Jewelry Lovers

Artist-jewelers in Britain in the seventies gained two new means by which to promote their work. One was the opening of an important retail outlet, Electrum, in London. The other was the establishment of the Crafts Advisory Committee, later renamed the Crafts Council. This was set up in 1971 to promote and develop the importance of British crafts. Before this, jewelers had had to rely on editorials in fashion magazines such as Honey, Vogue and Harpers and Queen to publicize their work.

Sometimes the political message within contemporary jewelry designs has been made more explicit. For instance, Davidthe British artist-jewelers concentrated on simple, handmade pieces based on the Scandinavian craft tradition. They used newly devised techniques and took advantage of the influx of bright new synthetic materials. Some craft jewelers felt that the crude settings of rocky stones in precious metals produced for the high street outlets represented an unacceptable adherence to commercial values and hierarchical dogma. Their own hand-crafted pieces deliberately set out to counteract this ethos.

Poston protested against the poor working conditions and exploitation of black miners in South Africa by exhibiting a forged steel neckpiece in the shape of a manacle. Inlaid in silver were the words ‘diamonds, gold and slavery for ever’.

Many artist-jewelers in recent decades have wanted to cross the barrier between the connoisseur and the general markets, to make their jewelry more widely accessible. However, this is not easily done as art jewelry can often not be translated into a form that can be mass-produced without seriously compromising the design. Some individuals, such as Ramshaw, have found a halfway house by designing limited editions of their work commissioned for sale by museums.

David Watkins has concentrated on nonpolitical ‘body forms’. He insists that his work is not jewelry as such. The forms he designs have to be appreciated spatially, as well as in relation to the body. Supple organic shapes contrast with rigid Perspex to complement the body’s outline. His pieces range from the very simple to more elaborate and theatrical celebrations of technology.

The classical style of the Bauhaus continued to have an influence into the early eighties. British jewelers such as Ramshaw, Joel Degen, Eric Spiller and David Watkins have applied the Bauhaus notion of the machine aesthetic. As Ramshaw has pointed out:

‘We are here in the presence of a machine, not a craft aesthetic, though much craft is involved in the making and the machinery is closely controlled by the designer- craftsman. Mass-production should not be looked down upon as a debased form of manufacture, as long as the object is well made. An excellent finish is often only achieved by using mass-production techniques because of the high cost of “tooling up”.’

Some modern jewelry design has encroached onto the territory of clothing. The British designer, Susanna Heron, for example, produced a series of designs called ‘wearables’, which were transparent layered collars. When not in use they were intended to hang on the wall as a sculptural form.

Other designers such as Nuala Jamison, Julia Manheim and Caroline Broadhead have continued to explore the use of colour transparency and synthetic materials.

A recent Royal College of Art graduate who is interested in the ‘intellectual’ aspects of conceptual jewelry is Simon Fraser. He says of himself that he ’sometimes makes jewelry and sometimes makes something like jewelry‘. His work marries together emotional and intellectual elements, and is influenced in particular by three diverse themes: performance art (especially the work of Rose English in contemporary theatre), current political issues, and micro-organisms. Much of Fraser’s work is made from alternative materials such as injection-moulded plastics and foodstuffs (for example, necklaces made of dog biscuits). He rather glibly remarks that he has ‘always wanted (his) jewelry to get drunk, have rows, go to parties and fall downstairs’.

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British Artist Jewelers