ACC!

This past weekend I had the opportunity to spend 4 hours meandering through The American Craft Council show, with fellow craft enthusiast this chickadee. And believe me, 4 hours was not enough time to take in all the wonders the ACC had to offer. Below are just a few of my favorite jewelry artists. This is my 4th year attending the show, and I have a system as I stroll through. I pick up cards of those artists I like and jot myself quick notes about their work so I can find them later. This year, as I organized my cards and notes after the show, and prepared for this blog entry, I found that several of the artists I like have defunct websites, or their sites do not reflect the quality and breadth of work they were showing. S0 unfortunately dear readers, I am unable to post a lot of the work I found inspiring, but what is posted should be an enticement to attend next years show.

Karen Gilbert, (pictured above and below) I love her mix of metals and blown glass, her work is always a favorite of mine at the show. And she usually shows "salon style" with another of my favorites, Eric Silva. Silva's work combines hand carved gems, bone, and fossils along with metal pieces that unexpectedly hinge, move, and spin.

Erica Rosenfeld- Glass and cold connected rivets. She also had some very lovely layered glass earrings.

Jimin Park- I actually didn't see this piece at the show, Park was part of the "Search Light Artists" section and was showing some interesting cast rings. I found the above piece after searching the artists site. I am assuming this is a cast piece as well. I love the texture and disintegration.

Joanna Gollberg- Silver spinning disc rings. I admire the fabrication.

I also really loved Andrea Janosik's work, so much so I bought one of her tiny blossom rings! She uses patent leather and other textiles combined with sterling silver.

I enjoyed the "Searchlight Artists" exhibit and got to see Megan Auman's sculptural furniture designs up close and personal. I've admired her steel and silver jewelry designs, so it was great to see her larger sculptural work. I discovered artist Elizabeth Perkins in Searchlight as well. Perkins casts lace that was handmade by her Grandmother and Great Aunt, and then using the "pate de verre" method, re-creates the lace in glass. Her installation at the show was gorgeous. Each lace piece was pinned to the wall casting delicate spiderweb like shadows. I ended up buying one of her small boxed pieces and am trying to figure out where to hang it.

The "New Wave Craft" debuted this year, and I couldn't help but overhear some of the grumblings about it. Personally, I thought it was fabulous, and a great way for up and coming artists to get some exposure at a national level. 300 artists were invited to apply, and then 15 were chosen to show in a small market style section. Clearly the jurying was rigorous, and I was for the most part pleased with the ACC's choices. I humbly consider myself to be part of this "New Wave Craft Movement," and felt that representative artists did it justice. I was delighted to see Margaux Lange's work in person in this section.
As typical, I feel like I didn't get to see everything, left feeling inspired mixed with my usual feelings of "I'll never be that good...," and had very sore feet!
Till next year....