing-up bottles. If you're creative and imaginative, you make something interesting.
We have many important names who made rings. We have some wonderful rings from Wendy Ramshaw and so on. We have a lot of big names, but that was not the point. We have a lot of ones that just graduated or were young or completely unknown. It's more the idea and what they made. Of course, I was approached many times regarding rings and I had to decline, saying, "Sorry, we already have something like that." I couldn't say it was not exciting. The idea was already there, so it makes it difficult. Unless it was interpreted differently, yes, that's fine.
So, I think we got a lot of crazy pieces. The collector always teased me. He said, "Can you wear the ring?" I said, "Of course, could you wear the ring? What do you think?" I always choose rings for wearing. Of course, I have to admit there are a few that are not wearable. I'll admit to that, but I think with a collection like the Koch Collection, you're allowed to do that. There are few you really can't wear, or you can wear them with great difficulty.
Sharon: Yes, I think about that. I always think about how it would be to type with a ring like that, or how it would be to work at a keyboard, something like that.
Beatriz: I always say you don't wear the big, high jewelry pieces when you go shopping or washing up.
Sharon: That's true.
Beatriz: I won't say any company names, but the high jewelers of New York, Paris, wherever, they make those pieces. Those are rings. If they look great, they're wearable, but you wouldn't wear them every day while you're washing up or shopping or doing other tasks around the house.
Sharon: That's true. That's probably why people don't buy them as much anymore. They don't have places to go, Covid aside.
Beatriz: I think with Covid, the interesting thing is that we have rings that are sculptures. If you're doing a collection and somebody makes a ring sculpture, I think it's valid to be in the Koch Collection. We do have a few ring sculptures, including Marjorie Schick. But it's interesting that you mentioned Covid and when the pandemic was on. I don't want to go into the pandemic, but we have a much-increased Zoom culture. It did exist before the pandemic, people trying to reduce travelling and climate change and so on. It did come before the pandemic, but it is definitely an increased media. You can't really wear a ring and say, "Well, here's my ring." You have to wear something that's in the Zoom zone. That's earrings and brooches. Fortunately, I'm somebody who likes earrings and brooches. I always have on earrings and brooches.
Sharon: What you have on is very Zoom culture. It shows up well.
Beatriz: The color shows up, yes. The earrings, they're made of silver and made by Eve Balashova, who works in Glasgow. Zoom is not a problem with this jewelry because, as I said, I love the earrings and certainly the brooch that goes with it. In fact, when I bought the earrings I asked, "Can you make a brooch I can wear with it?"
Sharon: Wow! When you go out, do you see rings that make you say, "That should be in the collection"? Can you add new ones?
Beatriz: Since the display in 2019, there are only a few additions. It sort of finished with the publication and the display, but there have been the odd new rings. I write a lot about that. We have had a few, and I'm hoping that next year they will be on display. Maybe half a dozen rings; not many. We might have another exciting one, but we have to wait. Until the collector has actually gotten his hands on it, I don't want to jinx things.
Sharon: But you identify them and then they say yea or nay.
Beatriz: Yes. They have bought things on their own as well, but we've done this together, yes. I've identified and advised. For me, it was wonderful. First of all, they don't know the collector. It's always the Koch Collection, but the family's name is different, so it was always very modest, without great names. I was the one who negotiated everything, and it always gave me great pleasure when I could stand up and say, "We've chosen a ring for the collection." You find this great joy on the other end, especially for those young or unknown ones. You could imagine what it meant for them. It's always great joy.
I love working with contemporary artist jewelers. I worked for 13 years as a visiting tutor under David Watkins. I always said I learned more from them than they learned from me, but I helped them with their Ph.Ds. I really enjoyed working with them, and it continued with being able to buy or acquire what they made for the collection.
Sharon: You do a lot of teaching. You're teaching other classes in January at the V&A.
Beatriz: Yeah.
Sharon: It started online.
Beatriz: Yes. In 2021, I did an online course, "Bedazzled." Next year, in January and February, it's called "Jewels of Love, Romance and Eternity," which is a topic I've worked on because I published the book "Proud Love." We have a few other speakers who can bring another slant into it. Again, I start with antiquity, because you can't talk about love jewels without actually talking about Roman jewelry. Many people don't realize that the engagement ring or the proposal ring or marriage ring started with the ancient Romans.
Sharon: I didn't know that.
Beatriz: Diamonds in engagement rings started in the 15th century. It might be a little bit earlier, but that's more or less the dateline. So, there are lots of interesting things to talk about.
As I said, I've been doing courses since 2008 at regular intervals. Also at the Victoria and Albert Museum, I was co-curator of the pearls exhibition. I did a lot of courses on pearls as well, and that is a fascinating topic. It was wonderful to work on that exhibition. It was together with the Qatar Museum's authority, but I was asked by the Victoria and Albert Museum to create an exhibition for the British public, which was very different to what they had in mind, of course.
Sharon: There are so many new kinds of pearls, or at least kinds that weren't popular before. Tahitians and yellow pearls, that sort of thing.
Beatriz: Yes, all these extra pearls are the cultured pearls. It's a history of the natural pearl. Qatar was a center where they were diving for pearls, so we did all the diving history, how merchants worked in that area in Bali and Qatar. The cultured pearl is, of course, Mikimoto. There are theories that the Chinese started the cultured pearls, but the one who really got the cultured pearls going was Mikimoto. He certainly did the science with it. He worked together with scientists and had the vision. Natural pearls were very, very expensive, and his philosophy was that every woman should wear a pearl necklace or be able to afford a pearl necklace. I think his task is fulfilled.
It's interesting because the natural pearl doesn't have quite the luster of the cultured pearl. By the 20s, you have the cultured pearls coming in, and then by the 50s—when I did the exhibition, we had so many stories being told. Of course, some ladies from the Middle East are probably kicking themselves because they sold the family natural pearls because they didn't have the luster, and they bought the nice cultured pearls that are more flashy. Of course, now the value of natural pearls is unthinkable.
Sharon: Was there a catalogue?
Beatriz: With cultured pearls, you have the golden pearls and the Tahitian pearls and so on, but the color of the pearls depends on the shell they grow in, unless you have some that have been tampered with and are colored. But there are Tahitian pearls, golden pearls and all these different shades. Melo pearls have an orangey color. The color of the pearl is dependent on the shell it grows in. The rarest pearl is the pink pearl that comes from the Caribbean. That's the conch pearl; that's hugely expensive. You asked about the catalogue.
Sharon: We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out.
Sharon
Linda: I think I was also instrumental in launching the American Jewelry Design Council. That was founded by Jose Hess and Jean Francois Albert, with a lot of wonderful designers. As a matter of fact, I'll tell you a story. We used to meet once a year and have a retreat. I must include Michael Van Danzer. as one of the outstanding designers. One year, we had an appointment to meet at De Beers in London to talk about jewelry design and diamonds. There were 30 of us. I have to mention Susan Helmich, Susan Fabric as well. They were also women that were very much a part of the American Jewelry Design Council. Those were the women that stood out.
That morning, one of my good friends called me and said, "You can't go to London," and I said, "Why?" They said, "Princess Diana just died." Well, too late, we were all on our way to London. We arrived in London and were walking to Kensington Palace, not knowing if we were going to have our meeting De Beers. Everything was up in the air. It was the most sorrowful experience that we all shared together. My group did meet at De Beers. It was a very short meeting. Chairs were abundant, but there was just no stopping them. Although we had time enough to meet, there was also the trip home at Heathrow Airport, when the funeral procession was going on. Every person in that airport was hysterically crying and cried all the way home. It was such a personal tragedy for so many of us, but we carried on as best we could.
Another retreat we went to was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We went there in September, when the aspen trees were golden in their bloom. These retreats really gave the designers a chance to talk about how they were going to continue their designs and how they were going to keep building, how they were going to invite new designers to come in, and how they were going to expand the world of jewelry design. One of the things they did was pick a theme, whether it be a wheel or a teardrop, and every designer that was part of the American Jewelry Design Council would a create piece with this theme. Then one of us had the idea to display them in different museum settings as an exhibit. It was also at the JA Show and eventually the JCK Show.
Now, I had been on the board of Kent State University School of Design for 18 years. When I first joined the board, I fell in love with the school, and Henry and I were invited to be guest speakers. It was then called the Shannon Rogers and Jerry Silverman School of Design. We were invited to their fashionomics course that happened every Friday. So, we would get on a plane from New York to Cleveland, which is an hour flight, and spend the day at the school speaking to the students, answering questions, having a lovely dinner, and then getting on a flight that night and going back to New York. I continued that for 18 years. Every Friday in the fall semester, I would bring different designers or an editor from Vogue Magazine or another magazine and then come back the same day. I loved it.
One day, the amazing president—her name was Elizabeth Rhodes—said to me, "We'd like to rebrand the school. Jerry Silverman is such a big name. How can we do that?" I said, "I have an idea. Come to my office in New York, and let's have a branding session. Let's talk about a strategy to rename the school, since it's more about design." My dear colleague Michael Carter sat with the deans and the professors. Every one of the teaching professionals of Kent State was in a New York conference room, and we renamed the Kent State School of Design. It was that simple, and it's been that way ever since.
For many years after that, I continued to travel to the school, bringing other guest speakers to their fashionomics course. It was very rewarding. I also helped them develop a New York program, where students worked in a studio in New York in the garment district. They housed students, and they had students come to FIT or be assigned to different designers, like Donna Karan or Diane von Furstenberg, to work with them so they could increase their skills as designers. That was an exceptional time to see the emergence of this wonderful talent come to life.
Sharon: Wow! It sounds like you have quite a history. What is your connection to jewelry today? Do you have a connection?
Linda: I will always have a connection. When I went to school and studied to be a medical technician, I worked for an amazing doctor on Park Avenue and 78th Street until I was almost nine months pregnant. I had the privilege of having patients like Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, Anne Bancroft. I once gave flu shots to all the cast of a Broadway show. I never in a million years thought I would be in the jewelry industry.
My uncle, my mom's brother, had a company called Raquel and Landy. He was one of the first jewelry manufacturing companies to make high jewelry in platinum and diamonds. He said to me, "Your great uncle was the founder of the first jewelry boutique on the Bowery of New York. He used to make jewelry for the Duchess of Windsor." I said, "Hm. Jewelry, my great uncle, my uncle, my cousins." It was meant to be for me.
Most people who go into the jewelry industry, especially in the beginning, if you ask them, "Did you study to be in the industry?" they would say, "It just happened. I happened to fall into it." Once you fall into it, you love it. I can call anybody I met back in the 70s as if I was with them yesterday. The jewelry industry has a special bond. Once they love you, once you give them your integrity and your honesty, you have friends for life. I worked with the well-known Mark Hanna, who is now with Warren Buffet's company. In the very beginning, he and I worked for a company and developed jewelry. We have maintained our friendship throughout the years. There isn't a person I've met that I'm not still in touch with.
When I moved to Florida in August of 2019, purely by accident, we were about to have a hurricane, which never happened. My best friend said to me, "Come on, we're going to the mall. I'm going to show you what it's all about." This is the first time I ever lived outside of New York City. We walked into the mall and into Neiman Marcus. Keep in mind that Henry Dunay was the most important jewelry designer at Neiman Marcus for probably close to 50 years, and along with him I used to make personal appearances. I used to help them with many of their promotional campaigns. I helped them with their events. In fact, there were times when they hired me to create in-store promotions for them or tie-ins with other designers. We used to have in-store events and try to bring the store together, which I was very involved with. I can't remember what I was thinking about.
Sharon: Neiman Marcus.
Linda: We walked into Neiman's, and I walked straight into the fine jewelry department. Neal Acartio, who was one of the managers in another store was there, and he looked at me and said, "What are you doing here?" I said, "Well, I just moved to Florida. There's no hurricane, so my girlfriend took me shopping." He said, "You know, there's a position open as a sales associate." I said, "But I never did retail," and he said, "It doesn't matter. They're interviewing tomorrow."
I got the job. I was working the next week just like that. I had so much fun. It wasn't easy being on your feet for eight hours, but I met childhood friends. I immediately made strong relationships with beautiful clients that had me shopping for them. I absolutely loved it, and I probably would still be there, but on March 17, 2020, everything closed down, the store, the mall, the country. The pandemic was here. Everything closed. There was no place to go. I stayed in the house for 18 months. Neiman's started to hire very slowly afterwards, but it took a very long time.
I can happily say I'm still very involved in the industry. I most recently volunteered to work with my friends and colleagues at the Women's Jewelry Association, which is coming up on our 40th anniversary, which I can't believe. The Women's Jewelry Association is going to be 40 years old next year, so I'm going to be actively involved and will attend the 40th anniversary of the Women's Jewelry Association. Through my Facebook connections, through my social media connections, I would say I am as involved in the industry as I could be. Living here in Florida, I have a deep love for it, a deep respect for the way it's grown. I watched these designers, who tried to lead with all the different and beautiful works they put out, getting better and better each year.
To any young designer coming in, do it. Embrace it with both hands. One of the schools that stands out is FIT. Their jewelry department has expanded dramatically. I used to guest lecture. We started the Women in the Know Conferences at FIT through the Women's Jewelry Association. That's something that happens every year. The other design schools out there are very good, like Parsons. USC has a very important program. Kent State, when we went back, expanded their jewelry department. It was very impressive. It's exciting to have seen it from the 1970s. It's now close to 2023.
I have another story I'd love to tell you about. My dear colleague at the Diamond Information Council called me one day and said, "Linda, Elizabeth Taylor needs a mask to wear for an event in honor of AIDS, to raise funds for AIDS research." I said, "O.K., let me think about this for a second." I went to Henry and said, "Henry, Elizabeth Taylor needs a mask." When you say that to somebody with a wealth of designer possibilities like Henry Dunay, you can't image what's coming next. You'll see by the picture of Elizabeth holding the mask that he didn't just create a little pin and mask. It was a life-size mask with 936 diamonds supplied by dear friends at William Goldberg Diamonds and platinum from the Platinum Guild. The Gold Council donated the gold.
This extraordinary mask, which was valued at over $1 million, was supposed to be carried by Elizabeth the day of the event. She wanted to auction it off at Christie's. The night before, she got the flu, so she couldn't attend the event. A model was the one who wound up carrying it, but Elizabeth's connection with the mask was strong. We had beautiful photography that shows her with the mask. Henry designed mini mask pins for her and several of the guests, like Anna Wintour, so they would always have a keepsake from that evening. The mask went all over the world. It went to Wichita, Kansas, to raise funds for pediatric AIDS. In about two hours, it raised over $88,000 for AIDS. It was absolutely breathtaking, as you will see in the pictures.
Sadly, the mask was pulled apart because the diamonds had to given back. Though Henry's intention was to replace it with other diamonds, I don't think it ever happened. Everybody used to say, "Oh, Elizabeth Taylor, she's such a diva. You're going to have such a hard time working with her." I couldn't tell you how absolutely wonderful and genuine she was. The few times we met her, when we presented the mask to her and at another event, where Henry designed a special necklace for her, she was as loving and generous and warm and friendly as anyone could imagine. Her dedication to raising awareness for AIDS was like none other. I will never forget those moments I had with her. It was very exciting.
Sharon: It must have been. Linda, thank you for sharing all the history and different perspectives you have. You've seen a lot, and you'll see a lot more, I'm sure. Thank you so much for being here today.
Linda: Thank you so much. It's been a wonderful journey to share with you.
Sharon: We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out.
Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a rating and review so we can help others start their own jewelry journey.
Sharon
My guest is Linda Orlick. Linda has spent her whole career in jewelry. She has been very successful as a retailer and a consultant to retailers. She's one of the cofounders of the Women's Jewelry Association, and she helped build it into a powerhouse. I'm sure many of you are members of the Women's Jewelry Association. Today, we will learn a lot more about her jewelry journey. There's a lot to say. Linda, welcome to the program.
Linda: It's so good to be here. Thank you, Sharon.
Sharon: Tell us about your jewelry journey.
Linda: Well, I hope we have a lot of time. In 1974, when gold was $35 an ounce—
Sharon: Wow!
Linda: I guess, wow. My family and a few friends spent the summer in the Catskills. At that time, there were three ladies who had a company and were selling a collection of gold jewelry to other women like a pyramid scheme. It was a combination of chains and necklaces and earrings. I said to a friend of mine, "We should do this." So, we went ahead and invested $400 each, and we got our first collection.
We thought we would be brave enough—we lived in Riverdale in the Bronx—to take a trip into the city and go into office buildings in the garment center, introduce ourselves to the receptionist, go into the bathroom and set up wares. There you have it: we were selling our jewelry. Women used to come in and give us hundreds of dollars in deposits, and we would come back and deliver pieces to them. The two of us looked at each other and said, "I think this is fun. This is good. Better than doing it out of our home," because we both had small children. That's how it all started. Again, gold was $35 an ounce. Can you imagine that was 48 years ago?
My next introduction was to a silver designer by the name of Minas. He was from Greece, and he had a beautiful collection of 18-carat pieces. In fact, I'm wearing two of his pieces. I fell in love with his collection. I had never sold to a retailer before. I didn't know how to go about it. I walked into Bloomingdale's one day with my little jewelry roll, and I said, "Knock, knock; I'm Linda and I'd like to introduce myself." The buyer—her name was Susan; I can't remember her last name—said, "Do you have an appointment?" I said, "Oh, did I need one?" Before I knew it, I was showing her the collection. She fell in love with it also, and she bought a nice selection of it. Now, mind you, a ring like this was $22. Again, it was 18-karat gold and silver. Everything was very affordable, so they sold out immediately. I kept the money from the order, and then I started to work full time for Minas, and I kept the relationship with Bloomingdale's going.
Along the way, gold went from $35 an ounce to $800 an ounce. It was at the same time that Minas decided he was going to turn his business into all 18-karat gold. He felt that staying in the United States, it would be difficult for him to continue to sell his collection in all gold, so he decided to go back to his homeland in Greece and continue with his collection. By chance, I was at the Sheraton Center when the JA had their shows there, and I got a part-time position with Marsha Breslow, who was a wonderful colorist. She used to do lapis and 18-karat bead jewelry for Cartier and had her special collection for them. She used to take semi-precious beads and make the most extraordinary necklaces and earrings.
It caught the attention of Vera Wang, who was then an assistant at Vogue Magazine. Vera kept coming up to the office and working with us on different collections. Vera was working on a collection for Calvin Klein for one of his original runway shows. She asked Marsha to create a collection that would go on his runway. Excitingly enough, it also made the cover two seasons in a row of Fashion Times Magazine. For a jewelry designer to be on the cover of Fashions Times was unheard of.
Along the way, I called Women's Wear Daily, who never featured fine jewelry. I believe it was Agnes Carmack, who was then an assistant, who answered, and I said, "I've got a gorgeous collection of earrings," and she said, "O.K., bring it over." We went up on the rooftop. I had a friend who was a model. This wonderful photographer they had, Tony Palmieri, photographed about six different earrings on her, and they landed on the front page of Women's Wear Daily. It was the first ever.
I started to think to myself, "If Seventh Avenue can promote by name, why shouldn't the jewelry industry?" I went back to Bloomingdale's and told them about the Marsha Breslow collection. After being in Vogue Magazine and with Vera Wang putting it on Calvin Klein, people began to really take notice of the designers and names. We were in Bloomingdale's, which was a Federated Store. The parent company was associated with Associated Merchandising Corporation. I became friendly with the CEO of AMC, Lee Abraham, and he called me one day and said, "Linda, I want something different for Bloomingdale's that no other store has." I said, "O.K., give me a few days to think about it." I called him back and said, "Lee, I want to have the first design boutique ever in a department store, and I want it to be in Bloomingdale's, in the 59th Street store." He said, "You got it. The buyer Marty Newman, whom everybody loves so dearly, and the DM will be visiting you in the next week."
Sharon: The DM is what? I'm sorry.
Linda: The department manager. "It's our secret, but they are going to listen to your story about a designer boutique and it's going to happen." Sure enough, a week later, I get a phone call from Marty Newman, who went on to be one of my dearest friends. He said, "I'm not sure what I have here, but I want you to create a collection. We can give you six feet of showcase space." If you walk into Bloomingdale's and see the Louis Vuitton store to the right, there's always that big flower. Exactly where that beautiful flower is was the showcase that he wanted us to work with.
So, we put in a collection. We were responsible for designing the showcase and hiring our own salespeople. They gave us a sales goal. We quadrupled that. Lee and the buyer were so impressed, he said to me, "Now you can go to the rest of the Federated stores," which included Woodward & Lothrop. I created the first designer boutique. What can I say? The rest is history. Marsha Breslow went into these stores and the word "jewelry designer" came along with it.
It was a slow process because jewelry designers were still not recognized. It was a real uphill battle. In 1981, I was invited by the Manufacturing Jewelry and Silversmiths of America, MJSA, and I eventually met the man who became my former husband, Henry Dunay. I was invited to do direct mail advertising and public relations for the first group of American jewelry designers that were invited to the Baselworld Fair. Basel didn't want any Americans to come to it. They fought and said, "Americans, what do they know about jewelry design? They design in 14-karat gold. They have no sense of design." So, they stuck us in a little corner behind the cafeteria where nobody could see them. We did a mailing to hundreds and hundreds of retailers across the world. Little by little, when you have a designer like Henry Dunay or Jose Hess, names who were emerging designers, and they're not being sold by weight, which is what they did early on. You sold your jewelry by weight. People started to recognize it. They became a real force in Basel. They were invited back every year, and every year the collections grew more and more incredible.
The American jewelry designers outdid all the other countries as far as designing metals and working in 18-karat and precious and semiprecious stones. I went to the Basel Fair for 21 years and became very friendly with the then-head of the fair. Eventually, the Basel Fair hired me to promote the fair to American retailers to try and get more American retailers to come to Basel. That was when there were so many competitions in New York. There was the emergence of JCK, the JA show, which launched the Couture Show, the JCK Show, which launched Luxury. They converged on Las Vegas and took over the ability for retailers to come to one place and see extraordinary designs. Then, of course, you had the European retailers wanting to come, too. It gave Basel a real run for its money. I had done public relations for the JA Show for many years, and I helped create a lot of exciting highlights for the Couture Show. I had a very close relationship with Robb Report magazine.
Sharon: Which magazine?
Linda: Robb Report magazine.
Sharon: Robb Report, O.K., yes.
Linda: Robb Report is very high-end luxury jewelry. I created a Robb Report event at the Couture Show after the major entertainment, which was always sponsored by Vogue Magazine. It had over-the-top musicians performing, and it was a luxury fair the couture jewelers could go to with over-the-top desserts and interesting things. That grew to be very big and kept the tour very special until Couture and JA decided to make its move to Vegas.
When that program was over, I became the public relations and marketing person for the JCK Show. I was also watching the Luxury Show within the JCK Show. We came up with a lot of programs and conferences that would create wider visibility for the show. In fact, because of my 21 years in Basel and my relationships not just with jewelry designers, but with the watch companies, I was able to create the first watch luxury show. I introduced the concept to my colleagues at JCK and I brought my dear friend, Steven Kaiser, on board to oversee the show. The Luxury by JCK Watch Show is still in existence today and is the first and only luxury watch show in the U.S. So, that was very exciting.
The rest, as they say, is history. I watched the industry go from $35 an ounce and deciding how much I should pay for this based on a scale, to a showcase with the most beautiful designs ever created in the world. I have to give a lot of credit to my former husband, Henry Dunay, because in my opinion he was—and still is—one of the greatest jewelry designers in the industry. He set the tone for finishes on jewelry with his love for pearls, his love for precious and semiprecious stones, his ability to search out stones and create a design around it.
For instance, my dear friend who worked at the Diamond Information Center, called me one day and said, "I have a 4.25 canary yellow diamond that was found in a mine in Arkansas by a local jeweler. If Henry could create a ring for Hillary Clinton to wear at the inauguration, she will wear it." Henry was leaving for Europe the next day, and I said, "You're not going. To design a ring for Hillary Clinton and have her wear it at the inauguration, that comes first. Please put off the jewelry trip for another few days." Sure enough, he created the most beautiful cinnabar ring. It was from the argosy of Arkansas. You saw pieces of platinum and different textures in the 18-karat gold that depicted the topography of Arkansas, with the 4.25 diamond set inside. It was a cushion shape. It was never cut. It came out of the ground just the way you see it in the ring. It was extraordinary.
Sadly, the jeweler wanted the diamond back rather than having the whole ring donated to the Smithsonian as it should have been, so Henry had to take the ring apart. He said, "One day, I'll have a stone made that looks exactly like it and I'll reset it." I don't think that ever happened, but people got to see it. It went on view in the Museum of Natural History. It became part of one of the exhibits at the Museum of Natural History. It was an extraordinary ring. I do have pictures of it to share with everybody.
Sharon: We'll have those on the website.
Linda: It's an exciting journey. Back in the early 80s, I made lots of good women friends in the industry. I think it was in 1982. There was a blustery, snowy night, and we were all at the JA show. It was at the Hilton in the Sheraton Center. We were invited by two representatives from New England to a meeting to tell us about the women's group they put together, New England Women in Jewelry. We thought it had a lot of merit, and my friends and colleagues and I kept going back and forth and back and forth. Do we need this organization? What do you think?
We finally decided we would call our friend, Ronny Lavin, and 10 women we were close with to talk about it. There was Nancy Pier Sindt, who was an editor with National Jeweler; a designer, Joan Benjamin; Jo Ann Paganetti, who was a professor at FIT; Marian Ruby, who was the jewelry buyer at Finley at the time. I hope I'm not leaving anybody's name out. We said, "O.K., I think we should do this. Let's become mentors. Let's create a scholarship program. Let's create a platform for women to share their ideas and grow their businesses." We voted on the name Women's Jewelry Association.
Nothing could have prepared us for what was coming next. I sent you our original newsletter. We came on like such a force that we expanded our bylaws to include the rest of the country. The New England group became our first general chapter, and the rest is history. Most importantly, of course, there was somebody we all loved and respected, Gerry Friedman, who was the editor in chief of National Jeweler Magazine, and we were going to ask Gerry to be our first president. She was like, "Of course."
We had several meetings where we put together a group of programs of other women to talk about what's going on in the industry, what suppliers and vendors to use, the world of design and all different topics. Gerry always had a group to her home for dinner, and one day we were talking about what's going to make us stand out. There are lots of men's groups or enough men's groups, and they had dinners. All of a sudden, it came to me: We had to create the first awards in the jewelry industry for women, by women. We all agreed we would do this. Through Gerry's connections at the Lotos Club, we created the first Awards for Excellence dinner. It was at the Lotos Club, and it was a total sellout. We had to move it to the Harmonie Club, which was a little bit larger in space, again through Gerry's connections. Again, it was a sellout. We honored Helene Fortunoff and Bess Ravella. We honored Angela Cummings for best designer, Marian Ruby for best retailer. We had Nancy Pier Sindt for best editor. The list goes on and on. It became such a sense of pride for all of us, to recognize each other for our accomplishments in the industry.
The award dinner kept growing and growing. We moved to Tavern on the Green, and again, it was a total sellout. We kept growing. For the last two years, it's been at Chelsea Piers. There are over 700 women and men that attend. The awards have literally become the ticket in the industry. It's a current event. It's a great place to network. It's a great place to catch up with your friends and your vendors in the industry, and it's a beautiful, beautiful evening.
I am proud to say that from those original 10 women in Ronny Lavin's apartment, there are now 20 chapters all over the world with, I believe, a membership of 17,000 women and men worldwide. The Women's Jewelry Association is a force to be reckoned with, and now they have programs in all different regions. They have ongoing programs. When I look back on my career, the Women's Jewelry Association stands out as one of my greatest highlights. Along the way I've gotten beautiful emails from members who said I actually changed the course of their lives by creating the Women's Jewelry Association. I take those comments very seriously and to heart, because I was always trying to do something different and trying to make room for people to grow. If somebody got laid off from a job, I was the first person they would come to. I would always help them find a position or help them with what they're going through and perhaps help them look at a different career within the industry.
When I started in the industry, there were barely any women. One of the women that stands out to me is Helene Fortunoff, because she was one of the very first women to ever have retail experience. She took all of her children to work with her every day. Five of her children worked with her every single day. Now not only are her children in the business, but Esther and Ruth have carried on their mother's incredible journey in the jewelry business. It's remarkable to see how, from the beginning to where we are now, the jewelry business has become one of the major industries in the world. Diamonds and precious and semi-precious stones, pearls, pearls, pearls—because I love pearls—are now the mainstay of what people look for when they're going shopping for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, or just when a woman wants to buy her own jewelry.
Sharon: We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out.
Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the second part of a two-part episode. If you haven't heard part one, please head to TheJewelryJourney.com. My guest today is Eva Eisler, Head of the Jewelry Department of the Academy of Arts in Prague. She's probably one of the most well-known artists in the Czech Republic. Welcome back.
How long were you in New York? A long time?
Eva: 25 years.
Sharon: Wow! I didn't realize that. And did you teach the whole time?
Eva: I taught for a few years at Parsons School of Design, and then New York University pulled me in. It was Judith Schwartz, who was the Director of the Department of Art Education, who wanted to expose the students to metalworking. So, she asked me to come and teach there.
Sharon: Did you do jewelry and other things because you wanted to have not so much grayness in the world, to have color, to have joy?
Eva: Are you asking?
Sharon: Yeah, I'm asking. Did you break out, in a sense, because of the world around you?
Eva: I think that one challenge after the other gave me strength and conviction. This is something I can work with, the medium of jewelry, because it's so communicative. I had so many incredible encounters through wearing a piece of jewelry. For example, I went to a party at Princeton University. I'm talking to this professor of physics. He's telling me how they are developing an artificial sun, and he's looking at my piece. When he finished talking about his project, he said, "Is this what I think it is?" I said, "Clearly, yes." It was a piece of metal bent into an S, one line and one dot. It's basically telling you that it depends on a point of view and how you perceive things. I used to like to come up with a concept that I would play with in different theories.
Sharon: Did you expect to be in the States for 25 years? That's a long time.
Eva: No. We were allowed by Czechoslovakia to go for one year. After one year, we politely applied for an extension. It was denied to us. So, we were actually abroad illegally and we could not return because we did not obey the rules.
Sharon: When you came back, did you teach? We saw some of your students' work. What do you tell them about your work? What do you teach them?
Eva: It's a different system. In New York, you teach one class at a time if you're not a full-time professor at the university. In New York, it's very rare. The intensity and the high quality of professionals in all different fields allows schools to pull them in, so they can take a little bit of their time and share with students what they do. It's not that you devote your full time to teaching.
In the Czech Republic, it's different. At the academy where I have taught for 16 years, you're the professor, and you have a student for six years with a special degree in the master's program. For six years, you're developing the minds of these young people. I don't teach them techniques. We have a workshop and there is a workshop master. I talk to them about their ideas. We consult twice a week for six years. It's a long time. I would be happy if somebody talked about my work for half an hour once a year. I would have to ask somebody because I need it as well. It's a different system, the European system of schools.
Sharon: You're head of the K.O.V. Studio. How would you translate that?
Eva: The academy is divided into departments, and each department is a different media: Department of Architecture, Department of Industrial Design and so on. We are part of the Department of Applied Arts, which is divided between ceramics, glass, textile, fashion. My studio is about metal, and for metal in Czech, you write "kov." When I took over the studio, I put dots in between the letters, which stands for "concept, object, meaning." In Czech, meaning isn't even a word. That way, I could escape the strict specialization for metal, because when you're 20 and you go study somewhere, do you know you want to work for the rest of your life in metal? No. Today, we are also exploring different materials, discovering new materials. I am giving them assignments and tasks. Each of them has to choose the right material, so the person comes up with using concrete or cork or wood or paper or different things, glass or metal.
Sharon: How do you balance everything? You have so much going on. How do you balance it?
Eva: I have to do three jobs because teaching does not make a living, even though I'm a full-time professor. It's an underpaid profession, maybe everywhere.
Sharon: I was going to say that, everywhere.
Eva: Then I do my own art, and I do large projects like designing exhibitions, curating exhibitions, designing a design shop. Things like that to make money to support those other two. It's a lot, yes. I have grandchildren.
Sharon: A family. Yes, it's a lot. You've done jewelry shows and you've evaluated shows. What's important to you? What stands out? What jumps out at you?
Eva: I sit on juries. In 2015, I was invited to be a curator of Schmuck, the jewelry exhibition in Munich. It's a big challenge, selecting out of 600 applicants for a show that at the end has only 60 people from all over the world. When I looked at the work, we flipped through pictures one after the other. It's so incredible what jewelry has evolved into, this completely open, free thing, many different styles, many different trends and materials. There's organic and geometric and plastic. I noticed these different groups and that I could divide all these people into different groups, different styles, different materials. Then I was selecting the best representation of these groups. It made it quite clear and fast when I came up with this approach.
Sharon: Does something jump out at you, though, when you're looking through all these—let's say you've divided all the glass, all the metal—
Eva: Very rarely, because we go to Munich every year. I go and see exhibitions all over, so it's very random. You can see something completely different and new. I worked on a very interesting exhibition that year at the Prague Castle. Cartier does not have a building for their collection, a museum. They have the collection traveling around in palaces and castles and exhibition galleries around the world, and each place has a different curator. I was invited to curate it in Prague. It was the largest Cartier exhibition ever displayed. It was around 60 pieces for this show, and it was in Bridging Hall of the Prague Castle, an enormous space.
That was very interesting because at the moment I accepted this challenging job, I had never walked into a Cartier anywhere in the world, in New York, Paris, London, because I was never curious. It was real jewelry, but when I started working with the collection, which is based in Geneva, and I was going to Paris to these workshops and archives, I discovered the completely different world of making jewelry, how they, in the middle of the 19th century, approached this medium and based it on perfection and mechanisms and the material. So, the best of the best craftsmen were put together in one place. It was very challenging.
Another exhibit I worked on was for a craft museum. It was called The Radiant Geometries. Russell Newman was the curator, and I was doing the display faces. My work was part of the show as well. That was a super experience.
An interesting show I had was at Columbia University at the School of Architecture. The dean was Bernard Tschumi, the deconstructivist architect. He invited me to do an exhibition of jewelry and drawings for their students of architecture. Can you imagine? The students looked at the work, and they thought they were small architecture models. I developed a new system for how to hold them together. For that exhibition, I built cabinets that I later developed into a system with vitrines. After the exhibition with vitrines, I started making chairs and tables and benches, and later on I used it again for an exhibition when I was in Brussels. One thing leads me to another. One thing inspires the other. I go from flats, from drawings and paintings, into three-dimensional objects. I need a lance, so I design it and then some company makes it.
Sharon: Wow! What do you think has kept your attention? We'll have pictures of the jewelry on the website so people can see it. I love the necklace you have on. It's avant garde. Everything in the exhibit and everything your students did was avant garde. So, what holds your attention about it? How would you describe it?
Eva: I think making something like many people did before you doesn't make any sense. We are surrounded by so much stuff. It only makes it worth spending your talent and time when it's something new. You're discovering something new that somebody else can learn from and apply somewhere else. For example, this necklace is just held by the tension of the spring wire. Next time, maybe I can use it for some lighting. Who knows?
Sharon: I'd like to see that if you do it. What makes a good exhibit? You've been in charge of so many exhibits. What makes a good jewelry exhibit?
Eva: It should be based on a common theme or concept, and all the objects should together tell a story. Also, the exhibition design or architectural design of the show is very important. A lot of exhibition architects are creating something so powerful that you can't see the work that is showing. My rule is that the installation basically should disappear. The work is the most important thing, right?
Sharon: Yes, that's true. You mentioned a story, like each area or part should tell a story. Would you agree with that?
Eva: If it's large exhibition of jewelry in different styles, let's say, it should be grouped into similar topics so it empowers them. If you have one piece of this kind, another piece of a different kind next to each other, then—I don't know; it can be anything. It depends on the curator or the architect. Look at the Danner Rotunda in Munich. Their collection is strung together. Maybe the curator or the artist who did the installation wanted to create a dialogue of completely different characters, like when you have guests for dinner and you're thinking who sits next to whom. You want to create an exciting dialogue.
Sharon: When you came to New York, do you think you stood out? In Czechoslovakia did you stand out? Could you hold your own within these different parties?
Eva: I'm not the one who can judge it, but yes. I heard from different people what caught their attention, and why, for example, Judy Schwartz said, "I was waiting patiently all these years," whenever she finds the time to teach at NYU. I was always amazed by her education. Toni Greenbaum wrote a beautiful piece when we first met. She was intrigued by what I wore and how I looked, but mostly by a piece of jewelry I wore. I sewed the dress a day before because I thought, "What am I going to wear?" I designed it myself. If somebody asks me what I collect—mostly everybody collects something—I usually say I collect people. People together create society, create culture. One cannot stand alone. Through the work I do, it brings me to people. I try, and the results bring me to better people. That's what I value most.
Sharon: That's interesting. That was going to be my next question, but you answered it. Everybody does collect something, and people have different definitions of collections. Collecting people is a collection, yes, and you collect people all over the world. Thank you so much for being with us today, Eva. I really appreciate it.
Eva: Thank you so much for inviting me and talking to me. I'm saying hello to everyone who is listening.
Sharon: Well will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out.
Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a rating and review so we can help others start their own jewelry journey.
Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the first part of a two-part episode. Please make sure you subscribe so you can hear part two as soon as it's released later this week.
My guest today is Eva Eisler, s. She's probably one of the most well-known artists in the Czech Republic. Her work is minimal and refined. She also designs clothing, furniture, sculpture and so many other things I can't tell you about. She has taught and studied at Parsons School of Design, and she'll fill us in on everything she's learned. I'm sure I'm leaving something out, but she'll fill us in today. Eva, welcome to the program.
Eva: Thank you for having me.
Sharon: Great to have you. Tell us about your jewelry journey. Did you study it? Were you artistic as a youth?
Eva: I only thought about this yesterday. You're the first person I'm going to tell this story to. During the war, my grandfather, because he was very practical and forward-thinking, was buying jewelry from people who needed money to have safety deposits for later, whatever happened after the war. When I was born in 1952, there was still a little bit left of the treasure he collected and enclosed in a beautiful wooden treasure box. When I was a good girl, I could play with real jewelry in gold and stones.
When I grew older, I never thought of jewelry as something I would design. It was something I could play with as a girl, but when I got older, living in a communist country—Czechoslovakia turned into a Soviet Bloc country after the war—everything was so gray and constrained and monotonous. People were afraid to say whatever they thought, and I was feeling that I had to start something provocative, to start some kind of dialogue about different things. So, I started making jewelry, but because I didn't know any techniques, I did it in the form of ready-mades, looking for different metal parts out of machines, kitchen utensils, a stainless-steel shower hose, a clock spring, sunglasses, all different things. I didn't know people like that existed somewhere else, like Anni Albers, who in the 40s created a beautiful necklace out of paperclips. I learned that much, much later.
I was not only making jewelry. I was also making lamps and small sculptures, because creating things always made me happy. My mother was an art teacher. My father was a scientist. He was one of the founders of robotics in the 50s, and he ended up teaching at the most famous universities around the world later on. That's how I started making jewelry, but I wanted to proceed with a profession in architecture. That was always my main interest. After school, I worked for a few years as an architect. Later on, I got married and had children, and I wanted to be free from a steady job and do what I loved most, create.
Sharon: When you were an architect, were you designing buildings?
Eva: I was part of a team for experience. I was given smaller tasks that I had to do, mostly parts of the interior.
Sharon: Did you do sculpture and jewelry on the side? Your sculpture is such a big part.
Eva: Yeah, we're talking about when I was 25, 26. In 1983, my husband and I and our two children moved to New York, because John was invited by Richard Maier to come and work for him. That was a big challenge that one should not refuse. So, we did the journey, even though it was not easy with two little children.
Sharon: Did you speak English at all, or did you have to learn when you came?
Eva: I did because my father, in the 60s, when it was possible, was on a contract with Manchester University in England teaching. Me and my brothers went there for summer vacations for two years. One year, I was sent to one of his colleagues to spend the summer, and then I married John, who is half-British. His British mother didn't speak Czech, so I had to learn somehow. But it was in Europe when I got really active, because I needed to express my ideas.
Sharon: Does your jewelry reflect Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic? It's different than jewelry here, I think.
Eva: There were quite a few people who were working in the field of contemporary avant garde jewelry. I can name a few: Anton Setka, Wasoof Siegler. Those were brilliant artists whose work is part of major museums around the world, but I was not focused on this type of work when I still lived in the Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia at that time. It was when I arrived in New York. I thought, "What am I going to do? I have two little children. Should I go and look for a job in some architecture office?" It would be almost impossible if you don't have the means to hire babysitters and all the services. So, I thought, "I have experience with jewelry. I love it, and I always made it as a means of self-expression and a tool for communication. O.K., I am going to try to make jewelry, but from scratch, not as a ready-made piece out of components that I would find somewhere."
I didn't know any techniques. Somebody gave me old tools after her late husband died. I started trying something, and I thought, "Maybe I can take a class." I opened the Yellow Pages looking at schools, and I closed my eyes and pointed my finger at one of the schools and called there. This woman answered the phone, and she said, "Why don't you come and see me and show me what you did?" When I showed it to her, she said, "Are you kidding? You should be teaching here." It was one of my ready-made pieces. Actually, a few years before I came to New York, I went to London and showed it to Barbara Cartlidge, who had the first gallery for contemporary jewelry anywhere in the world in London. She loved it. She loved my work, and she bought five pieces. She took my work seriously, because basically I was playing and wearing it myself and giving it to a few friends who would get it as a present. So, I was shocked and very pleased.
This is what I showed this woman at the Parsons School of Design. This woman was the chair that took care of the department. I said, "I cannot teach here. I don't know anything," and she said, "Well, clearly you do, but you're right. You should take a class and get to know how the school works, and maybe we can talk about you teaching here a year later." I took a foundation course in jewelry making. It was Deborah Quado(?) who taught it. One day she said to my classmates, "This woman is dangerous." I forgot to say that before I started this class, the chair invited me to a party at her house to introduce me to her colleagues. It was funny, because I was fresh out of the Czech Republic, this isolated, closed country, and I was in New York going to a party. I needed those people that became my friends for life.
That was a super important beginning of my journey in New York into the world of jewelry. A few years later, when I made my first collection, someone suggested I show it to Helen Drutt. I had no idea who Helen Drutt was. She was somewhere in Philadelphia. I went there by train, and Helen is looking at the work and says, "Would you mind if I represent your work in the gallery?" I said, "Well, sure, that's great," but I had no idea that this was the beginning of something, like a water drain that pulls me in. The jewelry world pulled me in, and I was hooked.
From then on, I continued working and evolving my work. When I started teaching at Parsons, students would ask me whether they could learn how to solder and I said, "I advise you not to learn any traditional techniques because when you do, you will start making the same work as everybody else. You should give it your own way of putting things together." At the end, I did teach them how to solder, and I was right.
I tried to continue with the same techniques I started when I was making these ready-made pieces, but with elements I created myself. Then I tried to put it together held by tension and different springs and flexible circles. I got inspired by bridges, by scaffolding on buildings, by electric power towers. I was transforming it into jewelry, and it got immediate attention from the press and from different galleries and collectors. I was onto something that kept me in the field, but eventually, when my kids grew older, this medium was too small for me. I wanted to get larger. Eventually, I did get back into designing interiors, but it was not under my own name.
Sharon: When you look at your résumé, it's hard to distill it down. You did everything, sculpture, architecture, interior design and jewelry. It's very hard to distill down. Interior design, does it reflect the avant garde aspect?
Eva: Yes, I am trying to do it my way. I love to use plywood and exposed edges to make it look very rough, but precise in terms of the forms. If you think of Donald Judd, for example, and his sculptures and nice furniture, it's a similar direction, but I'm trying to go further than that. I'm putting together pieces of furniture and vitrines for exhibitions and exhibition designs. While I am taking advantage of the—
Sharon: Opportunity?
Eva: Opportunity, yes. Sorry. I don't have that many opportunities lately to speak English, so my English is—
Sharon: It's very good.
Eva: On the other hand, yes, I'm interested in doing all these things, especially things that I never did before. I always learn something, but it's confusing to the outside world. "So, what is she? What is she trying to say?" For example, this famous architectural historian and critic, Kenneth Frampton from Columbia University, once said, "If one day somebody will look at your architectural works all together, they will understand that it's tight with a link, an underlying link."
Sharon: Do you think you have an underlying link? Is it the avant garde aspect? What's your underlying link?
Eva: It's the systems. It's the materials. It's the way it's constructed. I'm a humble worshipper of sacred geometry. I like numbers that have played an important role in the past.
Sharon: Do you think the jewelry you saw when you came to the States was different than what you had seen before? Was it run-of-the-mill?
Eva: When I came to New York a few years later, I formed a group because I needed to have a connection. I organized a traveling show for this group throughout Europe and the group was—
Sharon: In case people don't know the names, they are very well-known avant garde people.
Eva: All these people were from New York, and we exhibited together at Forum Gallery and Robert Lee Morris on West Broadway. That brought us together a few times in one show, and through the tours I organized in New York, Ghent, Frankfurt, Berlin, Vienna and Prague.
Sharon: Wow! We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out.
Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the second part of a two-part episode. If you haven't heard part one, please head to TheJewelryJourney.com. I'd like to welcome back one of today's foremost jewelers, William Harper. To say he is a jeweler leaves out many parts of him. He's a sculptor, an educator, an artist, an enamellist, and I'm sure I'm leaving out a lot more. Welcome back.
Yes. Is that how you got to the collection you did during lockdown quarantine?
William: Yes. I live in New York, and New York had almost a complete shutdown. My husband and I were afraid we were going to come down with a disease if we intermingled with too many people. We essentially were in lockdown or quarantine for several months. In that period, I decided I wanted to do something absolutely different from anything I had done before, and I wanted it to be politically motivated. So, just as Goya or Manet or Picasso did important paintings based on criticizing a political body—in Guernica, for instance, Picasso was painting the disruption of the small town of Guernica in Spain. Very powerful. I wanted to see if I could do that in jewelry, which was really strange, I have to say.
I had been playing for at least a year with the idea of trying to do a piece inspired by the expression "the tainted fruit of the poisoned tree." That's an obtuse way of approaching a piece of jewelry, but I thought of it in terms of the bottom of the tree, the poisoned tree, was our ex-president. At the top, there were elements that represented his monstrous children. You see my politics right there. It's a beautiful piece. If you know the substance behind it, it will mean more to you, but you don't have to. I wanted each piece to be beautiful. Now, my idea of beauty can be unlike a lot of people's, but I think an artist has to know his guidelines for what he wants to be beautiful. There's nothing wrong with the term "ugly" if it has an aesthetic purpose. I did this entire series on that idea.
Sharon: Does quarantine mean something besides—
William: No.
Sharon: Do people ever choose your pieces because of the political message?
William: In this last group, the Quarantine Pieces, there were 10. The first two I sold were to a collector who appreciated very much the political leanings behind it. You don't have to know. If I had someone come in that I knew was a staunch Republican, I wouldn't tell them what the motivation was. Well, maybe I would, and then I'd tell them they weren't special enough to own one of my pieces.
Sharon: I was asking about quarantine, and you said you didn't mean more. Let me ask you this. You taught for more than 20 or 25 years at Florida, right?
William: I taught for 21 years at Florida. Before that, I taught for three years at Kent State. Before that, I taught for three years in a Cleveland high school.
Sharon: So, it's 30.
William: Yes. I came to the conclusion not too long after I started teaching in college that a lot of people were there and didn't really know what they were doing. They were able to get tenure simply by hanging on long enough. But in teaching at a high school, it forced me to be very exact about what I wanted them to do, and yet allow them to have a lot of leeway to do anything original and outside the box. I consider those three years in high school to have been very important to me as a college instructor. I guess it worked, because at the end of my 21 years at Florida State, I was named a distinguished professor. So, I guess my teaching methods paid off.
Sharon: Do you think you can impart your ideas? It sounds like you imparted them to high school students, but can you teach your ideas?
William: No, I don't want to teach my ideas. I want to teach a subject matter or a format in terms of a specific media. Maybe it's a drawing problem. I remember early on in my first year of teaching, I came across a group of toadstools in the yard that were starting to shrivel. I picked up enough to give each table triple toadstools. I simply put them on a piece of white paper on the table, and I said, "This is your inspiration. Now, what do you do with it? And it has to be in pencil." That was how I handled that situation. If a student's work starts to look like mine, they were not a successful student and I was not a successful instructor.
I have always urged students to find their own voice. A lot of people can't do that. They have mastered a technique, but if the technique leaves you cold when it's finished, then it's not very successful. I want some kind of emotional connection with whatever they feel when they're creating or painting or making a piece of jewelry. I want to see that they have made a connection to what they are deep, deep down and have it come out in their work.
When I taught at Florida State, I was a very popular teacher. Students who were in engineering or communications or theatre would take my course and then decide they wanted it to be their major. I would tell them their father was paying far too much money for them to go to college to major in something that was going to be totally useless to them when they were out of college. I considered that a very important part of my teaching, because I didn't want people getting bogged down. I didn't need high numbers of students. As long as I knew they were taking it as an elective, I was fine with it. If said they wanted to major in it, I had to make sure I foresaw that they would have it in them to do well.
Sharon: When did you decide you could part ways and make a living from this?
William: That was a rather difficult thing to determine. It was a goal, but I didn't know if I would ever get to it. In 1995, I had been represented for a few years by an outstanding New York gallery, Peter Joseph Gallery. He handled high-end, handmade furniture. It wasn't anything you would find in a furniture store; it was artist furniture, and he decided he wanted to add me to his group. I was the lone jeweler within the group of artists in his gallery, and it was a gallery that only represented a small number of people. I think when I was in it, there were only 11 or 12 artists he represented. He was able to sell my work very well.
I always wanted to be able to just throw in the towel and see if I could do it on my own. In the spring of 1995, when I found out I was being named distinguished research professor, there were two other gentlemen in meteorology who were also named. I was always upset at how low my salary was in comparison to a lot of other people. In Florida, every library had to have a book of what every professor made and what they taught in terms of their load. The gentlemen in meteorology were making three times what I was making.
I spoke with my then-wife and said, "It's time to take a chance and see if I could do it by myself." I prepared myself the next day with a folder that had a resignation letter in it. I went to the vice president who was in charge of everything and said, "There's a disparity of treatment with the three of us." They were all making three times as much money as I was, and I at least wanted to be brought up closer to what I should have been paid considering what my title suggested. When I told the vice president that, he said, "Bill, you know you have the weakest team in the college. I can't depend on your department to bring any enhancement of reputation," and I said, "Well, in that case, I resign." He looked at me quizzically, and I pulled out my letter and said, "Here it is," and I signed it and gave it to him.
It was the only way I could do it. Then I was forced to go home and get a studio and do things I knew could sell enough to keep us at the same level we had been at when I had a university job. I should say the one cog in the wheel I was able to overcome—and people don't necessarily know this about me, but in 1990, both of my retinas detached. I had to have emergency surgery. After several surgeries, my right eye was fairly stabilized. I don't have much peripheral vision, but it was stabilized. My left eye, I'm totally blind. I'm halfway towards Beethoven, who wrote his last symphony without being able to hear the music. My one eye serves me well enough, obviously, to continue making rather intricate work.
Sharon: How come your jewelry is so different? It's certainly not mainstream. It's gorgeous, but it's not mainstream. What would you say makes it so different?
William: I'm just special. It's the format I've already described. I don't want to make jewelry that's like anybody else's. I definitely don't want to fall into categorization.
Sharon: Have you thought about doing production, more than one?
William: I tried it once and it was a total failure. My daughter had a boyfriend who knew someone who was the vice president of one of those TV networks where you could call and buy things. Carl said, "Bill, come up with a group of pieces, and I'll see that so-and-so is able to see them so you can become part of the team." I worked and worked and worked, and they weren't me, and I didn't think they were vanilla enough for the home shopping network to carry. So, that was the end of that. I knew it wasn't within my set of talents to do that. You asked how it is—
Sharon: I can't remember what I asked. Do you see people on the street, let's say two women, or a man and a woman who wears a brooch and says, "Oh, that's a William Harper. You must know him," or "I know who that is"?
William: My funniest story about that is when my ex-wife and I were in Venice. It was a foggy morning, and we sat down in a café to have some cappuccino or hot chocolate or something like that. I had to turn my head because I don't have any sight in the left eye, but from my left I saw a couple coming. They were chattering away, and then I could tell the gentleman was trying to describe to the woman the piece of very large, spectacular jewelry my wife was wearing. They passed close enough so I would hear it. They thought they were insulting me. The gentleman said, "You see that piece of jewelry? There's a man in the United States named William Harper, much, much better than that." I didn't correct him. I thought it was a story I could hold onto the rest of my life. Actually, it was a compliment.
Sharon: It is. Why do you say your work is fearless? I would say it is fearless, but why would you say that?
William: The word I was trying to think of before was branding. I'm not a brand.
Sharon: Right, you're not a brand.
William: But anyone who sees one of my works, if they're remotely familiar with the field, they will know it's mine. Many ladies tell me that they were wearing a piece of my jewelry and a stranger would come up to them and say, "Excuse me. That's a beautiful piece of jewelry. Is it a William Harper?" Or maybe they didn't even know who it was, and the wearer would say, "Yes, it's Harper. Isn't it beautiful?" That's happened a number of times. I love when a lady reports that back to me.
Sharon: Is it fearless?
William: It's not your everyday piece of jewelry that a lady's going to wear. It is more potent than that. I also hope—although I can't force it, obviously—when someone owns a piece of mine that they dress accordingly, where the outfit they have is secondary to the piece of jewelry. I have seen my jewelry on the lapels of a Chanel jacket, and that combination doesn't help either one of us.
Sharon: I can see why that doesn't work. When you're deciding how to do something, are you thinking about how you can be different or fearless, or how the piece can be different?
William: I don't worry about that. I have enough confidence in my creative ability to know that it will come out strange enough. Even within the art jewelry movement, my work is fairly in the category of not being a decorative pin, let's say, that has no life to it, that's put on somebody's sweater. That kind of work becomes an adornment to the costume the lady is wearing. I want my work, as I said, to be strong enough that the lady is going to have to sublimate what she would like to wear and get clothes that are very plain.
For instance, the red blouse you have on would be a perfect foil for one of my pieces in navy blue or black. In a way, she is becoming like the wall that holds a beautiful painting. It's the same way. Her body is the presentational element for my piece of jewelry to really perform.
Sharon: What have you been doing in terms of your jewelry since the restrictions lifted?
William: When I finished the tenth piece in the Quarantine Series, which was March 22, 2020, I had worked until 2:00 in the morning. I was very happy with what I had done. I had just finished the piece absolutely and I went to bed. The next morning, I woke and could not move anything in my body. I thought I had had a stroke, but after several days in the hospital, I was diagnosed with a very rare affliction. It's an auto-immune disease called Guillain-Barre syndrome It's not fatal, but it's a menace because you lose almost everything, like walking. I couldn't sign my own name, for instance. I had to go through a long process of physical therapy. I'm 95% functional, but I don't feel that I'm ready to take a chance with a torch or deal with anything where I could hurt myself or, god forbid, burn down the apartment. The entire building would shake.
So, I tried to keep away from that, but in the process, I knew I had to do something. My husband and some close friends said, "Bill, you love to paint. You love to draw. You love collages." So, I have spent the time since then doing very intricate collage drawings that became very, very colorful. They're all 24x30, I believe, and they're really very beautiful. About a month ago, I was giving a lecture at Yale, and when I showed these slides and drawing collages to the head of the department, he said, "I can see they're absolutely you. They look just like something you would have done without looking like your jewelry." That was the highest compliment he could give me. I really have enjoyed doing it. I think making those saved my mental health because I've had something to do.
It's still hard for me to go to a museum because I can't stand long enough to walk around, and I refuse to go in a wheelchair. I don't want to do that. So, I've been restricted to what I can do in terms of being ambulatory. For instance, it was just this week that I finally, with the aid of my husband—who's also a Bill, incidentally—to start using public transportation. Until then I had used car services, which over a month's time, when you can't do anything else and you have to go to doctors and physical therapy and stuff like that, becomes disgustingly expensive. I knew I didn't want to keep doing that. It was eating into my savings. So, I thought, "O.K., Bill, it's time to start using public transportation." I've used it three times without any problem, but my husband is with me. I have trouble going up and down steps sometimes, so he wants to make sure I don't trip and fall and get mangled by all the other troops coming out of the train that just want to get wherever they're going to.
Sharon: But you give lectures still?
William: Oh, yeah, for a long time. Colleges, art schools, universities with art departments. We're not really in session, so there wasn't any lecture to give—
Sharon: I keep forgetting, yes.
William: —when all those things are shut down. The lecture at Yale—and that's a pretty good place to start—was the first time I had done that for years.
Sharon: Wow! I want to say thank you very much because I learned a lot about you today.
William: Thank you, Sharon. It's been lovely to be here with you.
Sharon: We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out.
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