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Saturday, June 27, 2009
Saul Bell Design Award
Friday, June 26, 2009
Japan pearls in peril amid recession, competition
Check out the full story from Reuters.
Japan's akoya pearl industry, which began in the 1890s when Kokichi Mikimoto created the world's first cultured pearls, is facing collapse due to plunging sales and stiff competition from China.
In the small fishing town of Wagu on central Japan's Ago bay, about half of the 45 growers are about to close down their pearl beds after prices halved this year, sending them even deeper into the red.
"It's the end if you lose your passion for the work you do -- and I'm losing it," said Akihiro Takeuchi, 43, one cultivator of Japan's renowned akoya cultured pearls.
"We can't live like this. It's really unprofitable ... Akoya may die out completely in this town in a few years."
Saltwater akoya oyster pearls have long been a benchmark of quality in the industry, with domestic production peaking at 88.5 billion yen ($900 million) in 1990.
http://www.reuters.com/article/GlobalLuxury09/idUSTRE5571WJ20090608
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Rio Tinto Diamonds Launches Champagne Diamond Design Competition
Rio Tinto Diamonds Launches Champagne Diamond Design Competition
Rio Tinto Diamonds has launched an exciting new jewelry design contest aimed at demonstrating the beauty of champagne diamonds from which Rio Tinto’s Argyle Diamond Mine is a leading supplier.
The Champagne Diamond Design Competition aims to attract talented new jewelry designers who will be inspired to showcase the full color range of champagne diamonds in new and innovative designs.
Rio Tinto has been marketing champagne diamonds from its Argyle mine since the early 1990’s with the US, the world’s largest consumer market for champagne diamond jewelry. In 2008 Rio Tinto launched a new series of champagne diamond promotional materials focussing on educating retailers, generating consumer interest and developing new distribution channels.
According to Jean-Marc Lieberherr, General manager for the sales and marketing of all diamonds from Rio Tinto’s mines, “The design contest is a natural extension of our market development for champagne diamonds in the US. The argyle mine has fuelled the growth of champagne diamond jewelry around the globe and we are now looking to the next generation of new design talent to inspire retailers and consumers alike.”
The competition comprises four categories with the overall winner receiving the title of “Champagne Visionary”. The four winning designs will form part of a nation-wide gravelling exhibition hosted at leading jewelry retail locations, in time for the holiday season.
As Rebecca Foerster, Manager of the US representative office for Rio Tinto’s Diamonds Sales and Marketing, explains, “The timing is perfect for a design contest because it provides inspiration and new ideas to invigorate our industry. The market is hungry for creativity and the combination of flawless craftsmanship and consumer appeal will set the winners apart.”
The design contest closes on July 1, 2009 with judging by a panel of fashion and jewelry experts in New York City on July 14, 2009.
Story via Diamond News
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Call for Entries: eXtreme Tea Exhibition
eXtreme Tea Exhibition
An exhibition of historic and contemporary tea infusers and strainers curated by Tom Muir.
The exhibit will be shown from January 16 – March 21, 2010 at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft.
Introduction:
If you’ve used a teabag, you’ve used the least attractive, and most common, form of contemporary tea infuser. A tea infuser is simply a device that holds loose tea leaves for brewing in a pot or cup. But this simple, useful object has a history of extraordinary artistic elaboration, in common with all tea implements. Today, as tea is a popular beverage around the globe, the tea infuser presents an exciting challenge for contemporary artists in many media. The contrasts between tradition and contemporary possibilities for the tea infuser are extreme indeed – even more so is the inventiveness that takes this simple function to imaginative extremes!
High craft and low craft are contrastingly represented in tea infusers, which can be made of metal, glass, ceramic, fiber and plastic – and combinations of mixed media. The functional solution that artists have found to the problem of steeping tea have varied widely and wildly – from figural, thematic depictions and literary references to visual and functional puns and engineering tours de forces.
With possibilities for multiple use in the contemporary context, tea infusers provide unlimited possibilities for artists! Besides the popularity of tea itself, new forms of contemporary tea infusers will also share in the world-wide status of teapots as culturally significant artforms.
To have work considered for the exhibition:
please send high-quality digital images
and information to:
Tom Muir
Fine Arts Center
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH 43402
or tommuir@hughes. net
Deadline for submission: October 1, 2009
Photo: Courtesy of Powerhouse Museum's Photostream
Call for Entries: LUKE & ELOY GALLERY
"PAPER or PLASTIC ?"
Exhibition: November 14, 2009 - January 16, 2010
Deadline for submissions: October 3, 2009
LUKE & ELOY GALLERY is currently reviewing submissions for "PAPER OR PLASTIC ?", a group show opening November 14, 2009.
We are looking for artwork executed in all paper, cardboard or plastic materials. Work can be 2- or 3-dimensional, and contain various other media - such as metal - as long as the main components of the work are either paper, cardboard or plastics.
Video of paper or plastic based artwork, and site-specific installations are also welcome.
An entry form, and information regarding artwork submission for this exhibit can be found on the gallery's website: http://lukeandeloy.ning.com
Email us your questions to: lukeandeloy@live.com
Monday, June 22, 2009
AWDC Announces “HRD Awards 2009” Winner
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