Artist jeweller
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The coasts with the mosts…
For those of you in Sydney head to Bridget Kennedy Project Space TONIGHT! for her year-end celebrations, and you can bag yourself a very rare ‘73’ pendant. They’re also available at Bilk in Canberra (and they have a few new pieces from me in their current ‘White Christmas’ show which opened last Saturday), at Bini in Melbourne and at Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh.
The pendants commemorate the 73 lives lost to gun violence in the USA on 1.1.2017.
A couple of shows to see if you’re in Perth
Checking the date stamps will tell you that this post has been a month in the making, so thankfully I do have something pretty special to share for the elapsed time. Last week we had an offer accepted on a new house – 6 weeks to the day after arriving in Perth. It settles in January, so then we’ll finally be able to unpack our shipping container (which is now in storage) and I’ll be able to set up my studio and get back to work in earnest. In the mean time I’ve been compelled and coerced into a couple of seasonal shows.
For my fellow West-Australians, I’m going to be at two exhibition openings/Christmas parties on the 7th of December, where I’ll be showcasing some enamel works that I brought back to the country with me. For my fellow Perthlings and the nearby Freo dwellers, this is the first time that my works have been on display west-side since 2014. Catch you early at:
Galvanise
Artsource Member Exhibition
Opening 6pm – 8pm and running until January 5.
Old Customs House
8 Phillimore Street, Fremantle WA 6160, Australia
Open 10am – 4pm daily, excepting December 24-28, (these dates inclusive)
Then later at:
Contemporary Metal Christmas Drinks
Select wonderful Christmas* gifts of hand-made jewellery by Contemporary Metal practitioners and W.A. contemporary jewellers.
6pm-8:30pm, December 7th – one night only!
Unit 6 · 77-79 Howe Street
Osborne Park, WA 6019
In the first exhibition see some enamel pieces that have never been sighted on this side of the country, and in the Contemporary Metal show, some pieces never before seen on these shores.
(*why do Aussies, and I’d probably add Brits in there too, use Christmas as the all-encompassing seasonal word, often notwithstanding their own religious denomination, while the US and Canada say Holiday/s? All answers accepted. [Including – you’re clearly white trash, Melissa, we don’t use that Christian word here.])
My Pittsburgh friends, my heart goes out to you. And to everyone in the USA who is continually subjected to these traumas.
Today I was just going to share the articles from Contemporary Craft’s (CC’s) latest email circular about the Transformations exhibition. But there’s another mass shooting to address first, in Squirrel Hill, just a few neighbourhoods across from The Strip District where CC is currently located. In the reporting I read, the shooter “used three Glock 357 handguns and an AR-15 assault rifle” to murder 11 people and injure four police officers.
The victims are:
“Joyce Fienberg, 75; Richard Gottfried, 65, Rose Mallinger, 97; Jerry Rabinowitz, 66; Cecil Rosenthal, 59, and his brother David Rosenthal, 54; married couple Bernice Simon, 84, and Sylvan Simon, 86; Daniel Stein, 71; Melvin Wax, 88; and Irving Younger, 69.”
America, I know you know this, but your right to bear arms comes with the implicit flip-side; an expectation that you, your friend, your lover, your child….
Deep breath in.
Sigh.
…
The articles that talk about the Transformations work are one by M. Thomas, of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Jordan Snowden of the Pittsburgh City Paper. Thank you to both writers, and especially M. Thomas for the research you did, and for quoting this blog.
you know what time it is…
Thus far I have collected scant new items for the The Enamelist Society (TES) newsletter, aside from the wonderful news that Helen Aitken-Kuhnen has received the President Award in the 52nd International Exhibition of Japan Enamelling Artist Association.
So, if you in an upcoming exhibition; have you seen a cool collection; are leading a workshop; doing a residency, or are in the know about some enamel event that needs more media coverage, then…
enamel (at) melissacameron.net
Include details, dates, images (with artist and photographer captions at the very least) and other relevant info and I put it into the prestigious TES newsletter. And I’ll email you back, though probably not until within a week of the next first-of-the-month deadline. Which is next week. Submissions due to me next Wednesday, please 😉
Continuing the tour of this important anti-gun-violence exhibition
The Boris Bally coordinated exhibition IMAGINE Peace Now has continued to gain relevance as it has toured the USA. It now makes its home at Radius Gallery in Santa Cruz, where Ann Hazels, the director, has made the bold move of showing it in time for the midterm elections in the USA. We are all of us, here in the rest of the world, crossing our fingers for you my USA people.
And if you want to go see the exhibition, (mentioned on here lot in the last two years) please see the address and important dates below.
Open from October 11- November 11, 2018
October 25: Peace Panel – partnering with SCPD and Resource Center for Non-violence
November 11: Artist Talk 2pm (also closing day of show)
Part of the Tannery Arts Center
1050 River St Unit 127
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Hours: Wednesday – Sunday 12:00-5:00 pm
This week: With Other Eyes, next: Northwest Jewelry and Metals Symposium, the following: Uneasy Beauty
See Contain, a brand new series of works I produced for this exhibition, the last works to come from my Seattle studio.
With Other Eyes
29 September – 18 November 2018
Stephen Bottomley, Melissa Cameron, Helen Carnac, David Gates, Beate Gegenwart, Kiko Gianocca, Margit Hart, Rebecca Hannon, Kirsten Haydon, Mari Ishikawa, Kaori Juzu, Fritz Maierhofer, Ruudt Peters, Ramon Puig Cuyàs, Isabell Schaupp, Bettina Speckner, Gabi Veit, Silvia Walz, Gudrun Wiesmann, Tamar De Vries Winter
Enamel and Photography
‘Photography has changed, expanded and even deluded our perceptions. It is a vessel of memory, yet also a corrective instrument thereof.
See my works Drone: Attempts to Kill… and RPG in this exhibition at The Fuller Craft Museum in MA, curated by Suzanne Ramljak the former editor of Metalsmith Magazine.
Uneasy Beauty: Discomfort in Contemporary Adornment will bring together 75 examples of contemporary jewelry and costume that demonstrate the immense power of adornment to impact us physically, emotionally, and intellectually. Showcasing wearable work in various media from regional and national artists, the exhibition will explore the outer limits of comfort through works that constrict body movement, irritate the skin, make extreme demands, or touch upon sensitive cultural nerves. Uneasy Beauty is part of the Mass Fashion collaborative, a consortium of eight cultural institutions that aim to explore and celebrate the many facets of the Bay State’s culture of fashion. This exhibition is curated by Suzanne Ramljak, an art historian, writer, curator, and former editor of Metalsmith magazine.
October 6, 2018 – April 21, 2019
Fuller Craft Museum
455 Oak Street
Brockton, MA 02301
the sale continues, online and at Fancy, check the previous post for the online deets!
These pieces and more await you online in this post, or at Fancy in beautiful downtown Seattle – 1914 2nd Avenue Seattle, WA 98101.
To the left – Silvery Gothic Pendant – half price at $350, and hard right, earrings $45 for enamel on stainless, $35 for straight stainless steel.
send me an email with the number of your pick, receive confirmation, make PayPal payment!
The only sale thus far from One Design is OD-01, the first piece 😉
I’m super-proud to tell you that on Friday my work 1.1.2017 was announced the winner of 2017 Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder’s Prize at the Transformations 10 exhibition in Pittsburgh. I have a total of ten works on view at Contemporary Craft including the prizewinning piece (pictured below) and earlier last week we shot a couple of hours of footage for an upcoming 5-minute documentary which will soon air in the space. So if you do want to see what now feels like a mini-retrospective of my time in the USA, and hear my thoughts on my practice and the making of this work, Contemporary Craft is the only place to go. It runs until March 23, 2019.
55 places. 62 incidents. 66 guns. 73 people dead
1.1.2017 is a large scale jewellery work that contains portrait of each of the 66 guns used in fatal incidents on January 1st, 2017. These gun outlines are made in metal, plastic, fabric and paper, from containers crowdsourced from the 55 places in which these acts of violence occurred. The work was created for the Transformations 10 exhibition at Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh, where it won the 2017 Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder’s Prize competition for artists working in found materials.
And once again I acknowledge the help of the donors who gave me containers for the work, as well as the models and my director, stylist and assistants who helped me photograph the wearable sections.
Closing down US studio sale – all electrical equipment must go!
The USA voltage is 110, and Australia’s is 230. This means I’m getting rid of a lot of cherished equipment. We’ll start with the big one, and work our way down:
PUK 4.1 Micro-welder SOLD
This machine is a workhorse, and had been recently serviced by the PUK US distributor in Chicago, so he is being kind enough to offer a 6 month warranty on my 2nd hand machine. What a guy!
$3250
Comes with a new set of 0.5mm electrodes and in its original packaging with 2 alligator clips and a set of pliers and an extra electrode grinding wheel and of course the regulator. Bought new for over 5k, it is the version for which you can also purchase the tack foot pedal, and is the full version, rather than the new US only abbreviated model, the C440. And if you’re in the Seattle area I’ll throw in a 1/4 tank of argon. You’ll be ready to weld in moments!
If you’re not in Seattle I’ll make up the disappointment of not getting the argon tank by throwing in free insured shipping to anywhere in the contiguous states. Please contact me at blog@melissacameron.net. I’ll see to the emails in time-stamp order.
OK, and now in order of the gallery (the only other piece I will ship is the Proxxon mini drill press):
Proxxon mini drill press – $100 so many bids!
Foredom SR flex shaft with brand new hand piece – $120
Mini crock pot – FREE (pickup only)
2 Space Heaters –
– Silver – FREE! (pickup only)
– Black – $15 – it’s 7 months old and great desk size for drying liquid enamel, fast
Aluminum clamp lamp – 6 months old – FREE! (pickup only)
Ultrasonic cleaner – $15 (pickup only)
Oxygen bottle – FREE! (pickup only)
Orbital Sander – FREE! (pickup only)
Hot knife – 5 months old – FREE! (pickup only)
Jigsaw – 6 moths old (courtesy of TurboNerd) – $5, or free with any other item
Air Compressor – you move it – $150 ono. Wired in, needs to be detached from power. Located in garage with easy access.
Pair of daylight CFL photography lamps from Glazers Camera. One switch sticks, one head clamp has failed. $80.
Shop Vac – 1 year old, comes with a pack and a half of bags – $2o
Bench lathe – great little polisher from Otto Frei, removable spindles – $60 – so many offers!
contact me at blog@melissacameron.net and we’ll do a deal.