THE JEWELERS’ PALETTE, 1/15/2025
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From Warren and
Land of Odds
Use January’s Discount Code For Extra 25% Off @Land of Odds:
JANUARY25
www.landofodds.com
January 15, 2025
Hi everyone,
Some Updates and Things Happening.
(Please share this newsletter)
In this Issue:
1. Color Dilemmas For The Jewelry Designer
2. Is Your Jewelry Ready To Be Shown In A Gallery?
3. Craft a compelling biographical sketch
4. Architectural Basics of Jewelry Design
5. Teaching PEARL KNOTTING at FiftyForward in Donelson 3/22/25, 12–3pm
6. An Especially Clever Collaboration
7. Latest question posed by member — please share your comments
8. So You Want To Do Craft Shows
Some articles you may have missed
Featured
1. I am always trying to explain how jewelry designers have to think differently than visual artists when it comes to the use of color.
From a recent article I wrote….Read the full article here.
COLOR DILEMMAS FOR THE JEWELRY DESIGNER:
Managing, Challenging, Exploiting and Violating Color Theory
Color is the single most important Design Element. Most artists and jewelry designers learn about how to use and control for color in art schools. They learn about how colors are perceived. How to combine colors and maximize the appealing effects of such combinations. How the perceptions of color vary, given the context, and how to anticipate these variations. These art theories work well for those who paint. But not so well for those who design jewelry.
How Artists and Jewelry Designers
Respond Differently To The Use Of Color
The artist is concerned with achieving harmony, balance and evoking an emotional response. Color theories point the way. The artist wants to be guided by these and conform to them. To the artist, color theory is more about objectives and universals. They tap into the brain’s propensity to balance things out. People are prewired with an anxiety response. Our brains have some presets so that we avoid snakes and spiders. When things get too unbalanced and too unharmonious, the brain gets edgy. We begin to interpret things as not as interesting, perhaps somewhat unsatisfying, even ugly.
Color schemes show what colors in combination yield a balance in energy and wave length signatures. For example, and with a lot of oversimplification, color theory points out that in any project, the proportion of red should equal the proportion of green. If red has an energy signature of +1, then the energy signature of green would be -1. Added together, they equal zero. The brain wants things to equal zero. Balanced. Harmonious. And artists who follow the theories about color are secure in this. They recognize that all people want the colors in front of them to balance out to zero. Color theory leads the way. Artists want to be guided and conform to it.
For the jewelry designer, however, color theories are a starting point, but quickly break down. This is because jewelry is only art as it is worn. That means the jewelry will move with the person, shift from one type of light to another as the person moves from room to room or from inside to outside. The materials used in jewelry do not come in every color of the rainbow. You cannot crush them up and blend them. Even with a simple round bead, the color will vary across the bead, becoming lighter or darker, sometimes even changing the color as presented, as you move around the curved surface, perceive the hole piercing through the bead, at the hole’s end with added shadows. Many beads will even cast a color shadow extending well beyond the boundary of the bead, but changing scope and direction as the wearer pivots or the lighting changes. The silhouette of any piece of jewelry will shift in shape as the jewelry shifts in position in responses to the forces of movement, stresses and strains. Unlike a painting, jewelry is never static. The perceived colors keep changing. If from any one position, the jewelry appears less than appealing, this is awkward for the wearer. People viewing jewelry attribute the qualities of the jewelry to the qualities of the person wearing it. This situation is unacceptable to the professional jewelry designer. The wearer should always look good. So color, as a design element with all its attributes of expression, must be managed differently.
The artist manages the perception of color. The jewelry designer manages its sensation.
From a recent article I wrote….Read the full article here.
2. Is Your Jewelry Ready To Be Shown In A Gallery?
As I talk to jewelry designers who aren’t yet showing in galleries, one of their biggest concerns about approaching galleries for representation is that they are concerned their artwork might not be “gallery quality.” As they think about presenting a portfolio to a gallery owner, these desigmers fear that they may face ridicule and rejection of their art.
I understand that presenting jewelry pieces to galleries can be an intimidating prospect. I also acknowledge that some gallery owners are more critical than they need be in rejecting designers’ work. However, many designers are allowing the fear of rejection to prevent them from establishing successful long-term relationships with galleries that would be interested in their work. It’s important to remember, that no matter where you are in your jewelry designing career and development, there are galleries that would be a fit for your work.
A jewelry designer who is very early in her/his career might not be able to immediately secure representation with a top gallery that represents well-established designers. There are many galleries, however, that have built successful businesses around working with designers who are newer to the market and, consequently are selling their work at a better value.
5 Questions You Can Ask to Evaluate Your Gallery-readiness
When deciding whether or not you are ready to approach galleries, ask yourself the following questions:
- Am I using the highest quality materials I can obtain for my work?
- Is my presentation clean and professional?
- Have I created a consistent body of work that can show well together?
- Do I have a professional, engaging biography and artist’s statement?
- Is my portfolio polished and appealingly organized?
If you can answer “yes” to all of those questions, you are ready to approach galleries — it’s that simple.
Once you are ready, it will be important to build a list of appropriate galleries to approach, and you will need to develop a strategy for presenting yourself, your portfolio and your work to the galleries, but you can do so with the full confidence that your work is ready for galleries.
3. Craft a compelling biographical sketch!
The Biographical Sketch or Profile
Your customers, your sales venues, your clients all love stories, and they want to know yours. Your story might be a profile on a social media site. It might be a synopsis on the back of your portfolio or print book on demand. It might be part of a grant or art show application.
You will want to create several versions of varying lengths, but all basically highlighting the same information. I suggest creating versions which are 25 words, 50 words, 100 words, 250 words, 500 words. Your first 25 words should sound fun, intriguing, exciting, enticing, creating wonder and curiosity … you get the point.
Do not follow a template. You want your bio or profile to feel authentically your own.
Write your bio for a portfolio in the 3rd person. Write your profile for a social media site (think Facebook) targeted at family and friends in the 1st person. Write your profile for a social media site (think LinkedIn) targeted at potential employers in the 3rd person.
Within your Sketch or Profile, you will want to anticipate what people will be curious about. When someone first sees your jewelry, they will try to understand it, categorize it, emotionally connect to it. The greater the connection, the more likely the sale. How well has your bio helped them?
Continue reading the rest of the article on our Jewelry Designers’ Hub.
4. I strongly advocate that, whatever technique(s) you specialize in, that you learn the Architectural Basics of Jewelry Design which underly the technique.
Whenever you create a piece of jewelry, it is important to try to anticipate how your choice of materials, techniques and technologies might positively or negatively affect how the piece moves and feels (called Support) and how its components maintain shape and integrity (called Structure) when worn. Achieving balance between support and structure means that the piece is at its point of least vulnerability. This is where all the materials, techniques and technologies have been leveraged to optimize the four S’s: Strength, Suppleness, Stability and Synergy.
Guiding Questions: (1) How do your design choices positively or negatively affect support and structure? (2) How do you redefine techniques in architectural terms? (3) How will aging of materials affect the integrity of the piece? (4) What are the anatomical parts of a piece of jewelry? (5) Is the ‘art’ of jewelry the whole piece,or only centerpiece?
5. I’ll be teaching my Intro to Pearl Knotting class, Saturday, 3/22/25, 12–3pm, in Donelson at Fifty Forward
For more information, contact the Middle Tennessee Gem & Mineral Society. Click here.
6. I recently came across this gallery exhibit which I thought was an especially clever collaboration
Flow by Beppe Kessler
Here we have a brooch. Each half was created by a different jewelry designer.
Beppe Kessler (b. 1952, The Netherlands), a contemporary painter and jewelry maker, lives and works in the Netherlands.
Kanya Charoensupkul (b. 1947, Thailand) has been creating and exhibiting her work locally and internationally since the 1970s, following her training in printmaking.
Their works reflect their inner states of mind with fluid, open-ended stories of life expressed through their use of shape, form, color, and texture. While their art leans toward the abstract, it remains uncategorized within traditional abstraction, perhaps because both artists work across various media not typically aligned with this genre, using unique methods to express their artistic visions.
Materials are central to both artists’ work, deeply connected to their training. Kanya incorporates paper into her paintings, using it to construct textures and forms, while Beppe integrates textiles, stretching fabric over carefully designed and crafted frames. Both artists also engage with collage: Beppe in her small sculptures and wearable art, and Kanya directly within her paintings.
7. In our jewelry designers’ hub, I post questions students and customers have related to jewelry design, either the techniques, the materials, or the business. Here’s one of the latest. Please share your responses on the hub.
8. I started, with my partner Jayden, selling jewelry with hope, persistence, grit — all at craft fairs and flea markets. I wrote this book — SO YOU WANT TO DO CRAFT SHOWS — illustrating the lessons we learned.
198pp, many images and diagrams
Kindle or Ebook or Print
Doing craft shows is a wonderful experience. You can make a lot of money at craft shows,
you meet new people, you have new adventures. You learn a lot about business and arts and crafts designing.
IF… you do your homework when selecting them,
and verify all information
IF… you are very organized in preparing for them,
setting up, selling and re-packing up
IF… you promote, promote, promote.
CRAFT SHOWS
In this book, I discuss 16 lessons I learned, including How To:
• Find, Evaluate and Select Craft Shows Right for You
• Determine a Set of Realistic Goals
• Compute a Simple Break-Even Analysis
• Develop Your Applications and Apply in the Smartest Ways
• Understand How Much Inventory to Bring
• Set Up and Present Both Yourself and Your Wares
• Best Promote and Operate Your Craft Show Business
TABLE OF CONTENTS
What You Will Learn
Intro to Book and Acknowledgements
LESSON 1: Not Every Craft Show Is Alike
LESSON 2: Research All Your Possibilities
LESSON 3: Know Which Craft Shows Are For You
LESSON 4: Set Realistic Goals / Determine Break-Even Point
LESSON 5: Get Those Applications In Early
LESSON 6: Promote, Promote, Promote
LESSON 7: Set Up For Success
LESSON 8: Bring Enough Inventory To Sell
LESSON 9: Sell Yourself And Your Craft At The Show
LESSON 10: Make A List Of Things To Bring
LESSON 11: Be Prepared To Accept Credit Cards
LESSON 12: Price Things To Sell
LESSON 13: Keep Your Money Safe
LESSON 14: Generate Follow-Up Sales
LESSON 15: Take Care Of Yourself
LESSON 16: Be Nice To Your Neighbors
Some Final Words Of Advice
Helpful Resources
Thank You And Request For Reviews
About Warren Feld, Jewelry Designer
Other Articles And Tutorials
And don’t forget to use this 25% discount code
throughout January at Land of Odds!!
Use January’s Discount Code
For Extra 25% Off @Land of Odds:
JANUARY25
www.landofodds.com
SOME POSTS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
The Importance of Self Promotion: Don’t Be Shy
Copyrighting Your Pieces: Let’s Not Confuse Moral Values With Legal Ones
How Creatives Can Successfully Survive In Business
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