Metalsmiths' Week-end, San Francisco

Amulet (open)

We are lucky enough in my household this week to have friend and metalsmith Rob Jackson staying with us, all the way from Athens, GA.

Amulet

He is here doing a seminar for City College SF's Metal Arts classes, while in town for his opening at everyone's favorite art jewelry and metalwork gallery, Velvet da Vinci.

Three Ruby Ring

His show, The Eloquent Nail, will be up until April 18th, along with Chased and Repousse, curated by Nancy Megan Corwin.

The opening on Friday was delightful. Corwin's talk, regarding her show in which contemporary examples reaffirm and push what the techniques of Chasing and Repousse can do, was stellar. More on the work shown there by Yuyen Chang, Keith Lewis, and my wife, Suzanne Pugh, among others, in the next post.

We were also lucky enough to have metalsmith Amy Tavern in town, for her own opening! Rare Device on Market Street showcased her in their four person show, FAULT LINES.

Gold

I was led to an amazing group of images about gold by the organization Ethical Metalsmiths...more on them in a moment.

The images show gold, in its many forms, all over the world, and originally appeared in a Boston Globe online blog by Alan Taylor, The Big Picture: Gold. I encourage you to see the link for the full series, of which there are several dozen, including the world's largest bar of gold, our obsession with gold captured in many forms, and the stages of the mining process which are so damaging many communities.

Ethical Metalsmiths is " a non-profit organization dedicated to connecting people to responsibly sourced metals and gemstones," which was founded, and is supported, by metalsmiths.

They, along with many metalsmiths like myself who have committed to using only recycled gold and precious metals, (refined in the U.S.), seek to raise awareness about the lack of regulation in the international mining community, and about the fact that the amount of gold which exists currently in usable form far exceeds the amount needed to support the current jewelry industry.