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The Jeweler as Artist
| Article
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10826 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1986 |
1,714 Words |
| Author
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Ettagale Blauer
Ettagale Blauer is a freelance writer based in New York. |
In every art form there is a period of experimentation, followed by the medium's greatest level of achievement, concluding ultimately in decline. So it is with the art of jewelry, a medium that, like sculpture, demands that the artist command a range of technical skills in working hard materials in order to make tangible his artistic vision. But the art of jewelry, which reached the height of achievement in the work of such masters as Cellini, Castellani, and Faberge, and then declined, is now enjoying a remarkable renaissance. Some of the jewelry being made today rivals the great masters both in technique as well as design. And, unlike the works of those makers, today's production is available to a wide audience, even to people of very modest means.
This work has nothing to do with the gem-heavy creations of such well-known merchants as Harry Winston, Cartier, and Tiffany. Theirs is not so much the art of jewelry as it is the art of conspicuous consumption. Elizabeth Taylor does not sport a work of art on her finger; she wears a rock weighing some sixty carats. Such diamonds are said to be a "girl's best friend" not for their beauty but rather because they can be sold for hard currency. That trio of jewelers and other well-known names are not in the true sense practitioners of the art of jewelry.
Contemporary jewelers of handcrafted works employ techniques as old as written records and as new as space technology to achieve their artistic intentions. Artisans of civilizations of the Near and Middle East from 6,000 years ago would recognize many of the techniques in use today (though not the labor-saving versions of those methods, made possible by
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