Loves me not

Ring
Sterling silver, vitreous enamel
[ Poem by Aaron P. Decker }

Detroit-based jeweler, Aaron P. Decker, has proposed a different kind of Poesy Ring in this contribution to Dandelions. Poesy Rings, historically bearing inscriptions of love, poetry, and sentiment. In Decker’s brightly enameled and oxidized silver ring, two halves are linked together as they shift, rub, and clash together. Often utilizing symbols of childhood toys alongside the pageantry of military regalia, Decker’s work deals with play. This ring exudes fun, but is far from frivolous.

Aaron P Decker is a Midwest based artist and jewelry designer and a recipient of the Mercedes Benz Emerging artist award, the Marzee Prize, Talente Prize, and selected multiple times as a finalist for the Art Jewelry Forum Young Artist Award. Decker's approach to jewelry blends militaristic aesthetics taken from his time growing up on military bases with queer sentimentality, often juxtaposing joy and violence, using materials akin to military medals and kids toys.

Dandelion Demon

2024
Silver, copper, steel, vitreous enamel, powder coat
3.75” x 2.75” x 0.75”

“Dandelions remind me of my Nana, my mother’s mother. She fastidiously weeded them from her immaculately kept lawn as their presence ruined the pristine uniformity of the grass. I have memories of spending time with her, watching as she got down on hand and knee in the yard with her weeding fork to pull the dandelions up by their roots. The tenacity of the dandelion to fruit and populate so prolifically was a never ending source of frustration for her, but the desire for a manicured lawn was stronger. This act adds to the image of her I keep in my mind, as someone who kept up appearances at great effort. She took notice of those around her with an air of judgment and was likely concerned that the same attention was being paid to her. In a very relatable way, she must have felt that the appearance of her home and garden was a reflection of her, as vulnerable to judgment as her personal appearance. I saw this attitude pervade other parts of her character and often wonder how our relationship would have changed over time. Beyond appearances, I noticed the ways she judged people who didn’t fit her view of proper behavior, views that weren't entirely transparent to me. Fitting into them as a child made me anxious. She died while I was a teenager, so there are things I will never understand. I never had the opportunity to talk to her about my queerness, as that wasn’t clear to me until some years later. I loved her dearly and we were incredibly close, someone I would want to have that conversation with. I've seen similar people, people concerned with what the neighbors will think, struggle to accept the queerness of their kin. It doesn’t stop people from being queer and it doesn’t always stop people from loving each other. It can take on a weed-like existence, growing where it isn’t necessarily wanted and being both beautiful and ugly, depending on one's perspective. I don’t think I would have been uprooted from my Nana’s life by my admission of queerness. I think we would have shared a love for weeds instead.”

Andy Lowrie

Andy Lowrie is a jewelry artist who creates wearable, sculptural, and functional objects, as well as works on paper. He is an Australian maker living and working in the United States. His work has been exhibited in Australia, China, Europe, and North America, and has been professionally recognized with awards from Brooklyn Metal Works in New York and My-Day By-Day Gallery in Rome. From 2020 to 2023, he was the inaugural Teach Fellow at the Baltimore Jewelry Center. He is currently an adjunct faculty member at Towson University and Johns Hopkins University.

Dimensions:
22 x 3.5 x 1.5 inches [including cord]

Through my practice I often contemplate divination as a method of human inquiry that uses intuition and imagination instead of empirical data. Divination frequently involves imposing order onto random patterns in nature in order to decode obscure information about the meaning of past and present circumstances, or even to gain a glimpse of the future. I imagine this object as belonging to one of many methods of divination involving the dandelion, which was at times called the rustic oracle.

A pod-like form for the hand—thumbs pressed into earth, anticipating germination. Eight speculative gestures radiate like petals, poised to bear prophecy. Object lifted in the hand, dandelion seeds float on a breath and settle into the gentle hollows studded with glittering volcanic sand. Now collected into these ordered spaces, the seeds can be read intuitively for signs (like the tea leaves of tasseography or the entrails of haruspicy) that help us chip away at the terrifying uncertainty of life.

The object is composed of dark earth and black sand collected from a faraway shore. It is strung on a complex hand-braided cord of naturally black wool. The confluence of these corporeal, vegetal, and geological elements, shared by the cycle of all life on earth, conspire to imbue the piece with the sacred, vital aura essential to all “magical” objects.

Centering around materials—their physical, aesthetic, cultural, and evocative properties and potential—my practice explores the connections between the core components of human nature and the forms, objects, and materials we are drawn to. Through strategic material manipulations and juxtapositions, I examine the variegated methods of human inquiry and the sensation of wonder as products of our most fundamental needs and desires. Tapping into a deep shared imagination littered with the elemental phenomena, shapes, and substances that have permeated our visual and tactile experience of the world for millennia, my work often utilizes or references stone, shell, wood, and earth, and contrasts order with randomness in enigmatic ways that seek to activate our curiosity and create poetic and transporting moments.

Claire Webb is currently Assistant Professor of Jewelry and Metalsmithing at the University of Oregon in Eugene. She received an MFA from SUNY New Paltz in 2021 where she received an outstanding graduate award. She also received a Research and Creative Projects Award from SUNY New Paltz in both 2020 and 2021. In 2021 Claire was selected by Jodi Marie Smith for the Exhibitionist feature during New York City Jewelry Week. Most recently, she received a 1st place award for her piece in Transforming the Prototype at the Baltimore Jewelry Center. Claire’s research utilizes the expressive potential of unexpected material combinations and transformations to examine fundamental human needs and desires. She has exhibited with a number of institutions including Galerie Lewis in Quebec, Brooklyn Metal Works, Melton Gallery, and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.

Breath (a shouting flower)

Brass, synthetic fibers, simulated pearls, steel
20cm x 6cm x 40cm
2024

In the vastness of the natural world, where the unexpected can quickly lead to danger or death, a brass whistle necklace emerges as a profound symbol of survival. This simple yet essential tool, powered by air pressure and the act of blowing, can turn critical moments into stories of endurance. Echoing the themes in Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Dandelion's Pallid Tube,” this brass floral whistle reflects humanity's deep connection to nature and the cycles of existence. Just as the wind carries dandelion seeds to foster new growth, this piece encourages us to view this flower not merely as a symbol of endurance, but as a celebration of hope and resilience in both nature and humanity.

Emily Cobb is a jewelry and object maker in Providence, Rhode Island. She earned her MFA in Metals/Jewelry/CAD-CAM from Tyler School of Art. Her work examines human emotions and relationships through abstracted natural forms, and has been featured on the cover of Metalsmith Magazine and exhibited at the Racine Art Museum, MFA Boston, and HOW Art Museum. Emily is an Associate Professor of Jewelry and Metalsmithing at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Massachusetts.

Engaging in a multidisciplinary approach of making, my work reimagines the function of ornamentation and its relationship to the body. I approach new materials and found objects with the eye of a jeweler, highlighting and exploiting the subtle, and often invisible, links between material histories and their connection to identity. Using the language of adornment and jewelry in my work I propose a new lens for viewing functions. In doing so I highlight the bodies’ impact on objects and call into to question the role these objects play in shaping our understanding of identity—An identity that is never singular, constantly evolving, and more often than not contradictory and confusing.

[ "Will you Be Mine" by Everrett Hoffman ]

Everett Hoffman is a cross-disciplinary artist living in Philadelphia. He has been a visiting artist at several universities around the United States and is currently a critic in the Jewelry + Metalsmithing department at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI. In 2024, Everett was a finalist for the Art Jewelry Forum Young Artist Award where he exhibited with Galerie Platina at Handwerk und Design in Munich, Germany. From 2020-23, he was a resident artist at Penland School of Craft. He has also completed a yearlong residency at Arrowmont School of Art and Craft (2018-19) and a three-month residency at the Baltimore Jewelry Center (2019). Everett’s work has been published in BmoreArt, Metalsmith, and Jewelry and Metalsmithing Survey. He has written for the Metalsmith and Art Jewelry Forum publications, as well as been invited to speak, at the JMGA Conference in Perth Australia, the Museum of Art and Design during New York Jewelry Week. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY; Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA; Contemporary Craft Museum, Pittsburgh, PA; Sienna Patti Gallery, Lennox, MA; Metal Museum, Memphis, TN; and the Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece. He received his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University (2018) and BFA from Boise State University (2013).

everettjhoffman@gmail.com everetthoffman.net @everetthoffman

Funlola Coker works to create Slippery Space|s, a convergence of storytelling, language and writing, craft, and historical research. It is an investigation of liminality through the lens of Yoruba cosmology and Africanfuturism. Within it, Coker builds immersive installations of objects and sculptures that coordinate with original autobiographical short stories, prose, and poetry. In the Yoruba tradition, they tell stories through craft. For Coker, the acts of chiseling, carving, and braiding connect to memory. When contextualized into familiar forms and settings, they serve as portals that explore personal and collective histories in order to understand how they hold power over us.

[ Poem by Funlola Coker ]

Funlola Coker is a sculptor from Lagos, Nigeria. Funlola’s work follows research threads in the realm of recollection, imagination, and the surreal. Embracing the literary style of biomythography, Funlola builds narrative sculptures that call on nostalgic memories and moments of the mundane held dear. Liminal spaces are explored in the context of Yoruba cosmology and African Futurism. Using materials and techniques based in craft, these sculptures suggest dream-like and half-remembered spaces, yet sacred.

Coker’s work has been exhibited at the Fuller Craft Museum, TONE Gallery, the National Ornamental Metal Museum, including a solo exhibition at Brooklyn Metal Works. Collections include Brooklyn Metal Works and the National Ornamental Metal Museum. Coker has received awards such as the Thayer Fellowship from the SUNY Rockefeller Institute of Government (2022), the Society of Arts and Crafts Craft Innovation Jumpstarter Award (2023). Coker holds an MFA in Studio Art from the State University of New York at New Paltz and is currently a resident artist at Montserrat College of Art and Boston Center for the Arts.

Hide and Sustenance
Dimensions: 4 x 2.5 x 1 inches
sterling silver, copper, dyed rabbit fur and hide, silk cord
2024

Hide and Sustenance borrows from the visual anatomy of a traditional jewelry locket—ellipse, frame, cord, clasp, and bale—to evoke visceral encounters with a dandelion as its muse. The piece emulates the flower’s bright yellow color using dyed rabbit fur, framed as a miniature portrait. The fur beckons to be touched like a lucky charm, the dandelion gone to seed beckons to be picked and blown away with wishes. On the reverse, an illustrative young dandelion is hand engraved, symbolizing a vital food source for animals and at one time humans. In late winter and early spring, the hardy dandelion is one of the first greens to appear, providing essential and sometimes life-saving nutrients. Today in the Northeast suburban landscape crepuscular wild rabbits and ordinary dandelions proliferate and are nearly impossible to tame, but need they be?

Dandelions: An Intergenerational Conversation of Jewelry and Weeds, curated by Steven Kaplan-Pistiner, gave me the opportunity to explore the history and botany of this plant, remembered fondly in childhood yet perceived as a pesky weed in adulthood. I discovered that the dandelion has an impressive ability to reproduce, not only through pollination but also by cloning. Though not native to the U.S., it was brought over from Europe during colonization and proved even hardier than the humans who introduced it. Within just three years, it had spread up and down the entire coastline, thriving by the mid-1600s. Indigenous peoples soon began incorporating the dandelion into their diets and utilizing its potent medicinal properties. The dandelion is seral, meaning it is one of the first plants to naturally colonize a landscape that has been disturbed by fire, flood or human intervention, playing a crucial role in helping ecosystems regenerate. I believe humans have much to learn from this humble flora.

Heather White is a contemporary jewelry artist, professor, Fulbright Scholar, lecturer, and curator based in Boston where she serves as Professor of Art at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She holds a B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence and an M.F.A. from the State University of New York at New Paltz. White has won multiple prestigious awards and exhibited internationally. Her pieces are represented in the permanent collections of notable museums, including the Museum of Art and Design in New York City, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. White resides in Boston with her husband, two children, and their dog.

We often imagine our identities and bodies as fixed, final versions of ourselves. In reality, though, we are continuously shedding old aspects of ourselves and incorporating new ones. Wet-A-Bed is a reflection on this continuous shift between states, centering on the visual anchor of a dandelion’s transition from yellow flower to white blowball. The removal of a surface reveals a new surface underneath itself. This new surface is not meaningfully more true to the object, only one that is next for the object.

J Taran Diamond is a metalsmith, craft educator and internationally published scholar on the subject of jewelry based in Baltimore, Maryland. Diamond holds an MFA from the University of Georgia, in addition to a BFA from the University of North Texas. Diamond’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at New York City Jewelry Week, the Czong institute of Contemporary Art in Gimpo, South Korea, and the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. Diamond has also completed residencies at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and the Baltimore Jewelry Center, where she is currently a Teaching Fellow and Studio Manager. Outside of the studio, Diamond is an advocate for black people in the fields of craft and academia, and works to help achieve equity and accessibility within those fields.

Devices for Filling a Void
~4x3x3"

Devices for Filling a Void, combines a jewelry vocabulary with forms reminiscent of reconstructive surgical devices and body-like growths. Rather than presenting or holding the body in an ideal position, they distort the body through actions that are sometimes grotesque or violent. This body of work explores the realities of the body as a fleshy and malleable form, one that often rejects attempts to be controlled or contained. The objects literally fill the voids of the body, but the forms also imply a psychological filling of emotional or erotic voids. The work points to and questions social constructions that frame women being incomplete or lacking, requiring augmentation by men, objects, dress, makeup and adornment.

Devices for Filling a Void
~4x3x3"

Devices for Filling a Void, combines a jewelry vocabulary with forms reminiscent of reconstructive surgical devices and body-like growths. Rather than presenting or holding the body in an ideal position, they distort the body through actions that are sometimes grotesque or violent. This body of work explores the realities of the body as a fleshy and malleable form, one that often rejects attempts to be controlled or contained. The objects literally fill the voids of the body, but the forms also imply a psychological filling of emotional or erotic voids. The work points to and questions social constructions that frame women being incomplete or lacking, requiring augmentation by men, objects, dress, makeup and adornment.

My performance-based work is often framed within or in relation to the craft discipline. I work with craft materials as a strategic choice, because of their strong tie to the body through their proximity to bodies through jewelry, domestic objects, cutlery, vessels, hygiene implements, and clothing. I use performances primarily of my female body in relationship to wearable objects and/or functional objects. The body is the site for these performative interactions. I use a variety of methods in my work including traditionally fabricated metal objects, textiles, glass, and ceramics folded together with installation, digital fabrication, performance, photography, and video.

My performance-based work is often framed within or in relation to the craft discipline. I work with craft materials as a strategic choice, because of their strong tie to the body through their proximity to bodies through jewelry, domestic objects, cutlery, vessels, hygiene implements, and clothing. I use performances primarily of my female body in relationship to wearable objects and/or functional objects. The body is the site for these performative interactions. I use a variety of methods in my work including traditionally fabricated metal objects, textiles, glass, and ceramics folded together with installation, digital fabrication, performance, photography, and video.

My performance-based work is often framed within or in relation to the craft discipline. I work with craft materials as a strategic choice, because of their strong tie to the body through their proximity to bodies through jewelry, domestic objects, cutlery, vessels, hygiene implements, and clothing. I use performances primarily of my female body in relationship to wearable objects and/or functional objects. The body is the site for these performative interactions. I use a variety of methods in my work including traditionally fabricated metal objects, textiles, glass, and ceramics folded together with installation, digital fabrication, performance, photography, and video.

Lauren Kalman is a visual artist based in Detroit, whose practice is rooted in craft, sculpture, video, photography and performance. Kalman completed her PhD in Practice-led Research from the School of Art and Design at the Australian National University. She earned a MFA in Art and Technology from the Ohio State University and a BFA with a focus in Metals from Massachusetts College of Art.

Her work is in the permanent collection of the Françoise van den Bosch Foundation at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Renwick Gallery at Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Detroit Institute of Art, Museum of Arts and Design, and the Korean Ceramics Foundation. In 2020 she received the Françoise van den Bosch Award for her career’s impact on the jewelry field, in 2022 she received the Raphael Founders Prize in Glass from Contemporary for Craft, and in 2023 she was named a Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellow.

She is currently a Professor and the Chair of the Department of Art, Art History, and Design at Wayne State University in Detroit.