What is contemporary jewelry? What makes it unique? What distinguishes these objects and practices from other visual arts? Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective provides clear definitions, concise history, and cultural context for the form, along with abundant illustrations of an amazing range of work. Featuring notable contributors from around the world, it offers fascinating discussions on creating, collecting, exhibiting, selling, and wearing these pieces, as well as individual essays that present a global perspective on the art over the past 30 to 40 years. Jewelers, designers, students, collectors, and historians will find this essential reading. The book is a joint venture between the Art Jewelry Forum (artjewelryforum.org) and Lark Jewelry & Beading.

Featuring text by an acknowledged expert in arts and crafts, hundreds of illustrations, and essays on key issues and themes, this compact, accessible guide will be an authority in the global marketplace. When collecting contemporary arts and crafts, how can one be certain the pieces that appeal to current tastes also have the stamp of timeless collectible? This new series of accessible guides answers the need for authoritative advice in a fast-developing marketplace. • Texts by acknowledged experts with firsthand experience of the global market • Hundreds of illustrations • Profiles of essential artists, designers, and photographers • A concise reference section, including contact information and where to shop

A reflective book about international contemporary art jewellery that aims to open up new points of view about what art jewellery is or can be.

Poring through the beautiful images in this exquisite gallery of earrings is like stepping inside a jewelry store filled with remarkable pieces from the finest contemporary jewelers. The earrings range from the classic to the avant-garde and come from an international array of artists.

Contemporary Jewellery Art presents the work of more than forty of the best and brightest young jewelry designers around the world. Their work is not about luxury or even permanence. Rather, the works within focus on the most creative use of common, inexpensive materials. The book is organized according to the materials used, including metal, ceramics, stone, wood, fur, textiles, plastic, soap, and rubber. The aesthetic of each piece, whether simple or sculpturally intricate, balances the designers unique perspective with the constraints and possibilities of each medium from the elasticity of plastic to the solid weight of stone, silver, and iron. Interviews with each designer illuminating the concept and creative work process renders this book a useful guide for everyone from the established jewelry designer to the independent crafter hoping to break into the industry. Designers featured include Hanna Hedman, Helfried Kodr, Mari Ishikawa, Iris Bodemer, Karl Fritsch, Marina Messone, Annika Pettersson, Maria Cristina Bellucci, Mirla Fernandes, and Timothy McMahon.

With Contemporary Jewellery in Portugal Cristina Filipe presents a comprehensive examination of the history of Portuguese studio jewellery from the dawn of the avant-garde in the 1960s through to the contemporary trends of the early twenty-first century. Filipe sheds light on societal upheavals as well as on the actors who helped to transform jewellery design in Portugal. For here, too -- and even under the pressure and restrictions of the Estado Novo dictatorship under António de Oliveira Salazar (1930s through to the so-called Carnation Revolution of 1974) -- artists reacted to international influences and developed their specific responses to them. Courtesy of numerous interviews with protagonists from the different generations, the author has accomplished a detailed record of developments and trends in contemporary jewellery in Portugal.

"This comprehensive lavishly illustrated book offers all the information needed to create handmade jewelry and other metal objects. More than 65 metalworking techniques are clearly and concisely explained, supported by detailed step-by-step photographs. Special features are detailed sections on anodizing aluminum, wire overlay -- inlay, coloration of titanium, lightweight thin-walled castings, twisted wire lamination and much more. --P. [4] of cover.