Li Fan's Metalsmith & Jewelry Blog

"Landscape continues to have a subtle influence on my work. This sensitivity stems from my childhood on a farm in Illinois where the horizon line was always visible and the land's texture and color constantly changed with the plantings and seasons."

Just as only the essence of the land is left as it's covered with snow, over time Eleanor Moty's jewelry has been pared down to essential form. She rejects the extraneous and uses materials sparingly.

Sigurd Persson, one of the most famous of Swedish modern designers, is known for his elegant simple sculptural forms. He not only designed jewellery, but hollowwareand glass as well. He had his own studio in Stockholm since 1942. In 1960 he won a Milan Triennale medal.

WILLIAM SPRATLING, an innovative and talented designer of Mexican jewelry, silver hollowware, tin, copper, and furniture, demonstrated his appreciation for, and sensitivity to the early cultures of Mexico. He established a model for the artistic development and growth of the silver industry in Taxco and well deserved the title "Father of Contemporary Mexican Silver!"

Susan Ewing earned her M.F.A. with Distinction from Indiana University in 1980. She received her B.A. from Indiana in 1977 and A.A. from Stephens College in 1975. She has headed the undergraduate and graduate Metals program since 1981. From 1997-99, Ewing was a Senior Fulbright Lecturing Scholar, teaching metalsmithing at the Academy of Art, Architecture, and Design in Prague, Czech Republic. In 1999, she was a guest professor teaching an International Masterclass at the Royal College of Art, London, England.



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John Pearson was a famous master craftsman of the Newlyn School and Guild of Handicrafts. His style is described as arts and crafts / art nouveau.

Together with Charles Robert Ashbee, was a founding member of the Guild of Handicraft at Whitechapel, London.

John Pearson was dismissed from the Guild of Handicraft in 1892 and made his way to Newlyn, Cornwall

Pearson was greatly influenced by William De Morgan (1839-1917), whilst employed in De Morgan's workshop decorating tiles and pottery.

Perhaps the most notable example of Pearsons work are the four large copper plaques, earth, air, fire and water, that decorate the facade of the Newlyn art gallery.

"Zimmermann's designs of the 1920's and 30's were modern. These works depended primarily on simple form, sophisticated textures, and color to make an artistic statement. She worked with multiple metals, including iron, copper, bronze, silver, gold and brass. Her designs included candlesticks, tableware, vases, jewelry and architectural commissions including gates, doors and memorials.

"During her lifetime, institutions recognized the unique niche that Zimmerman filled in the world of metal and design. Museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and private collectors purchased pieces of her work to add to their collections in the 1920's and 30's. Marie Zimmermann's prowess was heralded during her time--The Art Institute of Chicago awarded her the Logan Award in 1924.

"Marie Zimmermann lived to 94. Upon her death in 1972, she left a significant volume of work as testament to her contribution to modern metalsmithing. Marie Zimmermann is one of few crafts men to transcend style, maintaining a successful artistic career through the Arts and Crafts movement, the Art Deco movement, and early Modernism."

Above exerpt was taken from "Marie Zimmermann, metalwork • jewlery", written by BETH ANN MCPHERSON, published by the Marie Zimmermann Archive, 2003.






More of her works can be viewed
Here

Archibald Knox
1864-1933

Archibald Knox was born on the Isle of Man. He studied at the Douglas School of Art with an emphasis on Celtic ornamentation.

In 1897, he began working on designs for Liberty & Co., and in 1899 the first handmade "Cymric" (pronounced KOOMRIC) silver pieces were starting to be produced, many designed by Knox. In 1900 he returned to the Isle of Man and began submitting designs for Liberty's Pewter "Tudric" range of metalware. From 1904 until 1912 he both taught design and continued to design pieces for Liberty's.

He is best known for his very modern interpretations of Celtic ornamentation on the Liberty metalware and jewelry, but also worked on designs for carpets, pottery and fabrics. He was also quite an accomplished watercolorist.

Paul de Lamerie (1688 - 1751) was the best-known English silversmith of his generation. Though his mark raises the market value of silver, his output was large and not all his pieces are outstanding. Lamerie's Huguenot parents had left France following the Edict of Fontainebleau (1685). They initially settled in the United Provinces, where Paul was born, moving to London in 1691. Lamerie is notable for working in the Rococo style from the 1730s.

The jewelers Georges Fouquet (1858–1929 expressed himself through more synthetic geometric forms. The pendant representing a butterfly by Fouquet and the bracelet and ring for the actress Sarah Bernhardt (both in the Périnet Collection, Paris) show a carefully thought-out stylization.

Auricular Style

a 17th-century ornamental style based on parts of the human anatomy. It was invented in the early 17th century by Dutch silversmiths and brothers Paulus and Adam van Vianen. Paulus was inspired by anatomy lectures he attended in Prague, and both he and Adam became known for the style. The auricular style was adopted by other cabinetmakers and carvers in the Low Countries and Germany.

Fabulous enamel works

Nicholas of Verdun (1130 – 1205) was a French artist, one of the most famous goldsmiths and enamellists of the Middle Ages, and a major figure in Romanesque art. He created shrines, figurines, and candlesticks decorated with precious stones, travelling around Europe to fulfill major commissions.

His work shows the beginning of the transition between Romanesque and Gothic art. His most famous works are the signed altarpiece of 1181 named after him at Klosterneuburg, Austria, with much enamel, and the Shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne Cathedral, completed by others. The shrine of Our Lady (1205) at Tournai Cathedral, Belgium, his only other surviving signed work, is moving into an early Gothic style. His late style also has an element of classicism.

I've came across Theodorus de Bry from history class reading, and did a bit more research on him.

Theodorus de Bry (1528 – 1598) was a engraver, goldsmith and editor who travelled around Europe, starting from the City of Liège (where he was born and grown up), then to Strasburg, Antwerp, London and Frankfurt a true European of his time.

In 1590 Theodorus de Bry and his sons published a new, illustrated edition of Thomas Harriot's Brief and True Report of the new found Land of Virginia about the first English settlements in North America (in modern-day North Carolina). His illustrations were based on the watercolor paintings of colonist John White [[2]]. The book sold well and the next year De Bry published a new one about the first French attempts to colonize Florida. It had accounts of Jean Ribault and René de Laudonnière about the attempt to found the French colony of Fort Caroline and 43 illustrations based of paintings of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, one of the few survivors of Fort Caroline. Jacques de Moyne had planned to publish his account of his expeditions but died 1587. According to De Bry's account, he had bought de Moyne's paintings from his widow in London and used them as a basis for the engravings.

Theodorus de Bry created a large number of engraved illustrations for his books. as said above, most of his books were based on first hand observations by explorers, even if De Bry himself, acting as a recorder of information, never visited the Americas. To modern eyes, many of the illustrations seem formal but detailed.

He and his son John-Theodore (1560 - 1623) made adjustments to both the texts and the illustrations of the original accounts, on the one hand in function of his own understanding of Le Moyne's paintings, and, most importantly, to please potential buyers. The Latin and German editions varied strongly, in accordance with the differences in estimated readership. Amerindians look like Mediterranean Europeans and illustrations mix different tribal customs and artefacts. In addition to day-to-day life of the American natives, Theodore de Bry even included a few depictions of cannibalism. All in all, the vast amount of these illustrations and texts influenced the European perception of the New World, Africa, and Asia.

[the text excerpts come from Wikipedia]

Couple examples of the engravings. They are highly detailed and appears to be formal and believable.

Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula CuAl6(PO4)4(OH)8·4H2O. It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gem and ornamental stone for thousands of years owing to its unique hue. In recent times turquoise, like most other opaque gems, has been devalued by the introduction of treatments, imitations, and synthetics onto the market, some difficult to detect even by experts.

The Egyptians were the first to produce an artificial imitation of turquoise, in the glazed earthenware product faience. Later glass and enamel were also used, and in modern times more sophisticated ceramics, porcelain, plastics, and various assembled, pressed, bonded, and sintered products (composed of various copper and aluminium compounds) have been developed: examples of the latter include "Viennese turquoise", made from precipitated aluminium phosphate coloured by copper oleate; and "neolith", a mixture of bayerite and copper phosphate. Most of these products differ markedly from natural turquoise in both physical and chemical properties, but in 1972 Pierre Gilson introduced one fairly close to a true synthetic (it does differ in chemical composition owing to a binder used, meaning it is best described as a simulant rather than a synthetic). Gilson turquoise is made in both a uniform colour and with black "spiderweb matrix" veining not unlike the natural Nevada material.