Jewelry Metal Arts News
Mitchell Schwarzer: Snapshots of the Disciplines
Posted on Thursday, April 19, 2012, by Mitchell Schwarzer
On February 4, 2012, the faculty at California College of the Arts gathered at the college's San Francisco campus for a retreat focused on the state of the arts across our many disciplines. In the morning, 25 short presentations offered insights into challenges and opportunities faced by practitioners and thinkers in recent times. The word aired most frequently was crisis: the crisis of the Great Recession; the crisis of Global Climate Change; the crisis of understanding and working within a discipline in our digital age.
Watch the video of all the presentations (91 minutes), shot and edited by Yoni Klein (Photography 2012)
The economic downturn has produced an economic squeeze within most of our disciplines. Art directors, as Alexis Mahrus remarks, have diminished roles in shaping an illustration. Smaller profit margins reduce the flexibility and time given over to experimentation. Branding and celebrity worship take up a larger slice of the creative pie. Some presenters, like Sue Redding of Industrial Design, see no problem in this conflation of art and business and, furthermore, dispute the notion of a crisis. Yet many presenters feel that the economic crisis is not only real but wielding dangerously asymmetrical impacts. Demand remains strong for high-end craft goods and blue-chip fine art. Some small nonprofits are struggling to survive. To Ignacio Valero of Critical Studies, the priority given over to luxury items can be attributed to the ongoing influence of classical economic policies that privilege individual decision making over collective social and natural needs. Likewise, Sandra Vivanco of Diversity Studies notes that economic inequalities have greatly worsened over the past few years, especially in the developing world. Contemporary society is forging a timeless, spaceless way of conducting business, a race for lucrative and short-term gains that concentrates investment more than ever in the hands of a few.
Read the rest >>>California College of the Arts Earns Placement in Princeton Review's Guide to Greenest Colleges in the United States
Posted on Thursday, April 21, 2011, by Jim Norrena
California College of the Arts is one of the most environmentally responsible colleges in the United States and Canada, according to The Princeton Review, an education service that helps students select and apply to colleges. CCA's inclusion in The Princeton Review’s Guide to 311 Green Colleges: 2011 Edition reinforces the college's reputation as an exemplary institution of higher education committed to sustainability.
Read the rest >>>CCA's 2011 End-of-Year Events & Happenings
Posted on Monday, March 21, 2011, by Jim Norrena
Note: This page showcases the wide selection of end-of-year events CCA hosted in 2011. Events listed here are for illustrative purposes only; all events have passed.
Read the rest >>>Jewelry / Metal Arts Alumni and Faculty Participate in Arizona State University Invitational Exhibition
Posted on Friday, October 8, 2010, by Lindsey Westbrook
CCA Jewelry / Metal Arts alumni Rachael Nyhus, Erin Soojin Kang, Jennifer Cornell, Taylor King, Corey Lico Wolffs, Alexis Myre, and Stephanie Webster, along with faculty members Marilyn da Silva, Curtis Arima, David Cole, Deborah Lozier, and Angela Hennessy, showed their work at the 5th Annual Intercollegiate Metals Exhibition at [Arizona State University](http:
Read the rest >>>CCA's Corey Lico Wolffs Makes Art for Two at 2010 Baccalaureate Exhibition
Posted on Thursday, May 20, 2010, by Marion Anthonisen
Positively consumed by the energy of CCA’s end-of-year celebrations, we’re shifting blog gears from the beginning of the undergraduate experience to its conclusion. Through July, I’ll be posting short profiles of this year's graduates, a talented group of young emerging Bay Area artists. Stay tuned!
Read the rest >>>Two Jewelry / Metal Arts Seniors Take Home Windgate Fellowships
Posted on Wednesday, March 31, 2010, by Jim Norrena
California College of the Arts is proud to announce not one but two 2010 Windgate Fellowship Award recipients: Rachel Nyhus and Alexis Myre, each a senior in the Metal Arts / Jewelry Program. Only 10 fellowships are awarded annually, with each awardee receiving a $15,000 reward—making the award program notably competitive!
Read the rest >>>Research, Recombine, Reinvent: Art and Science at CCA
Posted on Tuesday, June 16, 2009, by Lindsey Westbrook
It's 3 p.m., and the Interface exhibition opens in four hours, but Media Arts chair Barney Haynes is calm amid a sea of laptops and electronics. "It'll all come together," he says. "Well, most of it will."
Read the rest >>>The Radical Jewelry Makeover: Ethical Metalsmithing at CCA
Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2009, by Lindsey Westbrook
"Garbage in, garbage out," or so they say. But CCA's students this past fall turned out some impressive exceptions to the rule.
San Francisco was the third city to host the Radical Jewelry Makeover, coordinated by Ethical Metalsmiths in conjunction with multiple Bay Area art schools, galleries, and metalsmithing groups.
First came a Bay Area–wide call for donations of unwanted jewelry. "We filled a table with it," says Curtis Arima, a faculty member in the Jewelry / Metal Arts Program, "not just gold and silver but lots of junk jewelry, earrings without mates, et cetera. The students had a great time picking through everything and selecting parts for their projects."
Every student currently enrolled in a Jewelry / Metal Arts course spent 10 intense days remaking the jewelry into new creations—either collaging existing elements together, or completely melting them down and re-forming them. Their finished pieces were exhibited and sold at Velvet da Vinci in San Francisco, a highly regarded jewelry and metal sculpture gallery. Donors received a discount in proportion to their contributions. Everything that hadn't been appropriated was sent on to the next stop on the project's tour.
Switching up the script
The Radical Jewelry Makeover was a great way to start the semester, as one student put it, by "switching up the script." CCA's program usually emphasizes a balance between concept and craft; weeks might be spent articulating what a new piece will communicate before any physical work begins. The Makeover's 10-day time frame demanded a dramatic shift in both aesthetics and modus operandi.
Many reported feeling a sense of collaboration with unknown jewelers of the past, and with the pieces' anonymous former owners. Sophomore Jean Saung observes, "I wanted people to recognize some of the parts taken from the old jewelry, and to appreciate the recombination of their past and history to create new meanings. I made a necklace from pieces of an old watch by prying apart the metal wrist links and re-forming them into cubes, which I slipped onto a neck wire. I wonder if people will recognize the 'beads' for what they truly are.
"Certain parts, which used to belong to completely different pieces, actually seemed like they were meant to be together. I was also surprised to find myself gravitating toward the costume jewelry and the non-precious materials. I liked the idea of making something that was not very valuable into something someone would want to keep."
Senior student Victoria Montgomery agrees, "Metalsmiths, just like any other artists, sometimes get stuck in their own ways of creating. That week was a way of breaking free from the rut. It felt like a week dedicated to play. The studio came alive with a constant buzz of artists sharing materials and ideas.
"Some of the donated items were over-the-top costume jewelry. They were visually daunting, but once I started simplifying, that's when my pieces started to take form. For example, the donation box contained endless costume earrings from the 1980s, most missing a mate. I started collecting all the clip-on mechanisms and studs and treated them as links in a large chain. I liked the surprise of something so forgettable as the back of an earring suddenly taking the stage."
Mining the drawers
Ethical Metalsmiths views this project as a way to get young jewelers thinking early about their materials—first and foremost mined metals such as gold and silver, but also the stuff at the back of people's drawers that would otherwise become landfill. The organization is working on several aspects of mining reform, including the establishment of standards for certified recycled metal, which can be advertised to consumers who want to buy responsibly.
A trip to Malakoff Diggins up in California's gold county is a reminder of how destructive mining is. According to Ethical Metalsmiths, to mine the gold for one new ring creates a staggering 20 tons of waste rock. Mining is a core industry in many countries, and the arsenic, lead, and other chemicals required to process ore cause serious health problems and pollute the land and the water supply. Not to mention the terrible child labor practices and other human rights violations that often plague mining economies. In the United States, hard-rock mining produces more toxic waste than any other industry, and 80 percent of all mined gold is used to produce jewelry.
Senior student Russell Larman found great inspiration not only in the project, but also in the organization behind it. "It's important to remember that the history of our new pieces did not begin with the people who made the donations," he says. "They were only temporary custodians in a larger life cycle. Objects have an inherent history that often becomes separated from them when they are packaged as consumer products. As consumers of gold, silver, platinum, and gemstones, we have a responsibility to make sure we're not supporting unethical labor conditions in the communities that make these materials available to us."
Sustainability in metalsmithing
Surprisingly, even though gold and silver seem expensive, many jewelers do not recycle their metals. The Radical Jewelry Makeover was an occasion for an open dialogue about issues of sourcing, and for Arima to give demonstrations to the students showing how easy it is to melt down gold and silver and reuse them.
MFA student Anna Adair remarks, "The project's focus on sustainability and our ethics as practicing jewelers was, for me, the most important component. It's not something we can afford to ignore, on either a commercial or a conceptual level. A couple of years ago I wasn't thinking about my studio practice in these terms, aside from basic recycling and proper disposal of chemicals. Scrutinizing my studio habits was an eye-opener."
Saung echoes, "I had thought about sustainability and reuse for some of my smaller crafts and hobbies, but I never really had the motivation or courage to incorporate the concept into my studio work. My jewelry metal was always just processed metal I could easily buy. Now I am changing that, and I think it was my experience with this project that gave me the courage."
Read the rest >>>Old Tangled Chains? Unmatched Earrings? CCA Students Want Them for the Radical Jewelry Makeover
Posted on Friday, August 15, 2008, by Kim Lessard
Students and faculty from the Jewelry / Metal Arts Program at California College of the Arts are calling on local residents to donate their unwanted jewelry—gold, silver, or other—between now and September 11, 2008, to be recycled into exciting new pieces for the Radical Jewelry Makeover. A nationwide program, the Radical Jewelry Makeover was founded by Ethical Metalsmiths, an artist-run nonprofit organization that is working to galvanize mining reform efforts and educate the public about alternatives to traditional mining practices and jewelry production.
Jewelry donations can be made at the drop box located in the Jewelry / Metal Arts Program offices at CCA's Oakland campus (5212 Broadway), or mailed to the Richmond Art Center at 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond CA 94804. Donations can also be made at any of the other participating organizations (for more information, see radicaljewelrymakeover.blogspot.com).
The unique, handmade pieces from the Radical Jewelry Makeover will be exhibited and offered for sale October 22–November 9 at Velvet da Vinci, 2015 Polk Street (between Broadway and Pacific), San Francisco. There will be a reception on Friday October 24. Jewelry donors receive discount coupons, and all sales benefit Ethical Metalsmiths' efforts to inform and connect people with responsibly sourced materials. CCA students will work together on the project with other participating Bay Area organizations, schools, and studios, including Metal Arts Guild San Francisco, Academy of Art University, City College, the Crucible, Revere Academy, Richmond Art Center, and Scintillant Studio.
The San Francisco Bay Area Radical Jewelry Makeover will be the largest event to date. According to Ethical Metalsmiths, San Francisco Bay is lined with several feet of sediment from hydraulic gold mining that took place more than a century ago, and the waters are contaminated with dangerous levels of mercury as a result. The organization Earthworks reports that an estimated 80 percent of the gold mined each year is used for jewelry, and that a single gold ring leaves 20 tons of mine waste. Mining is currently the most toxic industry in the nation, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
About California College of the Arts
Founded in 1907, California College of the Arts (CCA) is noted for the interdisciplinarity and breadth of its programs. It offers studies in 20 undergraduate and seven graduate majors in the areas of fine arts, architecture, design, and writing. The college offers bachelor of architecture, bachelor of arts, bachelor of fine arts, master of architecture, master of arts, master of fine arts, and master of business administration degrees. With campuses in Oakland and San Francisco, CCA currently enrolls more than 1,650 full-time students. Noted alumni include the painters Nathan Oliveira and Raymond Saunders; the ceramicists Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, and Peter Voulkos; the filmmaker Wayne Wang; the conceptual artists David Ireland and Dennis Oppenheim; and the designers Lucille Tenazas and Michael Vanderbyl.
Read the rest >>>