CRAFT IN AMERICA: Jewelry

JEWELRY explores the history, artistry, and impact of personal adornment. Featuring: classic jeweler Tom Herman; Harriete Estel Berman who creates jewelry with recycled materials; the coeditors of Ornament Magazine; the legacy of modernist jeweler Art Smith; nature-inspired artist Gabrielle Gould; and Navajo/Hopi master jeweler Jesse Monongya.

Jesse Monongya (1952–2024) was a master Navajo/Hopi jeweler, living in Scottdale, AZ. Monongya was best known for his night-sky designs inlaid into a bear shape, which symbolizes strength and power, as well as other forms. His bracelets, necklaces, pendants, bolo ties, and earrings inlaid with Acoma jet, sugilite, coral, turquoise, lapis, and ivory among others are complemented by the dramatic southwestern landscapes that inspired him.

Art Smith (1917–1982) was a highly acclaimed jewelry artist whose extraordinary avant-garde creations pushed the limits of modernism from 1946 to the early 70s. As Smith’s artistry grew, so did his association with some of this country’s most prominent Black artists including James Baldwin, composer and pianist Billy Strayhorn, Lena Horne (who wore his jewelry), and Harry Belafonte. He opened a store in Greenwich Village on West Fourth in 1946, which operated until 1979, shortly before his death in 1982. He pioneered many mid-century jewelry innovations including bold, geometric pieces that cover and reveal the body, often fabricated from wire and large pieces of silver. Much of his work was of a completely different scale from his contemporaries. He has been called a star of the modernist jewelry movement.

Jewelry designer Gabrielle Gould makes her jewelry by hand in her secluded studio behind a Victorian house in St. Augustine, Florida. The subjects that Gabrielle uses in her jewelry, various animals and nature forms, are informed by her daily experience of living in coastal Florida. They represent a figurative view of the way she sees nature in its environment.

Tom Herman is a jeweler with extraordinary talents who has mastered and personalized the most spectacular jewelry techniques such as lapidary, enameling, repoussé, carving, chasing, saw piercing, and all manner of jewelry construction. Tom has been influenced by many jewelers and designers in his quest to understand and master classic jewelry techniques.

Harriete Estel Berman is an American artist and sculptor whose work has been shown throughout the United States, Europe, and Africa. Since 1988, she has been using post-consumer, recycled materials to create jewelry, Judaica, and sculpture. She says, “I use the humblest of materials taken from the waste stream of our society to examine the values of our society.”

Joyce J. Scott is a versatile artist from Baltimore, Maryland. She is a printmaker, weaver, sculptor, performance artist, and educator, but she is probably most well known for her work in jewelry, beadwork, and glass. Her art reflects her take on all aspects of American popular culture, her ancestry, and her community.