WJA Philly Round Table - F. Walter Lawrence & Gustav Manz Desert Brooch

 2020 has been a whirlwind of a year, but I have been thankful to be able to stay connected with my peers through a series of virtual artist talks hosted by the Women's Jewelry Association.

These talks allowed for a more focused platform of sincere conversation that is not diluted by the distractions a typical studio tour (office pets, bench set up, etc). Though I yearn to get back to normalcy, I do appreciate getting to know each member more intimately.

 I'm was very excited for our year end event - WJA Philly Round Table

Here, each member had the opportunity to introduce themselves and their work! 

My contribution is one of the more interesting pieces that has come through Wilson's Estate Jewelry - 

The Desert Brooch.

This remarkable piece was commissioned by Frank Walter Lawrence and produced by esteemed Arts & Crafts artist Gustav Manz, circa 1901. During his travels, Lawrence procured a piece of Phoenician glass from Old Jerusalem. The fragment itself is a tremendously profound artifact of an ancient city, but its destiny was to be displayed in a wrought 14 karat gold frame as an imaginative Middle Eastern sunset.

Manz masterfully crafted a surround of whiplashed gold as stylized lotus and vigorously rendered palm trees. This centers a depiction of two pyramids towering over a line of camels led by a lone rider, unintimidated by the grandeur of his environment. The Phoenician glass serves as the vehicle for an expansive sky, smokey and translucent, glowing as a burgundy twilight.

The piece was exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904 as well as published as a feature in Town & Country the same year.

After this however, the brooch disappeared for over a century, until 2019 when it resurfaced at an auction and was purchased by my employer. There was an inclination towards what we had found since stylistically the piece is reminiscent of Manz's work, but with no signature and a lack of provenance we were forced to continue our research. 

I'm always ensnared by the journey that our investigation unfolds for us, but this was an instance where we genuinely felt like Ben Gates in National Treasure, peeling back layers of a mysterious artifact to unravel its story. 

The story brought us to Gustav Manz's great-granddaughters who published a blog that was the very piece we were trying to authenticate! We had the pleasure to meet with them and observe the brooch together with a collective sigh of appreciation. 

The piece wanders into my mind often, not only because of its craftsmanship, but because of how it silently was able to emit its foothold in jewelry history. 

Photos courtesy of Wilson's Estate Jewelry & Gustav Manz & Co.

My Membership With the Women's Jewelry Association

About three years ago I got an email from my friend Lauren Priori asking if I'd help establish a Philadelphia Chapter of the Women's Jewelry Association. We had noticed that even though we are a craft centric city, there was a lack of communication and camaraderie amongst designers and artists.

In recent years, I have noticed a shift in this field from secretive and competitive to more communal and uplifting. It was great time to create an opportunity for people to meet up and share what projects they were working on and have a safe place to learn a new skill.

Needless to say, here we are today as an official chapter with 30+ members and have had three different presidents, including our current President Lauren Volovar. What had originally started as social happy hours has turned into a mentoring group. Each member brings their own unique perspective and has valuable experience to share.

Our younger student members are experiencing the pinnacle of technology while our older retired members have ushered in a more female friendly environment in what was a traditionally male dominated industry.

In helping curate this group I have learned how to project manage, event plan, and have tremendously improved my public speaking.

Through WJA I was given the chance to grow and have blossomed into a flourishing jewelry professional. As a president I was offered a trip to Austin, Texas to gather with other chapter leaders to discuss challenges each city faced and to framework a plan for continued gender equality research that will allow us to keep passing a better tomorrow for women in art.

I am so thankful for this group that took someone like me who was very frustrated with their degree and felt like a spinning wheel going nowhere in a huge machine. Through networking I was able to find a passion in jewelry history and appraising that I wouldn't have had exposure to otherwise. These women have supported me in changing my career as well as giving me the connections to do so.

Even now in this uncertain time WJA has been a guiding light. Each Monday we highlight one of our members and their work. On Tuesdays we focus on an opportunity to give back with a featured fundraiser.

I've also have been thankful to be able to continue to develop my skills through webinars and courses. Most recently I participated in the webinar educating on Google advertisement and SEO optimization, something that directly improved my ability to work at home.

As a member, I'm also offered a special discount on continuing my GIA courses in my pursuit of my Graduate Gemologist title.

This group has been fundamental in who I have become professionally and I look forward to helping others navigate their paths to find a fulfilling career.

Pearls

One of the things I enjoy the most about jewelry, is that each piece weaves a tapestry of a story. Narrative details like stone settings and repairs are snapshots in time. Whispering about the technology favored, stones that were marketable, or even the skills that were available in different time periods.

Jewelry is intimate for most people, and more often than not, this sentimental item will outlive its owner to be passed on to next of kin or to be discovered by someone completely new. That's why I always love coming across tales like this one.

A fisherman sleeps restfully with a massive world record tucked soundly beneath his bed for 10 years. A treasure estimated to be worth $100 million and could feasibly be the largest natural pearl ever found, weighing 75lbs.

To be honest, the mystique of pearls has tarnished a bit for me. Then I hear stories like this one and it ignites the enigma of the pearl for me again.

Mikimoto introduced cultured pearls to the world by 1920, thus taking the element of natural wonder out of the recipe. No longer was it a daunting task to uniquely find a perfectly round pearl, the arduous adventure of doing that enough times to form a strand, and the even more tedious task of matching color/luster into a strand.

Pearl necklaces were rare feats of discipline and luck plucked by human hands to be admired and adorned. Mikimoto cracked this code and made it accessible for everyone, on repeat, devaluing the market. It's far more cost effective to cultivate than to hunt for a naturally occurring pearl.

As a budding gemologist and a jaded pearl gluer, I have lost that sparkle in my eye for pearls, but the rest of the world definitely has not. Pearls emote feelings of motherhood and femininity. Motherly in the sense that the pearl is carried by a mollusk, shaping, forming, and giving birth; an allegory for the miracle of creation. Mikimoto did make pearls accessible for everyone, and in a way, that is really beautiful. These precious gems are no longer reserved for the elite, but are now staples for first communions, weddings, and other special milestones.

It makes one ponder, how many more world wonders are successfully hidden? Kept out of the public eye due to either blissful ignorance that it could be valuable or the personal belief that it's a talisman of sorts, bringing good fortune and prosperity.

Heaven Bodies Retrospective

My fascination with religious iconography derives from the notion that there was once a time where the majority was illiterate, inciting a need for symbols and color coding to propagate church literature. That story was further built upon as humanity developed, and now, we see these once instrumental designs used to create depth in fashion, movies, music, etc.

The Met this summer hosted the exhibition "Heavenly Bodies" ,which I must confess has been my favorite Met Gala theme by light years. Taking the wardrobe that has been reserved for the elite of the church and having it perverted by the royalty of Hollywood in their self importance is a historical parallel that probably makes every art history nerd giggle with glee.  Having grown up in the Catholic church, I'm very aware articles of clothing are indicative of status within the church.  Different outfits mean you rank a certain way, so having Rihanna dress as the highest church rank possible, that takes a lifetime to achieve, and a vote to secure, cracks me up especially since she is a woman doing so.  And above all else, the outfit was stunning, as was it's counter part in the exhibition by John Galliano for Christian Dior.

Walking into the exhibition you are swallowed by the scintillating gold mosaic, jewelry, and vestments lit and alive under the museum hot lights. On one side a line of Byzantine mosaic inspired Dolce & Gabbana dresses, the other side a more modern aesthetic of 90's Gianni Versace garments.

The dresses were displayed above the viewer, forcing you too look up with the same devotion you would show an alter or stain glass in a church.  The importance dictated by position, setting the mood of the show. The Met's permanent collection surrounded this linear path that pulled you along deeper into the museum.

The common thread of the first two rooms was gold. Encased were ancient relics of a time when Christianity was new and Justinian & Theodora were attempting to make Rome great again. Metal-smiths painstakingly planishing containers of gold, hoping not to tear the thinning metal, or else the project would be lost.

Tiny beads of granulation individually placed by a trembling hand with no modern assistance or convention, just mastery.

Stones primitively set either by carefully cut inlay or by crushing the stone into place.

Bezel set cabochon stones, the idea of faceting a distant invention. Instead, the mineral is half drilled and set on a peg to secure the stone within its gilded casing. The peg not even hidden as it is today with pearls. It shows through the middle of the translucent stones, taking the viewer away from the color of the gem and back to the reality that this was the technique of the time.

Bloodstone made an appearance as expected considering it's mythos of being the rock at the base of the Crucifixion Cross, speckled with Christ's blood.

Imitating the floor plan of a basilica, you are carried down these first rooms, like aisles, to where the exhibition really opens up dumping you into two larger more open rooms.  Before the grand reveal, you are corralled and crowded in a tiny area where visitors attempted to see the Reliquary Cross and the duo of leather jackets paying homage by Versace and Christian Lacroix. Faces pressed to glass.

In the same claustrophobic area, Chanel's cross woven vest loomed over early Christian artifacts, once used as tools for prayer, now fashion ornamentation. This point driven further home by the garish display of Chanel cross bangles, massively not humble, contrasting it's calmer predecessors. The juxtaposition of 2d geometric byzantine art to the garish bejeweled Chanel.

Also produced by Chanel, we have the  18kt rock crystal crosses sharing a case with an authentic Byzantine cross necklace. The crystal was believe to be representative of the resurrected Christ and a metaphor for the "river of life."

With a sigh of personal space and drastic temperature change, you enter the cool open gallery representing the width breadth of a domed basilica.

Inside you were met with throngs of people, foreign and domestic, to see famous fashion houses re-tell the story of religious vestment.  A cacophony of mixed tongues whispered in awe of the cornucopia of art and design sprawled throughout the room. An outfit design conversing with the painting that gave it muse. Watching the merriment of old christian foundation intertwine and give life to the modern reinterpretation.

I spent the better part of my afternoon there and it still didn't feel like enough.  It was absolutely remarkable how the seamlessly incorporated the permanent collection meshed with the borrowed couture bringing together history nerds and fashion enthusiasts to celebrate one theme.  The Met set the bar very high, especially considering it was the most visited exhibit in it's history, clocking in at just over 1.5 million visitors.

Gold Rush

There were several gold rushes throughout history which drew droves of eager prospectors from all over to an area pregnant with the promise of wealth and prosperity to those lucky enough to find the golden nuggets nestled waiting within the earth's crust.

This image sprang to mind while reading that an Australian man recently uncovered a large amount of gold in the northern goldfields of western Australia worth up to $110,000.  I really hadn't realized that the dream of striking gold was still alive for some.  Then I really thought about it, where does gold even come from?

Recently discovered "Duckfoot"

For years I've written on the history of gemstones and jewelry and why they are so preciously expensive, but why is gold precious?

Gold is an element and lives on the periodic table as a transitional element with the atomic number of 79.  It is considered to be one of the least reactive chemical elements and is the most noble of all the noble metals, making it the most resistant to corrosion.

Gold is considered very rare since it is believed there is only a finite amount in the solar system that was present as dust the day it formed. So whatever we have on earth is what we get, it does not have a recipe to form like a gemstone does. It is an element created on a celestial level and cannot be reproduced.  Gold ore is found in solid form usually as a nugget, granular, or in veins, but also exists as flakes and dust.  Gold does not have a habit formation like a gemstone does further proving it is the most malleable of all the metals.  When found during mining, what is being found is gold that is by chance clumped together in a mine-able form, and sometimes this gold is naturally alloyed with other elements and is not pure. To get pure gold, it must be refined to extract impurities and other metals.

  

Gold in it's purest form is very soft and to be used for jewelry needs to be alloyed with another metal for strength and sometimes color.

The most familiar karats of gold are:

10K or .417 meaning 41.7% pure gold alloyed with other metals like silver, copper, zinc, and/or nickel.

14K or .585 meaning 58.5% pure gold alloyed with other metals.

18K or .750 meaning 75% pure gold alloyed with other metals.

24K  or 999.9 is considered fine gold at 99.95% pure gold.

10k is much harder and more durable than 18k or 24k but not as rich in color is the main difference between these karats besides gold content and price.

For example I chose 18k for my engagement ring because it's rich color to matched my yellow center, and I know I'd be gentle with my ring knowing that it will be more susceptible to scratches and nicks.  For someone hard on their jewelry I always recommend 10k or 14k.

Happy Fourth of July from America's Largest Diamond

In honor of the Fourth we're taking a look at the largest American found

diamond, Uncle Sam.

Discovered by Wesley Oley Basham, Uncle Sam was unearthed in 1924 from the Prairie Creek Pipe Mine in Murfreesboro, Arkansas.  The hefty rough was named after Basham’s nickname “Uncle Sam” and weighed in at 40.23 carats. Its discovery drew attention to the failing Arkansas Diamond Corporation, rescuing the company from its debt and inevitable closure that winter.  Now the mine is known as The Crater of Diamonds State Park. It is the only mine in the world open to the public and has become a popular vacation destination for American rockhounds.

Uncle Sam was decided to be stylized as an 12.42 carat emerald cut fashioned by

Schenck & Van Haelen of New York. The stone was graded as an M in color, for it has been described to be a pale brown or slightly pink.  The VVS1 clarity was demonstrated beautifully in the stepped facets as a viewer could not see an inclusion without the assistance of a loupe.

Uncle Sam was sold to a private collector in 1971 for $150 million and is unfortunately not

on display but is still a celebrated American treasure.

From Uncle Sam, have a very happy and safe Fourth of July!

Sources:

http://www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Sam_(diamond)

Admiring the Strength of the Elephant

One of my favorite animals is the elephant.  They're majestically massive and at the same time incredibly intuitive and nurturing.  They are complex creatures which explains why they are so prominent as a motif in several cultures.  Here I'm wearing some of my favorite LAGOS pieces while taking a look at the iconography of the elephant.

One of the most popular depictions of the elephant is through the Hindu religion.  The god Ganesha is easily identifiable with his large elephant head on a human body.  His likeness will be found across South Asia in countries like India, Nepal, and Thailand.  Ganesha is a patron of the arts and sciences and looked upon as the remover of obstacles.  A steadfast god to look to in times of trial.

In Buddhism you will find the presence of the elephant pair Kangiten, represented as male and female elephant headed humanoid figures embracing as a symbol of the unity of opposites.  Enforcing the belief of the oneness of all things though they may be seemingly different.

In Islam, the Quran has a chapter entitled "The Elephant".  A story of a Abraha's white elephant, Mahmud, that refused to cross into Mecca, foiling Abraha's plan to lead Yemen to conquer the holy city.  Mahmud could not be persuaded to cross by reason or violence, once again depicting the elephant as a creature of intelligence and resolve.

The elephant is not indigenous to Europe but was discovered through their exploration or Asia. Awed by the ferocity of the war elephant in battle, Europe adopted the beast as a symbol of militaristic strength. Napoleon even commissioned a giant cast bronze elephant fountain to be made from guns confiscated in victorious battle.  The fountain was never completed (hello Waterloo).

America adopted the elephant to represent the Republican party in 1884.  The origin is a political cartoon done by Thomas Nash.  The elephant is shown charging in dispersing other smaller animals representing other political interests at the time.  Another account of dominance and strength.

Lastly Elephants are native to Africa and usually where most people imagine them. In Africa the elephant is revered for its strength, wisdom, and memory. The elephant was depicted on several coat of arms throughout time in Africa including South Africa, The Ivory Coast, the kingdom of Laos, and the kingdom of Dahomey.

Globally you can see the elephant is respected and admired for it's strength, it is looked to for it's wisdom, and it is a symbol of conquering obstacles and embracing change.